J19Z 
 
 Wilberforce / 
 
 Substance of the Proceedings 
 
 in the House of Commons on 
 
 Thursday, July 25, 1822
 
 THE LIBRARY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 LOS ANGELES
 
 5^>^' 
 
 :k
 
 iZ-^/s^/D"/ . gui/.
 
 2- 
 
 SUBSTANCE 
 
 OF THE 
 
 PROCEEDINGS IN THE HOUSE OF COMMONS 
 
 ON THURSDAY, JULY 26, 1822, 
 
 ON THB UCCASION OF 
 
 TWO ADDRESSES TO HIS MAJESTY. 
 
 ONE JVIOVED 
 / 
 
 BY MR. WILBERFORCE, 
 For preventing the Extension of Slavery at the Cape of Good Hope , 
 
 AND THE OTHER 
 
 BY MR. WILMOT, 
 
 For sending Commissioners of Inquiry to certain 
 
 British Colonies. 
 
 LONDON: 
 PRINTED FOR J. HATCHARD AND SON, PICCADILLY. 
 
 1822. 
 
 Price \s. 6d.
 
 Ellerlon and Henderson, Printers, 
 Johnson's Court, Fleet Street, London.
 
 i/n 
 
 LIST OF THE SPEAKERS. 
 
 Mr. WiLBERFORCE pages 1, 30, and HI 
 
 Mr. WiLMOT It, 34, and 4« 
 
 Mr. W. Smith 17, and 46 
 
 Mr. Money 22 
 
 Dr. Phillimore 27 
 
 Mr. Buxton 27 
 
 Lord Nugent 37 
 
 Mr. Hume , 45 
 
 Mr. Marryat 45 
 
 Mr. Goulburn 45 
 
 1216764
 
 SUBSTANCE, 
 
 &!C. &c. 
 
 Mr. WILBERFORCE rose, and spoke to the following 
 effect. — 
 
 Sir — It will probably be remembered, that some time 
 ago I moved an Address to the Crown, earnestly entreating 
 his Majesty to renew those strenuous endeavours which his 
 Ministers had been already exerting, to prevail on several of 
 the great powers of Europe, v.ho had solemnly stipulated 
 that they would co-operate with us in abolishing the Slave 
 Trade, to fulfil the sacred engagements they had contracted. 
 My present motion may not unnaturally be deemed to be a 
 sort of supplement to the former, or at least to arise out of 
 it ; for it is the object of my present Address, to beseech 
 his Majesty's Ministers to take effectual measures, without 
 delay, for preventing, in a great colony which we have 
 recently begun to establish, the extension of slavery, in'cir- 
 cumstances also in which a trade in Slaves would be the 
 infallible and no distant consequence. It can scarcely be 
 necessary for me to suggest how strongly we are urged to 
 forbear from every the very smallest approximation to the 
 criminal practices, with the continuance of which we are 
 reproaching our neighbours. And being convinced, that 
 unless we immediately interpose to prevent it, we shall soon 
 see a new Slave colony formed, by means equally fraudulent
 
 2 
 
 and cruel as those which prevail on the opposite side of 
 Africa, it becomes us not to lose an hour in taking adequate 
 precautions against the occurrence of such an evil. 
 
 It is well known, that, two or three years ago, many 
 families migrated to the Cape of Good Hope at the public 
 expense, to whose number fresh additions are continually mak- 
 ing. They have chiefly settled in the two great provinces of 
 Utenhague and Albany, at a very considerable distance from 
 Cape Town, and where the number of old settlers possessing 
 Slaves is very small. I well remember, when we first began 
 our operations against the Slave Trade, our warmest oppo- 
 nents were accustomed to say, that were we to begin anew, 
 no one doubtless would think of commencing that traffic, 
 ])ut, on the contrary, every one would reprobate, in the 
 strongest terms, the very idea of instituting such a system of 
 atrocities. The same remark may justly be applied to the 
 state of slavery. No man, who has any sense of the value of 
 liberty, would think of establishing a condition of society 
 so utterly at war with the rights and happiness of our fellow- 
 creatures. But it is one of the very chief evils of slavery, that it 
 reduces its victims to such a state, that they cannot always be 
 suddenly emancipated, without some risk of danger to them- 
 selves, and to the peace of the community of which they form 
 a part. I grant. Sir, that it is but too true, that, especially 
 w here the Slaves greatly outnumber the Freemen, — and I may 
 add, where the distinction between the races is of so marked 
 a character as in the case of the White and Black population 
 of our trans-Atlantic colonies, — a sudden emancipation of the 
 Slaves would not only be injurious to their masters, but might 
 probably be also ruinous to themselves. Yet I must remark, 
 that the objections against sudden manumission ought not to 
 be too implicitly admitted ; for we have lately had instances 
 which would lead us to a directly opposite conclusion. 
 During our last unhappy war with the United States, the 
 British commander in the southern colonies of America in- 
 vited the Slaves to join the British standard. Many accord- 
 ingly deserted their plantations ; and as it would have been 
 cruelty and injustice to send them back to their old masters.
 
 it became a question how lu dispose ol' tliem. It was pro- 
 j)osed to settle several hundreds of them (seven or eight 
 liundrcd, I think) in the island ot" Trinidad — of course, as 
 free labourers. But the planters opposed the idea most 
 strongly, predicting nothing but failure to the plan ; lor it was 
 contended that no free Negro would ever work, and that of 
 course they would support themselves by jjlunder. Sir Ralph 
 Woodford, however, the Governor of Trinidad, with an 
 energy, as well as a benevolence and an ability, which did 
 him great honour, was not to be overborne l>y prejudice. 
 Accordingly, he planted thcni in a part of the island where 
 the experiment would be most safely made ; and I am 
 assured that the result has proved highly favourable to his 
 discernment ; and that these men are now earning their sub- 
 sistence, with so much industry and good conduct, as to have 
 put to silence all the calumnies that were at first urged 
 against the measure. I may also adduce the instance of 
 many of the soldiers of the disbanded regiments of Blacks, 
 both at Sierra Leone and other places, who have become 
 industrious and commendable labourers for their own sup- 
 port *. Yet, for the safe and general emancipation of the 
 Slave population of our West India islands, a previous moral 
 preparation seems requisite : and I say this the rather, 
 because I hesitate not frankly to avow, that this is the only 
 excuse for our snft'ering the slavery of the West Indies to 
 continue. Not I only, but all the chief advocates of the 
 Abolition of the Slave Trade,— Mr. Pitt, Mr. Fox, Lord 
 Grenville, Lord Grey, and every other, — scrupled not to 
 
 • Mr. Wilberforce might also have mentioned a similar experi- 
 ment tried on the still larger population of Columbia, where a 
 great body of" Slaves have been emancipated, and where they are 
 said to have conducted themselves with a dejrree of industry, and 
 sobriety, and order, that have been highly creditable to them. The 
 state and progress of the liberated captives at Sierra Leone, form 
 also a case directly in point. Taken tVom the holds of Slave-ships, 
 they have been put into immediate possession of their liberty ; and 
 they have used it with benefit to themselves, and with advantage 
 to the community of which they form a part.
 
 declare, from the very first, that their object was, by ame- 
 liorating regulations, and more especially by stopping that 
 influx of uninstracted savages, which furnished an excuse for 
 continuing a harsh system of management, and prevented 
 masters from looking to Iheir actual stock of Slaves for 
 keeping up their number, to be surely though slowly advanc- 
 ing towards the period when these unhappy beings might 
 exchange their degraded state of slavery for that of a free 
 and industrious peasantry. To that most interesting object, 
 doubtless, I still look forward ; though I confess, that per- 
 haps of late we all have been chargeable with not having paid 
 due attention to the subject. But if, because in those great 
 countries, which are the seats of the new British settlements, 
 there are now a few proprietors with Slaves who were 
 settled there before this emigration took place, we were to 
 render slavery the lex loci, the pervading system of the whole 
 region, we should be justly chargeable with setting on foot 
 a state of slavery ; for the few Slaves now there bear no 
 assignable proportion to what will hereafter become the 
 population of this extensive district. It becomes us now, 
 therefore, while the evil is in the bud, to prevent its swelling 
 and gaining strength and maturity, and diffusing its baneful 
 seeds throughout the whole land. Rather let Government 
 endeavour to make terms with the few present proprietors, 
 and, by grants of land, or in some way or other, prevail on 
 them to remove from the district; or else they must be placed 
 under some special regulations, suited to the peculiarity of 
 their circumstances, and calculated to prevent their little 
 stock of Slaves from extending itself, and the possession of 
 Slaves by the few old settlers affording at once temptation 
 and opportunity for the acquisition of Slaves by the new. 
 
 It is due to his Majesty's Governmeut to state, that they 
 have indeed adopted two expedients for guarding against 
 the extension of Slavery ; the first, by making it a condition 
 of the new grants of land, that no Slaves were to be em- 
 ployed ; the second, that of establishing a registration of 
 the Slaves. Both these expedients, however, arc utterly 
 inadequate to the prevention of the evil. Experience shews.
 
 in other countries where government lands have been 
 granted, and where forfeiture has been the penalty of the 
 non-observance of certain conditions, that these conditions 
 have soon fallen into disuse, but that the penalty has never 
 been exacted. Such has been the case almost universally 
 in the instance of the ceded islands in the West Indies. 
 But the fact is so notorious that it will be at once admitted. 
 Besides this, it must also be remembered, that the con- 
 dition attached to these grants at the Cape of Good Hope 
 only applies to predial, and not to domestic slavery ; where- 
 as domestic slavery is in some particulars of a still more 
 malignant and pernicious character. I grant, that the Slaves 
 employed in the cultivation of land are apt to be reduced 
 to a lower state of degradation, and, especially in the West 
 Indies, to be treated too much on the same principles as the 
 inferior animals. But, though the domestic Slaves occupy a 
 higher level where they are the property of men of rank 
 and education, yet, were the secrets of that prison-house 
 to be opened to the view, O what scenes would be display- 
 ed of the dreadful effects of the exercise of uncontrolled 
 power, in low, uneducated minds I And remember, that it is 
 domestic slavery which chiefly avenges the injuries sus- 
 tained by its immediate victims on their masters and mis- 
 tresses, by producing all that depravation of moral cha- 
 racter which never fails to be generated where the institu- 
 tion of slavery prevails. It may be justly specified as the most 
 signal display of its depraving properties— thus constituting 
 a striking instance of the truth of the remark, that the cor- 
 ruption of the best things sometimes renders them the worst — 
 that slavery can even substitute a spirit of brutal harshness 
 and cruelty, in the place of the natural softness of the female 
 character. Never have I taken a close survey of the effects 
 of slavery in any community, in which several humiliating 
 instances have not appeared of this destruction of the most 
 delightful attribute of the fairest portion of our species. 
 But against domestic slavery, this condition in the grants 
 is professedly inoperative. Nor is the expedient of a registry 
 likely to be of much more avail. When we consider the
 
 great extent of these countries ; how far tliey are from the 
 seat, and how little they will be under the eye, of Govern- 
 ment ; how, in every community, an esprit de corps naturally 
 forms itself, and each man is disposed to connive at his 
 neighbour's infractions of the laws, even if he should be 
 acquainted with them; there would be little hope of a registry 
 being enforced in these distant provinces — though I grate- 
 fully acknowledge its benefits near Cape Town, in the 
 neighbourhood of which by far the greater proportion of 
 Slaves is to be found. But, still more, we must remember 
 that the grand principle on which we depend for the efficacy 
 of the registry in the case of the West Indies, does not at 
 all apply to the colony of the Cape. The West India 
 Planters' estates are cultivated commonly with borrowed 
 capital ; and the mortgagee finds it necessary for his security 
 from time to time to examine the registry of Slaves; a counter- 
 part of which is, or ought to be, kept in this country, and 
 all variations from time to time communicated. The 
 mortgagee knows that if the Slaves are not duly registered 
 his security is proportionably weakened, and therefore he 
 sees to its enforcement. Thus it may be said to contain 
 within it a self-executing principle. But the Cape cultiva- 
 tion is not carried on by borrowed capital, and therefore 
 the same security for a due observance of the registry re- 
 gulations is not supplied. In short, both these measures 
 are ineffectual, and utterly inadequate to the prevention of 
 the evil to be opposed. 
 
 And would we consider what an evil slavery is, we could 
 not but feel it our duty to provide effectual preventives 
 against its establishing itself in a new British colony. As 
 1 have staled in the Address, the condition of slavery would 
 infallibly be sooii productive of the Slave Trade. Both 
 on the land and the sea boundaries, the opportunities of 
 making and importing Slaves exist in abundant measure. 
 To the north of the colony, throughout the long line of its 
 somewhat indefinite boundary, there is scattered a set of 
 wretched and defenceless savages, who could n)ake no re- 
 sistance ; and beyond them, recent travellers have found
 
 that there are nations in a liiglier state of civilization, but 
 too likely to learn the lesson of preying upon the weakness of 
 theirneighbours, and of establishing a traific in their persons. 
 1 grant, sir, that probably there may not as yet have been 
 any illicit introduction of Slaves into the new settlements. 
 Indeed, I never meant to alHrm that there had been any. 
 But the truth is, that hitherto there has been no temptation 
 to import Slaves ; but the temi)tation will soon exist, and 
 then the facility with which the crime may be committed 
 will assuredly lead to its perpetration. Again : on the 
 marine boundary of the new settlements, there would be an 
 easy access into the colony for Slaves from Madagascar and 
 the Eastern Coast of Africa, and the various other markets 
 whence Slaves have been till lately so abundantly supplied. 
 I grant, indeed, that we have heard with pleasure of some of 
 the chieftains of that part of the world having resolved to 
 discontinue it. Rhadama, the principal sovereign of Mada- 
 gascar, induced by the benevolent influence of Governor 
 Farquhar, has solemnly stipulated never again to suffer 
 Slaves to be carried from his dominions. But we know 
 that the French are in the neighbourhood ; and I am grieved 
 to say, that, wherever they are found, they almost naturally 
 apply themselves to the prosecution of this hateful traflic. 
 But I will not press this topic farther. Every account which I 
 have received confirms me in the persuasion, that, were the 
 state of slavery to be established in those countries, a great 
 Slave Trade would soon be infallibly produced : and surely 
 the legislature of this country would be deeply criminal, if, 
 through our negligence, such a system should be suffered to 
 spring up. We, whom Providence has blessed with a greater 
 degree of true liberty (liberty regulated and protected by 
 law) than any country ever before enjoyed since the founda- 
 tion of the world — what a return would it be to make to the 
 Author of all our mercies, to be employing all our superior 
 wealth and power in marring his fair creation with such a 
 blot as this ! We are now justly distinguished for oj)cra- 
 tions and exertions of an opposite nature. We are engaged 
 in diffusing the light of Divine truth throughout the earth.
 
 8 
 
 by our Bible Societies, and by our Missionaries, whom we 
 send to enlighten and to civilize, in the most distant countries, 
 the victims of ignorance and depravity. What a contradic- 
 tion would it be, if, while we are professing ourselves the 
 servants, and diffusing the principles, of the Prince of Peace 
 and Love, we were to be establishing a system utterly and 
 irreconcileably at war with the rights and happiness of our 
 fellow- creatures — in short, a system which may be justly 
 termed one grand violation of every law. Divine and human ! 
 Such a course would be inconsistent also with the examples, 
 which, I rejoice to say, the representatives and officers of 
 our Sovereign have of late afforded, of the instinctive love 
 of liberty which animates the hearts of Britons. In Ceylon, 
 the judicious and active benevolence of the chief judge. Sir 
 Alexander Johnston, aided in its operation by Governor 
 Brownrigg, laid the foundation for the entire extinction of 
 slavery at no distant period, by prevailing on the proprie- 
 tors to agree that all the children who should be born after 
 a certain specified day should be freemen, being apprenticed 
 only for a short time to the masters of their parents, in order 
 to make good the expenses of their nurture and education. 
 In St. Helena also, through the generous efforts of Sir Hudson 
 Lowe, and with the kind concurrence of the East India Com- 
 pany, a similar measure was established. And in a third 
 instance likewise, the same blessed reformation was eff'ected 
 by the ever-wakeful benevolence of Sir Stamford Raffles — 
 a man of whom I will only say, that, let the field on which 
 he has to display his superior powers be ever so extensive, 
 he will always shew himself equal to the occasion that has 
 called them forth. 
 
 Let not our conduct in our new settlements at the Cape 
 exhibit so shameful a contrast to the generous principles on 
 which we have acted in these other instances. How should we 
 make good the worst suspicions and jealousies of those who 
 have imputed to us that our zeal for the Abolition of the Slave 
 Trade has been prompted by self-interest, and not by a love 
 of justice and humanity ! Justly, indeed, in that case, might 
 those other nations retort upon us, on whom wc have been so
 
 strongly and repeatedly enforcing the oliligations which 
 bound them, by good faith no less than by every moral prin- 
 ciple, to abolish ihe Slave Trade ; and what lasting reproach 
 would stain our characters, were we thus to shew, that, while 
 pressing other nations to perform their duty, we had been 
 so scandalously negligent of our own ! 
 
 Let me earnestly conjure the House to estimate this mo- 
 tion at its just importance. The countries which we are 
 now beginning to settle are of vast extent ; but, still more, 
 by imperceptible boundaries they communicate with the 
 almost interminable regions of the African continent. And 
 my object is, to secure, throughout that vast extent, the 
 prevalence of true British liberty, instead of that deadly 
 and destructive evil which would poison the whole body of 
 the soil, and render the prodigious area one wide scene of 
 injustice, cruelty, and misery. 
 
 It would be no small aggravation of our guilt, were we to 
 suffer slavery to establish itself, that the natives of that 
 part of Africa, the Hottentots especially, who would but too 
 naturally become its victims, have of late been rescued from 
 those foul and groundless calumnies under which they so 
 long laboured. I do not only allude to the character given 
 of them by Mr. Long, before the Abolitionists became the 
 advocates of the African race. Then indeed it was unre- 
 servedly stated, that they held a sort of middle rank between 
 the brute creation and the human species, and only a little 
 above the oran-outang. But let any one only read the 
 catalogue of their wrongs, as stated in the able and interest- 
 ing work of Mr. Barrow — the account of the shamefid 
 injustice and cruelty with which they were treated, and of 
 their natural qualities, so opposite in all respects to those 
 which had been imputed to them. Mr. Barrow states them 
 to be " the most helpless, and, in their present condition, 
 perhaps the most wretched of the human race ; — duped out 
 of their possessions, their country, and finally out of their 
 liberty." After speaking of the low opinion universally 
 formed of them, he represents them to be *' naturally a 
 mild, harmless, honest, faithful people ; kind and affection- 
 
 c
 
 10 
 
 ale to each other, and not incapable of strong attachments.'^ 
 In particular, he speaks of " their gratitude for any favour 
 that is done them ;" and adds, " I never found that any 
 little act of kindness or attention was thrown away upon a 
 Hottentot : on the contrary, I have frequently had occa- 
 sion to remark the joy that sparkled on his countenance, 
 whenever an opportunity occured to enable him to discharge 
 his debt of gratitude." — Again, the prejudices of the colo- 
 nists against these degraded beings manifested themselves 
 when General Sir James Craig proposed to form them into 
 a corps. It was foretold that their drunkenness, their indo- 
 lence, their filthiness, and various other bad qualities, in- 
 sured the failure of his attempt. But, on the contrary. Sir 
 James observes. Never were people more contented, or more 
 grateful for the treatment they now receive. We have " up- 
 wards of three himdred who have been with us nine months, 
 and it is with the opportunity of knowing them well that I 
 venture to pronounce them an intelligent race of men: all 
 who bear arms, exercise well, and understand immediately 
 and perfectly whatever they are taught to perform. What is 
 still more striking, of all the qualities that can be ascribed to 
 a Hottentot, it will little be expected that I should expatiate 
 on his cleanliness, and yet it is certain that at this moment 
 our Hottentot parade would not suffer in a comparison with 
 that of some of our regular regiments." He goes on to 
 specify other instances, to prove their various natural and 
 acquired good qualities, A part of my Address recommends 
 this hitherto degraded race of men to his Majesty's special 
 protection ; and it is the more necessary to interpose vi- 
 gorously in their behalf, because thoy have been of late 
 subjected to a species of ill treatment which we should 
 scarcely have anticipated from Christian masters. If I had 
 not received the iiitcUigence from a source of information 
 on the authenticity of which I can implicitly rely, I should 
 scarcely have credited, what however is an undoubted fact, 
 that it has of late become a practice to train up these poor 
 creatures in the Mohammedan faith ; Mohammedan priests 
 being employed as overseers for the purpose. It is alleged
 
 11 
 
 that the Mohammedan religion is to be preferred, for Slaves 
 and Hottentots, to Christianity, because it gives a security 
 against their drunkenness, and also it tends to prevent the 
 f€male Slave from being inseparably bound to her husband, 
 as she would be by the Christian rule of wedlock. I trust, 
 that, both in respect to the Hottentots, and to the Slaves 
 generally, at the Cape, particular inquiry will be made whe- 
 ther or not the regulations enacted under the old governraen'!: 
 for their protection and education have been duly observed. 
 I have great reason to believe that several valuable re- 
 gulations of this kind have fallen into disuse, and that the 
 revival of them is enforced upon us by every consideration 
 of justice and humanity. 
 
 But surely. Sir, it cannot be necessary for me to enlarge 
 upon the innumerable mischiefs of slavery, in a British House 
 of Commons. I may appeal rather to that instinctive love of 
 freedom which burns in every British bosom. It was a 
 remark of one of our greatest painters, Sir Joshua Reynolds, 
 that every artist of true genius had in his mind an ideal form 
 of excellence, which all the exertions of his pencil could 
 never fully equal, and that he should have but a low opinion 
 of the genius of him who could do justice to his own con- 
 ceptions. In like manner, I may state that I should deem 
 that man's sense of the worth of liberty to be shamefully 
 defective, which was not far superior to any eulogium 
 which I could pronounce on it. I will only, therefore, call 
 upon the House on this occasion to adopt a line of conduct 
 conducive at once to their country's honour and the inter- 
 ests of mankind. 
 
 I now beg leave to move, that an humble Address be pre- 
 sented to his Majesty, representing to his Majesty, 
 
 " That this House has learned with great satisfaction that his 
 Majesty's Government, with a just abhorrence of slavery 
 and a provident dread of the evils which would result from 
 its extension, has made it a condition in the grants of land 
 which it lias recently allotted within the new settlements 
 of the colony of the Cape of Good Hope, that no slave 
 labour should be employed in their cultivation : Also,
 
 12 
 
 that his Majesty has established a Registry of the Slave 
 Population : 
 ** That, nevertheless, from the great extent of the colony — 
 from its contiguity to countries whence Slaves may at no 
 distant period be easily procured — from the remoteness of 
 many of the farms that are scattered over its surface, and 
 from the thinness of the population, the due execution of 
 all law^s enacted for the government of those countries, 
 particularly those for preventing the illicit extension of 
 slavery, must be rendered extremely difficult, more espe- 
 cially when self-interest shall tempt powerfully to the 
 violation of them : 
 " That the regulation, so justly introduced into the colonial 
 grants, applies only to predial slavery: whereas domestic 
 slavery, while it is in itself at least as great an evil, would 
 prove a strong temptation to the needy and indolent to 
 procure drudges for their own use, and would operate with 
 a still more pernicious influence on the feelings and habits 
 of the new settlers : 
 " That, as to the expediency of a registry, the House cannot but 
 fear that a slave registration for so extensive a colony, 
 comprising thousands of square miles, where the planta- 
 tions are very thinly scattered, and divided from eaqh 
 other by wide tracts of a desert and unpeopled country, 
 cannot be so constituted and regulated, as materially to 
 check, much less effectually to prevent, the fraudulent in- 
 troduction of Slaves, where facilities exist for such intro- 
 duction : 
 " That it cannot be necessary for a British House of Commons, 
 in addressing a British Sovereign, to enlarge on the evils 
 of slavery. It is universally acknowledged to be an insti- 
 tution essentially odious in its nature, baneful in its moral 
 and political efi'ects, and more especially repugnant to the 
 spirit and principles of our happy constitution : 
 ** That the continuance of the state where it already exists is 
 leconcileable with those principles only on the ground of 
 necessity ; and therefore to continue it in any country 
 where its present extent should be extremely small, and 
 where the local circumstances should be such as to admit 
 of its safe and convenient abrogation, would scarcely be 
 less reproachful than the original establishment of that 
 state in a place where it had been previously unknown ;
 
 13 
 
 " That, in forming new settlements on the African continent, 
 sucli conduct would be pre-eminently indefensible and 
 mischievous, because the distinctions between the Euro- 
 pean and Coloured races of men must tend to extinguish 
 sympathy, wiiile the existence of the abject and igno- 
 minious state of slavery would powerfully generate or 
 maintain, in the minds both of the While colonists and 
 the Coloured natives of neighbouring districts, feelings to- 
 wards each other the reverse of those which we are bound» 
 no less by sound policy than by every religious and moral 
 consideration, to promote. Thus the growth of mutual 
 good-will and civilization must be materially obstructed, 
 to the prevention of that secure and harmonious inter- 
 course by which important commercial benefits might be 
 obtained on the one side, and the inestimable advantages 
 of civil, moral, and religious improvements on the other. 
 Instead of such happy effects of African colonization, 
 dangerous animosities, mutual injuries, and inveterate 
 border wars, might be expected as the natural consequences 
 of an institution which would degrade the native race, and 
 render them despicable in the eyes of the new settlers, 
 while it would afford to the needy and worthless means 
 and temptations to inflict upon them the most cruel wrongs: 
 " That the House also sees much reason to apprehend, that the 
 time may come when the acts for abolishing the Slave 
 Trade may be widely and fatally contravened in the new 
 settlements now forming in Africa, if slavery shall be 
 permitted there as a state recognized by law : 
 " That, under such circumstances, no effectual means can be 
 devised for preventing abuses injurious to the best interests 
 of the settlers themselves, pernicious to the natives of 
 Africa, and derogatory to the honour of this country, but 
 the extending, as far as possible, by a fundamental law, to 
 the new African settlements, the same just and liberal 
 principles of colonization, with such exceptions only as 
 the Slaves actually in the colony may render necessary, 
 which have been so honourably and beneficially establish- 
 ed at Sierra Leone : 
 " That we cannot but feel that many of the above conside- 
 rations derive peculiar force from the efforts which this 
 country has for some time been using to induce other 
 nations to join wilh us in enforcing the Abolition of the
 
 14 
 
 Slave Trade : That we should expose ourselves to just and 
 merited reproach, if it could be truly alleged, that, while 
 we had been using those endeavours, we had been violating 
 our own principles by permitting the state of slavery to 
 establish itsplf in regions where it had previously little or 
 no existence, and more especially where a Slave Trade 
 would almost inevitably follow : 
 
 " That we cannot but contemplate with pleasure the honour- 
 able and successful efforts which, under the paternal 
 influence of his Majesty's Government, aided by the 
 liberal spirit of the masters, have been made in various 
 British settlements for meliorating the condition of the 
 Slaves, and for ultimately putting an end to the state of 
 slavery : And that we cannot but hope that his Majesty's 
 Government will studiously avail itself of any opportuni- 
 ties it may possess of acting in the spirit of these benig- 
 nant precedents : 
 
 *' That we also beg leave humbly, but earnestly, to recommend 
 the state of the Hottentots to his Majesty's benevolent 
 care — a race of men long misrepresented and vilified,who, 
 however, have since abundantly proved that any efforts 
 used for their moral improvement would not be employed 
 in vain : 
 
 " That we consider that the communication of Christian in*- 
 struction to the Slaves and Hottentots, is a paramount act 
 of duty ; and the more necessary, because eftbrts have been 
 jnade, not without success, to propagate among them the 
 tenets and practices of Mohammedanism: That no doubt 
 can be entertained of the happy result of those Christian 
 endeavours : Nor can we forbear to indulge the gratifying 
 hope, that by the gradual diffusion of the blessings of 
 civilization and of moral and religious knowledge through- 
 out the coloured population, those degraded classes of our 
 fellow-creatures may by degrees be raised from their pre- 
 sent depressed condition, and be rendered not only use- 
 ful members of the colonial community, but valuable sub- 
 jects of the British empire." 
 
 Mr. WILMOT (Under Secretary of State for the Colonial 
 Department) said, he should not oppose the motion which 
 hail just been made ; hut he could not forbear from oft'ering 
 a few observations on the speech which introduced it, as hg
 
 15 
 
 felt that he Could not give an unqualified assent to all the 
 incidental remarks of the honourable mover. Tliat honour- 
 able gentleman had assumed in his argument, that tlie co- 
 lony at the Cape, and especially the newly settled part of it, 
 might become a great mart for Slaves. Now he thought that 
 such an apprehension was wholly unfounded; and he firmly 
 believed that the condition annexed to all new grants of land, 
 that it should not be cultivated by Slaves, had in no one 
 instance been violated. Perhaps it would be a satisfaction 
 to the honourable mover to know what was precisely the 
 Slave population of the districts in which the new settlements 
 had been formed. The whole of the Slaves, at present ex- 
 isting in these districts, amounted to 54G males and 4G4 
 females. The House, however, would recollect that the 
 districts in question were not to be considered as a new co- 
 lony, but were part of an old and long-settled colony, through- 
 out which the same laws and institutions prevailed : it would 
 be found difficult, therefore, to establish distinctions which 
 would be available in practice, or to depart at once from the 
 laws and usages which had previously existed. He certainly 
 should be very ready, at the same time, to encourage the manu- 
 mission of the Slaves, by holding out some equivalent to the 
 master; but he thought it would be most impolitic, even in 
 offering a fair equivalent, to make manumission compulsory 
 on the owners of Slaves. However much he deplored the 
 evils of slavery, and no man could deplore them more sin- 
 cerely, he thought that any thing like a sudden and general 
 manumission would be ruinous, not only to the master, but 
 to the parties it was intends! to benefit, who, from the habits 
 produced by the very condition of slavery, were, to a con- 
 siderable degree, disqualified from exerting that energy and 
 forethought which were necessary to make their freedom of 
 value to them. However desirable, therefore, it might be 
 to put them in possession of their freedom, the house would 
 pause before it adopted that course. He was disposed, how- 
 ever, to consider predial slavery as far more injurious than do- 
 mestic slavery ; although he fully agreed in all that had fallen 
 from the honourable mover respecting the pernicious effects
 
 16 
 
 of the latter, both on the master and on the slave. It waa 
 the very reverse of mercy, which was twice blessed ; for this 
 institution was twice cursed, cursing hira who inflicted and 
 him who bore it. Yet it ought to be remembered, the evil 
 was not of our creation, and he was persuaded that the 
 remedy for it, to be safe, must be gradual. With respect to 
 the clandestine importation of Slaves from the interior, he 
 believed there was no just ground for supposing it would 
 occur : he had not heard of a single instance of the kind ; 
 and as for importations, there seemed to be no proba- 
 bility of their taking place. The natural difficulties of the 
 coast were such as seemed to present insuperable impedi- 
 ments, and to form a rational security against any such 
 attempt. There was a high surf which beat upon the shore, 
 and there were no navigable rivers ; so that, independently 
 of the vigilant measures adopted by the Government to pre- 
 vent the Slave Trade, it seemed scarcely possible to smuggle 
 Slaves on shore. 
 
 With respect to the Hottentots and other natives, their 
 freedom was completely secured to them, being recognized 
 by the laws ; nor did there seem the least reason to appre- 
 hend any attempts on their liberty. In the propriety of 
 giving moral and religious instruction to them and to the 
 Slaves, he most fully concurred. The subject had not been 
 overlooked by his Majesty's Government, and it was its 
 wish to aflford every facility to the improvement not only of 
 the bodily comforts, but of the moral attainments, of the 
 Hottentots and Slaves in this colony ; and this object had 
 been more especially kept in view with respect to the Slaves 
 immediately under its own controul. In short, his Ma- 
 jesty's Ministers were determined to do all in their power to 
 promote the objects which the Address had in view ; and as 
 a commission was about to be sent out to examine into 
 various matters connected with the civil and judicial admi- 
 nistration of the colony, it would be an instruction to the 
 Commissioners to inquire into the state of the Slave popu- 
 lation, as well as to ascertain whether or not any clandestine 
 importation of Slaves had taken place.— In conclusion, he
 
 17 
 
 observed, that he cordially concurred in every seatimeut 
 of the Address, which went to the limitation and repression 
 of slavery, so far as it could be made consistent with the 
 rights of property, as they were now unfortunately establish- 
 ed. They ought not, however, in considering the wrongs of 
 slavery, to lose sight of the rights of property. With this 
 qualification, bis Majesty's Ministers were ready to do their 
 utmost to promote the common object of putting dn end to 
 slavery. 
 
 Mr. WILLIAM SMITH expressed his surprise that the 
 honourable gentleman (Mr. Wilmot), while he admitted 
 fully that it was our duty to prohibit slavery in all new 
 colonies, yet should attempt to raise a distinction between 
 the case of such colonies in general, and that of the new 
 settlements now forming in Africa, merely on the ground 
 that these were only ** part of an old colony." Where no 
 previous grants existed, it was plain that no private 
 claims could be set up in bar of the indisputable right 
 which Great Britain possessed, as the sovereign and owner 
 of the soil, to prescribe the terms on which lands should be 
 held. We had therefore a clear right, and it was no less 
 clearly our bounden duty, to prohibit the very existence of 
 slavery, whether predial or domestic, within the territory 
 allotted to the new settlers. And even supposing some 
 few grants to have been previously made, the difiicullies in 
 the way of such a prohibition did not appear to him to be 
 rendered by that circumstance so formidable, or so hard to 
 be overcome, as they did to the honourable gentleman. 
 His own attention had long been earnestly directed to sub- 
 jects like that which they were now considering ; and he 
 must confess that so much magnitude and importance had 
 the evils resulting from slavery acquired in his eyes, that 
 he could not allow himself to regard as insuperable any 
 obstacles which might be alleged to stand in the way of 
 the prohibition of that wretched and opprobrious state of 
 society. Was it not possible, for instance, in this case, 
 evea if no better mode could be devised, to divide the new 
 
 D
 
 18 
 
 settlements from the old by a geographical limit, on the 
 eastern side of which liberty should be completely tb« 
 lex loci ? And if a few insulated farms should be found 
 existing within this space, as exceptions to the general 
 rule, could no expedients be devised for making arrange- 
 ments with the owners, which should equitably satisfy any 
 claims they might have acquired? For his part, he con- 
 ceived that no difficulty, no pretext or excuse whatever, 
 should be permitted to stand in the way of accomplishing 
 so great a good. 
 
 He would say a few words, however, on the nature of 
 the claims pleaded for. Now he must declare, and he did 
 so without the smallest hesitation, that all claims which 
 were set up against the universal and inalienable rights 
 of human nature (rights which, though they could not be 
 denied, we were, he was sorry to say, often but too tardy 
 to concede in practice) were in his eyes less than nothing. 
 And such he conceived to be the pretended claim of property 
 in the persons of our fellow-creatures. Would any man, 
 he asked, now be bold enough to contend that one man 
 had, or could have, an unqualified property in the person 
 of another? He might, indeed, acquire some claims on 
 his labour; but farther than was necessary for the reasonable 
 enforcement of these, he could possess no right in his per- 
 son. The unqualified power over the Negro Slaves formerly 
 contended for, necessarily vanished as soon as it was allow- 
 ed that Negroes were men. Would the boldest assertor 
 of the rights of masters venture now to advance the same 
 insolent and absurd pretensions on this subject to which 
 our ears were accustomed in the earlier days of this con- 
 troversy ? Would it now be alleged, for example, that one 
 man could possess a right to murder or to mutilate another? 
 The very contrary was proved by the laws which had been 
 passed on the subject. The power, then, which the master 
 possessed, whatever it was, was a qualified power; a power 
 to be restrained and regulated by law ; and certainly, in his 
 opinion, no claim could be founded upon it for the per- 
 petuation of slavery ; nor could any plea be drawn from it
 
 19 
 
 ^hich should be permitted to operate as a bar to all safe 
 and pru<<ent measures for the emaiicij)ation of Slaves. 
 On the contrary, he scrupled not to avow and to maintain, 
 nor had he ever, at any period of the Slave-Trade contro- 
 versy, scrupled to avow and to maintain, that the ultimate 
 object of every friend of justice and humanity in this coun- 
 try, must and ought to be eventually to extend freedom to 
 every individual within the dominions of Great Britain ; 
 that this freedom btlonged to them of right ; and that to 
 xvithhold it beyond the necessity of the case, and especially 
 to withhold it systematically, and in intention, /oj* ever, was 
 the very grossest injustice. He admitted, indeed, that 
 immediatt emancipation might be an injury, and not a 
 benefit, to the Slaves themselves : a period of preparation 
 seemed to be necessary. The ground of this delay, how- 
 ever, was not the intermediate advantage to be derived from 
 their labour, but a conviction of its expediency as it re- 
 spected themselves. We had to compensate to these 
 wretched beings for ages of injustice ; we were bound by 
 the strongest obligations to train up these subjects of our 
 past injustice and tyranny, for an equal participation with 
 ourselves in the blessings of liberty, and the protection of 
 law ; and by these considerations ought our measures to 
 be strictly and conscientiously regulated. It was only 
 while proceeding in such a course of action, adopted on 
 principle and steadily pursued, that we could be justified 
 in the retention of the Negroes in slavery for a single hour : 
 and he trusted that the eyes of all men, both here and in the 
 colonies, would be opened to this view of the subject, as 
 their clear and indispensable duty. 
 
 The honourable gentleman (Mr. Wilmot) had affirmed, 
 that there was no danger lest any new Slaves should be pro- 
 cured for the cultivation of the newly settled lands ; and 
 that, in point of fact, none had been so procured. For his 
 own part, he did not regard the fact of uo Negroes having 
 hitherto been clandestinely procured, even if it were true, 
 as any argument for future security. A very short time haJ 
 elapsed since these settlements had been formeJ. As yet
 
 20 
 
 Slaves might not have been wanted, nor might the settlers 
 have had the means of purchasing them. In fact, they had 
 not hitherto had the means even of feeding themselves. Two 
 or three successive crops had failed ; and they would have 
 been starved but for the bounty of Government, in con- 
 tinuing to them their rations long beyond the period ori- 
 ginally stipulated for. But would it be always thus ? Ef- 
 fectual security was only to be found in making liberty the 
 lex loci. 
 
 The honourable gentleman had said, that it was impossible 
 that the Hottentots, or other natives of these regions, should 
 be reduced to slavery, as they were free, and as their free- 
 dom was recognized ; and that they could only therefore 
 be employed as free hired labourers. He (Mr. Smith) had 
 examined, with great attention, the registry of Slaves trans- 
 mitted from the Cape of Good Hope, and lodged in the 
 registry office of this country ; and he there found a variety 
 of entries which were inconsistent with this statement. It 
 there appeared, that while a considerable part of the slave 
 population consisted of Negroes, " colony born," or import- 
 ed from " Madagascar " and *' Mosambique," yet many 
 were stated to be " Bushmen," men belonging to the tribes 
 on the northern frontier of the colony, and some were even 
 stated to be " Hottentots." By what means had these 
 persons, free as they were declared to be by the honourable 
 gentleman, become slaves to our planters'? And whatever 
 those means were, whether of force or fraud, was it not to 
 be feared, that from the same sources, as the temptation 
 increased. Slaves would be obtained in greater numbers 
 than at present, if the most decisive measures were not 
 taken to prevent it ? Indeed, even at this present moment, 
 it not unfrequently happens that Hottentots, hired at first 
 as free labourers, are reduced, by the base arts of their em- 
 ployers, to the condition of Slaves. A boor, having hired a 
 Hottentot for a certain term at fixed wages, takes occasion 
 to supply him from time to time with various articles, and 
 especially with spirituous liquors, all charged at an ex- 
 orbitant rate ; so that when the period of his engagement
 
 21 
 
 expires, the Hottentot, instead of having any surplus of 
 wages to receivf, finds himself deep in debt, and unable to 
 discharge it. Being brought before a magistrate, and the 
 debt being proved, he is handed over to his master, that he 
 may work himself out of debt ; — a proceeding which, in fact, 
 often condemns him to slavery for life, and places him in 
 the power of an arbitrary and rapacious master, although 
 he is no more a slave than any member of that House. As 
 the settlers increased, and the temptations became stronger, 
 the Hottentots and others might be subjected in still greater 
 numbers to this fraudulent and cruel process ; an evil against 
 which it was of the highest importance most sedulously to 
 guard. 
 
 The honourable gentleman had also endeavoured to shew, 
 that the danger of importing Slaves by sea was obviated by 
 the surf which protected the shores of that part of Africa. But 
 was he not aware that an equally violent surf beat upon 
 the Gold Coast and other parts of Western Africa, but that it 
 had never proved the shghtest obstruction to a most extensive 
 exportation of Slaves ? As little would it prove an impedi- 
 ment to their being landed on the eastern shores of the 
 Cape of Good Hope. 
 
 His honourable and revered friend Mr. Wilberforce had 
 alluded, with his usual eloquence, to the close connexion of 
 this subject with Christianity. He thought that branch of the 
 argument might be carried farther. Societies, so numerous 
 that they were almost indentified with the country itself, 
 had for some years been laudably employed in spreading, to 
 the utmost limits of the globe, the knowledge and benefits 
 of our holy religion. Now it had been a frequent objection 
 in the mouths of its adversaries, that, whatever might be the 
 purity of its doctrine, no corresponding practical good had 
 resulted from its dift'usion. But, among the many answers 
 which had been given to this objection, none perhaps was 
 more satisfactorv than the undeniable fact, that through the 
 influence of the Christian spirit, in the absence of any po- 
 sitive precept on the subject, personal and domestic slavery 
 had been banished from among the civilized nations ol
 
 22 
 
 Christendom, excepting, proh pudor ! as respected the un* 
 happy Africans in their colonial possessions. Now could 
 Ave endure to be reproached with the glaring and disgraceful 
 inconsistency, that while zealously pursuing the laudable 
 objects just alluded to, we should at the same moment be 
 founding, in our own dominions, new slave colonies, in 
 direct opposition to one of the distinguishing excellencies, 
 the peculiar and exclusive glory, of that religion, for the 
 propagation of which we aft'ected so much zeal? On the 
 whole, and in conclusion, Mr. Smith said, he hoped that not 
 only would the pest of slavery be now, at all events, prevent- 
 ed from entering to pollute new regions, but that measures 
 would be seriously and in good earnest adopted, in every 
 British possession, for diffusing such Christian light, and 
 such habits of morality and good order, as would prepare 
 the way for the safe communication, ere long, of liberty, to 
 all who are now unhappily in bondage. 
 
 ^ Mr. MONEY said, that the extension of slavery into 
 the new settlements, dependant on the Cape of Good Hope, 
 appeared to him to be so wrong in principle, so inconsistent 
 with the spirit of those Acts which had for their object not 
 only the Abolition of the Slave Trade, but ultimately the 
 suppression of slavery itself, and also so repugnant to the 
 feelings of this country, that he most cordially concurred in 
 the Address proposed by his honourable friend, and rejoiced 
 to learn from the honourable gentleman (Mr. Wihnot) that it 
 would not meet with opposition from him. But as that 
 honourable gentleman had qualified his assent, and had 
 made some objections to the proposition that slavery should 
 be absolutely prohibited in the district where the new settle- 
 ments were formed, he was desirous of offering a few observa- 
 tions on the subject. Now he was decidedly of opinion, that 
 neither the adoption nor the continuance of what was evil in 
 principle, and cruel in operation, could ever be justified by 
 any view to private or even to public advantage. In the 
 present case, liowever, he was persuaded, that to permit 
 slavery to exist was not only wrong in itself, but impolitic
 
 23 
 
 and dangerous, and contrary to the inleresls and the safety 
 of the settlers themselves. 
 
 The honourable gentleman saw difficulty in preventing 
 slavery in the new settlements, because it had been allowed 
 by the Dutch laws at the Cape of Good Hope. It was true 
 that, according to the articles of capitulation, when we 
 took posspssion of the Cape in I (JOG, the rights and privi- 
 leges previously enjoyed by the Dutch had been secured to 
 them; and among those privileges, if privilege it could be 
 called, was that of holding their fellow-creatures in slavery. 
 But, surely it by no means followed from that stipulation, 
 that after a general peace, and the cession of this Dutch 
 colony in full sovereignty to his Majesty, wc were bound, in 
 respect to the colonists, now become British subjects, to 
 follow the laws and customs of the Dutch. If under an im- 
 pression of their inhumanity, or injustice, or even inexpedi- 
 ency, we repealed our own laws, unquestionably we pos- 
 sessed the right of abrogating any colonial law which might 
 be found to mililate against the principles of justice or 
 humanity, or which should even be found inconvenient in 
 practice. And, in point of fact, we had exercised that 
 right, not merely since the complete cession of the colony, 
 but from the very moment of its conquest. One of the pri- 
 vileges previously enjoyed by the Dutch, was that of import- 
 ing Slaves ; and yet our Abolition Law of 1806, followed by 
 that of 1807, deprived them of this execrable privilege 
 almost from the very moment of the capitulation : nor was 
 this ever complained of as any infringement of that com- 
 pact. Those who maintained the proposition he was com- 
 bating, might with equal propriety contend that the abomi- 
 nable practice of extorting evidence by torture, which 
 formed a part of the Dutch criminal law, ought to have 
 been continued ; and yet it was one of the first acts of the 
 British Government to annihilate that monstrous proceeding. 
 He asserted that we might therefore not only prohibit slavery 
 in the new settlements (indeed we could not do otherwise), 
 but that Parliament, if it should see fit (and for the interests
 
 24 
 
 of humanity he hoped ere long it would see til) might abro- 
 gate the old colonial laws enacted by the Dutch, even a3 
 respected the whole of the colony, and substitute a better 
 system in its stead. But even if, from excess of tenderness 
 to colonial prejudices, it were admitted that the articles of 
 capitulation deprived us of the right to prohibit the old 
 Dutch inhabitants from still treating their Slaves as property, 
 and selling them to each other, it could neither be required 
 nor expected that, in forming new establishments, we should 
 furnish them with new customers for their human merchan- 
 dize. Surely we might make it, and we ought to make it, an 
 inviolable condition, with those whom we permitted to migrate 
 thither, nay whom we assisted with the public money to 
 settle there, that they should not outrage British feelings 
 and Christian principles by becoming the propagators of sla- 
 very; that they should not settle on the soil of the too long 
 oppressed and injured continent of Africa, in order to 
 extend and perpetuate the oppression and the wrong ; that 
 they should not convert an infant establishment, reared 
 under the auspices of a free and Christian government, into 
 a mart for the sale of human beings. If, however, his 
 Majesty did not speedily and effectually interpose, such 
 would be the inevitable consequence. Even if there were 
 no ground to apprehend that Slaves would be pi'ocured from 
 the interior, he was confident they would be introduced by 
 sea. The remoteness of the new settlements from the seat 
 of government, and their comparative proximity to the great 
 eastern Slave-marts, would present temptations, and afford 
 facilities, for smuggling Slaves, which would neither be re- 
 sisted nor neglected. 
 
 He had said that he apprehended danger from the per- 
 mission of slavery in the new settlements. It was well 
 known that the attacks of the CaftVes of the interior on 
 our distant settlements had already been very formidable. 
 If these should be renewed, would not the Slaves, if slavery 
 unhappily were allowed, naturally prone as they were to dis- 
 content and too often goaded to revenge by ill usage.
 
 25 
 
 consider it their interest, as affording tlipm the only 
 chance of escape from their cruel bondage, to join the 
 assailants, and thus give success to the invasion ? 
 
 It had frequently been asked, if slavery were not per- 
 mitted in the new settlements, how the lands were to be 
 cultivated, and how the settlers were to be served and sub- 
 sisted ? His reply was, that they must proceed as was 
 done in this and in every free country : they must, as far as 
 they were able, cultivate their lands themselves; and if they 
 required additional labourers, they must hire them. The 
 Hottentots, who had been most justly described by his 
 honourable friend, INIr. Wilberforce, as a much misrepre- 
 sented and abused people, were quiet, orderly, and indus- 
 trious, and migiit easily be engaged for hire. On them 
 instruction had been most profitably bestowed. From the 
 Moravian and other missionaries they had learnt some of the 
 most useful mechanical arts, and they had even become 
 skilful in the exercise of them. They were the best servants 
 at the Cape ; and in the last war they proved, by their 
 admirable conduct as soldiers, that their gallantry and 
 fidelity might be relied upon. The Chinese were also 
 excellent labourers in the field, as well as skilful mechanics. 
 They had proved a most valuable acquisition wherever they 
 had chosen to migrate — at Penang, at Malacca, at Java, and 
 in other islands of the Eastern Seas — and might prove so 
 also, should they be wanted, at the Cape of Good Hope. 
 
 For all the reasons he had assigned, he most heartily 
 agreed to the Address that had been proposed, and he was 
 most anxious that it should be adopted. His acquaintance 
 with the Cape had led him to dread the extension of slavery 
 \n any way which would bring more of our fellow-creatures 
 under the merciless lash of the Dutch Boors, to whose service 
 death is often preferred even by the Slaves of Cape Town. 
 He rejoiced also to learn, that a commission was about to be 
 appointed to inquire into the administration of justice at the 
 Cape. During a considerable stay there, he had been led to 
 entertain a great abhorrence of the manner in which justice 
 was administeyed under the Dutch colonial law, where the 
 
 £
 
 26 
 
 functionsof judges were performed by 'persons having a com- 
 mon feeling and interest opposed to the Slaves. He had been 
 informed, on the best authoritv, that there was now at the 
 Cape a Dutchman who caused the death of one of his 
 Slaves by hanging him at his door. He was brought to trial 
 for the murder. His defence was, that he had only intended 
 to punish him, and not to take away his life ; and he was 
 acquitted ! — In the year 1819, a female Slave, belonging to 
 a Dutch gentleman at the Cape, had been treated with harsh- 
 ness ; and at last her mistress threatened that she would take 
 her children from her, and sell them to the Boors in the inte- 
 rior. The dread of that worst of all evils, which, in her esti- 
 mation, could be inflicted on her offspring, so worked upon 
 her mind, that, to save them from this fate, she took them, 
 four in number, down to the sea, early in the morning, where 
 she succeeded in drowning three of them, and was in the 
 act of destroying herself and the remaining child when she 
 was discovered ; and the alarm being given, she was rescued 
 from her watery grave in a state of insensibility. She was 
 carried to the jail, where medicines were applied to restore 
 her, and a court of criminal justice was immediately sum- 
 moned to try her. Scarcely able to stand, she was brought 
 before this tribunal. When asked what she had to say for 
 herself, she stared wildly, and made no answer ; and in this 
 state of apparent unconsciousness as to every thing around 
 her, she was convicted and sentenced to death by being 
 strangled at a stake. The following morning this sentence 
 was carried into execution; a party of the military attending, 
 under the command of a British officer. Many more cases 
 he feared might be adduced, to shew the necessity of reform- 
 ing the criminal law at the Cape, and of giving to all classes 
 of the inhabitants, bond as well as free, the benefits of a 
 better and purer system — such, for instance, as prevailed at 
 the several presidencies in India, where he had never heard 
 a complaint respecting the administration of criminal justice, 
 on the part either of Europeans or natives. He rejoiced, 
 therefore, to hear that it was intended to send a commis- 
 sion of inquiry to the Cape ; and he earnestly hoped that
 
 27 
 
 their serious attention would be directed to the evils to which 
 he had adverted. 
 
 Dr. PHILLIMORE cordially approved of the motion of 
 his honourable friend. At the same time that he felt, in 
 common with his honourable friend (Mr. Wilniot), the diffi- 
 culty and delicacy of interfering with the rights, or alleged 
 rights, of the ancient Dutch colonists, he entirely agreed 
 with his honourable friend, the mover of this Address, that, 
 with respect to the districts newly settled, liberty ought to 
 be the general law, the lex loci, and slavery the exception. 
 Whatever tenderness, therefore, might be due to the old set- 
 tlers, he did not feel the smallest inclination to concede to 
 the new the shadow of a right to establish a property in the 
 persons of their fellow creatures. On the contrary, he 
 thought that any such claim on their parts should be abso- 
 lutely and peremptorily resisted. 
 
 Mr. BUXTON said, that if he concurred with the ho- 
 nourable Secretary, in thinking that there existed no more 
 than a bare possibility that slavery might be introduced into 
 our new settlements at the Cape, that bare possibility — any 
 hazard, however distant and remote — of spreading slavery, 
 and slavery, too, aggravated by such atrocities as those 
 which had just been related by his honourable friend (Mr. 
 Money), over our large territories in that part of the world, 
 would be an unanswerable argument in favour of the motion. 
 But could we flatter ourselves that there existed no more 
 than a bare possibility ? This much was certain : withinour 
 dominions there, the value of a Slave was one hundred and 
 sixty pounds ; without our dominions, and at no great dis- 
 tance, there were populous and savage nations, often en- 
 gaged in war, and often liable to famine. Couple but the 
 two facts together — the demand being so great, the supply 
 being so ready ; such an avidity to sell in one quarter, and 
 to purchase in another — and the consequence seemed irre- 
 sistible ; namely, that an active Slave Trade would soon 
 arise. It was not, in his opinion, so sure as gentlemen
 
 seemed to think, that it had not already arisen. In the 
 returns of the Registry, it appeared that many Bushmen, and 
 many Indians, were Slaves; how had they been reduced to 
 slavery? It appeared, by a trial which took place at the 
 Cape, that four Negroes who had served in the British 
 Navy were then Slaves, — a fact utterly unaccountable, if we 
 denied the existence of Slave trading. It was clear that 
 these four men had recently been reduced to slavery. If, 
 in spite of the unequivocal title to freedom which they pos- 
 sessed, and in spite of the superior intelligence which they 
 must have acquired, and by which they were the more able 
 to defend their title : if still these men had been enslaved, 
 were our apprehensions groundless, that the ignorant natives 
 in distant parts of the settlement would be fraudulently con- 
 signed to slavery ? To one fact, which proved the anxiety 
 of the new British settlers to obtain Slaves, he could him- 
 self speak. In conjunction with some other persons, he 
 had assisted a family that obtained land at the Cape of 
 Good Hope : an earnest application had since been re- 
 ceived from them for a further advance of money, in order 
 to enable them to become the "purchasers of Slaves. 
 
 With these facts before us, it was clear, that upon the 
 conduct of our Government, in the course of the next three 
 or four years, depended the great question, whether our 
 immense dominions in that part of Africa should or should 
 not be cultivated by Slave labour; whether the surrounding 
 nations should or should not be visited by the havoc and 
 desolation which an active Slave Trade would produce; 
 whether our own colonists, sent out by the capital of the 
 country, should or should not be exposed to that moral 
 turpitude which slavery always produced; and, lastly, the 
 question whether we should or should not stand before 
 Europe detected and convicted of the grossest hypocrisy. 
 
 Nothing could be conceived more derogatory to the cha- 
 racter of the country, than the semblance of a just suspicion 
 that we should permit a new Slave Colony and Slave Trade 
 to arise in our own dominions. We, who had stood foremost 
 in the glorious cause of its abolition — wc, who had venture^
 
 29 
 
 even to cliide the tardiness, the ill faith, the inhumanity of 
 other nations — were we at length, outstrippiuj; even their 
 perfidiousness, to see slavery beginning in parts of our 
 dominions where it did not exist at the period when we 
 acquired them ? 
 
 But our character would not be clear, if a single acre of 
 land should be cultivated by Slaves which was not so cul- 
 tivated when we took possession of the Cape of Good Hope. 
 That was the point he would most earnestly press upon 
 Government. Let the Commissioners immediately deter- 
 mine the spots where slavery existed on our arrival, and 
 beyond these let liberty be proclaimed the lex loci without 
 delay. — The land at the Cape might be divided into three 
 portions : — first, the country in the immediate neighbourhood 
 of Cape Town, which unfortunately was tilled by Slaves in 
 1800 ; second, some few farms perhaps, at a greater dis- 
 tance, similarly circumstanced ; and lastly, that vast extent 
 of territory which was either uncultivated, or cultivated by 
 free labourers, when we became masters of the soil. — With 
 regard to the last, and far the most important, of these, not 
 a question could arise : there we were bound, alike by good 
 faith, by humanity, and by policy, utterly to prohibit slavery. 
 Freedom there ought to be as much the law, as it is the 
 law in England ; and the Government would deserve no 
 pardon from the people of England, if any portion of 
 this land should hereafter be polluted by Slave labour. 
 — With regard to the second part, there could surely be 
 no comparison between the loss which individuals might 
 sustain by the abolition of slavery in the few farms where 
 it existed, or rather the expense which Government might 
 incur by their indemnification, and the mighty evil of allow- 
 ing slavery to exist there at all, even as an exception to 
 the general law. — There remained, then, only the lanil in 
 the immediate vicinity of Cape Town. It was to be 
 hoped that Government would find some means of inducing 
 the proprietors themselves to come forward, as they had 
 come forward at Ceylon and other places, to limit the
 
 50 
 
 state of slavery to the lives of the present Slaves: and let 
 no one fear that Parliament would grudge to bear a part in 
 any expense which might be thus incurred. The House might 
 depend upon it, that this was a subject on which the people 
 of England were very far from indifferent. As nothing would 
 be more shameful, or more wicked, than the rise of slavery in 
 our own possessions ; so was there nothing more consistent 
 with the course we had pursued, or more congenial with the 
 disposition and spirit which the people of this country had 
 manifested, than the deliverance of the whole of our South- 
 African dominions from slavery and slave trading. To effect 
 this was within the power of Government, and was there- 
 fore their bounden duty. 
 
 Mr. WILBERFORCE, in reply, expressed the satisfaction 
 it had afforded him to hear from the Under Secretary of State 
 (Mr. Wilmot), that he gave his unqualified assent to the 
 Address. It was no more, however, than he had expected, 
 from what he had ever witnessed of the intelligence and liberal 
 spirit of that gentleman's sentiments. But yet, said Mr. 
 Wilberforce, there appear some shades of difference between 
 us, which, on such a momentous subject as this, become of 
 great importance ; and over which, therefore, I cannot pass 
 without some few observations. My honourable friend urged, 
 as an impediment in the way of adopting my suggestion of 
 establishing a different system of law in the new settlements 
 from that which was still to prevail in that part of the colony 
 containing the bulk of the Slave population, that the 
 whole of our territory at the Cape now constitutes one 
 colony. But what can be more easy, than for the Crown, 
 which indubitably possesses the legislative power, to form 
 any district into a separate settlement, with its own peculiar 
 laws and regulations t Never can there be a more urgent call 
 for such a measure than in the present instance. It is 
 thereby alone that the important change can be satisfactorily 
 and at once established, of rendering that part of the colony, 
 iii which the late emigrants are placed, a new settlement.
 
 31 
 
 in which liberty may be the lex loci, and slavery either not 
 exist at all, or exist only as an exception, limited and re- 
 gulated by its own peculiar rules. 
 
 But the point on which I think my" honourable fiiond 
 scarcely expressed himself with a warmth which does Justice 
 to his own principL\? and feelings, is that of domestic slavery: 
 and I implore the House, that they will sutler no considera- 
 tious of what may be the state of a domestic Slave under 
 a polished and kind-hearted owner, no analogy between the 
 condition of domestic slavery and apprenticeship, to blind 
 their eyes against beholding the institution of domestic 
 slavery in its true and full intensity of moral and personal 
 evil. Granted, that, under a humane and well educated 
 owner, the Slaves may not have much to complain of —though 
 who is there that knows so little of human nature as not to 
 distrust himself, if possessed of absolute and uncontrouled 
 power? — yet how few masters, comparatively, are of this de- 
 scription, — kiimane and well-educated! And who is there 
 that can duly estimate the bitterness of slavery under such 
 low, vulgar, uneducated beings, as, in colonies where slavery 
 subsists, possess too often each his own individual Slave or 
 two, the miserable victims of his petty tyranny 1 
 
 A striking picture, in illustration of this statement, is 
 afforded by one of our own colonies ; and that by the very 
 colony which, from its having been one of the earliest settled, 
 and from its having a larger proportion than usual of White 
 resident proprietors — many of them, however, men of small 
 property — was honoured with the title of Little England. I 
 allude to the island of Barbadoes. Like the mother country, 
 I grant that it contains many men of enlarged and liberal 
 minds ; but with what a base alloy was this precious metal 
 associated ! The House, perhaps, may have forgot the papers 
 which were laid on their table not many years ago, and are 
 now to be found in their records. In them it appears that 
 Barbadoes alone retained the dishonourable peculiarity of 
 not having rendered the wilful murder of a Slave a capital 
 crime: on the contrary, it was punishable only by a fine 
 of about ten or twelve pounds sterling. But this was not
 
 32 
 
 all. When the Governor, Lord Seaforth, himself a West- 
 India proprietor, proposed to the Legislature of the island, 
 I think by the King's instruction, that they should render 
 the murder of a Slave a capital crime, their House of Com- 
 mons rejected the proposition with indignation ; and, the 
 very proposal stirring up their bad passions, several brutal 
 murders of Slaves were committed with circumstances almost 
 too shocking to be detailed. Yet even these instances of 
 atrocious and disgusting cruelty produced no effect : on 
 the contrary, they appeared only to rouse the savage spirit 
 of tyranny into more deadly exasperation. I am glad to 
 be able to add, that the good sense and influence of the 
 higher orders in the community, some years after, effected 
 the desired alteration of the law. But we all know that 
 it is not death, commonly, which a Slave has to apprehend 
 from his owner, but that crude and bitter draught which is 
 the daily portion of the Slave of a low-bred and savage 
 tyrant. In truth, we all of us are in danger of becoming 
 too familiar with the idea of slavery ; and from this familiarity 
 of losing that deep impression, which we ought ever to main- 
 tain, of its great and manifold mischief. We fall insensibly, 
 like the settlers spoken of by my honourable friend (Mr. 
 Buxton), into a habit of accounting Slaves as property. Our 
 very modes of speaking favour the growth of this inadequate 
 estimate. We get into a way of talking of the value of a 
 Slave — this sum, or that — a hundred pounds,or a hundred and 
 fifty. That, the value of one of the human species ! It 
 may be the value of his muscles and his nerves, but can it 
 ever be the just valuation of a being endowed with mind and 
 spirit, with foresight and recollection — above all, a being 
 formed for immortality? This it is that justly renders these 
 poor creatures the objects of our solicitude, and which 
 should urge us studiously to guard against that foul disho- 
 nour, with which we should justly blot the character of our 
 country, if, in forming a new colony, we were not, as persons 
 who ourselves could only breathe freely in a climate of liberty 
 secured by law, from the very first to exclude all slavery. 
 — I am the more anxious that on the present occasion we
 
 99 
 
 should manifest that dread of the evils of slavery which 
 becomes our name and character, in order that, if possible, 
 our conduct, by exhibiting a contrast to that which has been 
 lately pursued by the Legislature of the United States of 
 America on a similar occasion, may lead them to re-consider 
 the case, and, ere it be too late, to revoke the fatal decision 
 to which they lately came. I allude, Sir, to that por- 
 tentous determination to admit the state of slavery into 
 the immense regions of the Missouri territory, about to 
 be formed into a new colony. The House, perhaps, is not 
 aware that this district is not far from double the extent 
 of all the rest of the United States put together ; and 
 it was indeed with grief and shame that 1 received the intel- 
 ligence, that, after a protracted controversy, it had been at 
 length decided that slavery, with its long train of physical 
 and moral evils, should be the system of this new territory. 
 Let us at least prove that we have a more just valuation 
 of the rights and happiness of our fellow-creatures. Let us 
 guard against infusing into the African continent, through 
 that settlement we are now about to form at its extremity, 
 a deadly and destructive poison, which will gradually diffuse 
 its malignant venom far and wide, and infect the whole soil 
 with its innumerable evils. On the contrary, instead of 
 seeking for an excuse for establishing slavery as the general 
 system of the new settlement, in the wretched plea that there are 
 already a few proprietors there who are possessors of Slaves, 
 let us adopt some method of settling with them, by com- 
 mutation of lands, or some other expedient, to prevent their 
 communicating the infection to their neighbours; and then we 
 shall have the satisfaction of seeing on the African continent 
 a British colony establishing itself not unworthy of the parent 
 Country. Let us but extend to the settlers already there, 
 and to the emigrants who may be likely to follow them, all 
 the Various blessings resulting from the enjoyment of the 
 happy temperature of a British constitution. In such a 
 soil and climate, the political and moral vegetation will be 
 wholesome &nd vigorous. Over those vast regions, now 
 thinly inhabited by a scanty population of wretched and de- 
 
 F
 
 fenceless savages, peaceful industry and civil security anci 
 comfort will by degrees produce their natural fruits. 
 Villages and towns will by degrees arise. And may we not 
 indulge the gratifying prospect, that some centuries hence, 
 when those vast deserts shall have become the seat of civi- 
 lization and all its attendant benefits ; when the arts and 
 sciences shall have sprung up ; and, above all, when the know- 
 ledge of true religion shall have blessed them with its light 
 and warmth, guiding them safely through this life to the 
 happiness of a better; the inhabitants will then perhaps look 
 back with gratitude to the debate of this very evening, and 
 trace all their various enjoyments to your decision — to your 
 having resolved studiously to exclude slavery from the colony 
 that is about to be formed, and to establish it on the genuine 
 principles of the British constitution? 
 
 The Address was then carried unanimously. 
 
 AFTER the Address moved by Mr. Wilberforce had been 
 agreed to, some important conversation followed, on the 
 motion of Mr.Wilmot, for sending Commissioners of Inquiry 
 to some of our colonies. The substance of it is here sub- 
 joined, because it is closely connected with the subject of 
 the previous discussion. 
 
 Mr, WiLMOT said, that he rose, in pursuance of the 
 notice which he had given, to move that an humble Address 
 be presented to his Majesty, that he would be graciously 
 pleased to issue a commission under the great seal to certain 
 individuals, for the purpose of examining into the condition of 
 the colonies at the Cape of Good Hope, Mauritius, and Cey- 
 lon, and also into the administration of justice in the Leeward 
 Islands. The motion, he stated, divided itself into two 
 distinct parts : first, as regarded the Cape of Good Hope, 
 the Mauritius, and Ceylon ; and, secondly, as regarded th«
 
 35 
 
 Leeward Islands. With respect to the first, lie must beg 
 leave to state, that the commission which he proposed to 
 send out was one of a very general nature ; for the com- 
 missioners, if the House shouhi approve of the measure, 
 would be directed to inquire into the whole state of each 
 colony — into its whole civil government; into the extent to 
 which its different offices might be diminished, both in 
 number and salaries ; into the state of the laws ; and also into 
 the practical administration of justice. At the Cape of 
 Good Hope, the commissioners would be instructed to in- 
 quire into the very subject on which his honourable friend, 
 the Member for Bramber, had so lately addressed the House 
 with such eloquence. They would have to consider the 
 actual state of the Slave population, and to ascertain the 
 existence of the Slave Trade, and the means of its complete 
 prevention, if it were not already extinguished. The cur- 
 rency of the colony would also be submitted to their inspec- 
 tion and consideration. They would, moreover, be desired to 
 inquire into any abuses which might exist in the colonies, 
 and into the nature of the remedies which it might be ex- 
 pedient to apply to them ; and to suggest such improve- 
 ments as might appear to them to be expedient and prac- 
 ticable. If he were to discuss at length the necessity of 
 sending out such a commission to the colonies in question, 
 he should be needlessly consuming the time of the House by 
 entering upon the consideration of our whole colonial policy. 
 He would therefore abstain from such an undertaking, and 
 would proceed to take advantage of the opportunity which 
 he had at last obtained, to give them some information on 
 some of the points to which he had alluded in enumerating 
 the objects to which the commissioners were to direct their 
 attention, and the attainment of which he trusted the House 
 would agree was calculated to produce great and lasting 
 benefits to the colonies and to the country. With respect to 
 legal proceedings, he had to state, that instructions had 
 already been sent out to take measures for introducing the 
 English language exclusively into the judicial proceedings of 
 the Cape of Good Hope; and with respect to the dinunutioiv
 
 36 
 
 of offices, be was happy to be able to acquaint the House, 
 that the Noble Secretary of State for the colonial depart- 
 uient had determined not to fill up the office of deputy 
 colonial secretary at the Cape oi Good Hope, which was 
 now vacant, until the commissioners had made their report 
 on the subject. The honourable member then proceeded to 
 argue, that, if no other advantage accrued from sending out 
 this commission to the Cape of Good Hope than that of 
 enlightening the public mind with regard to its actual condi- 
 tion, that would be sufficient ground for dispatching it. 
 With regard to the Mauritius, the long-continued dissensioiis 
 in that colony, and the charges that had been preferred 
 against the chief justice of the island, rendered such a mea- 
 sure necessary. Such a commission might, indeed, be less 
 necessary in the island of Ceylon ; but his Majesty's Go- 
 vernment had no hesitation to extend it to that island like- 
 wise, in order to satisfy the public regarding the manner 
 in which its resources were managed : of which he was 
 happy to say, that a dispatch, recently received from the 
 Governor, gave a most satisfactory representation. This 
 was all he had to say on the first part of his motion. With 
 regard to the second part of it— the sending out of legal 
 commissioners to inquire into the state of the administration 
 of justice in the Leeward Islands — he would trespass on 
 the courtesy of the House only for a few minutes. It would 
 be in the recollection of many of the members whom he was 
 then addressing, that the noble lord opposite (Lord Nugent) 
 had brought in a bill at the commencement of the session to 
 improve the administration of justice in those colonies. He 
 (Mr. Wilmot) had at that time suggested to the noble 
 lord, that, before such a bill was seriously taken into con- 
 sideration by Parliament, it would be expedient to collect 
 all the information that could be obtained, in order to enable 
 it to legislate wisely upon the subject. The noble lord con- 
 curred in his suggestion, and agreed to withdraw his bill, 
 on condition that no time should be lost in sending out 
 commissioners for that purpose. He coidd assure the 
 noble lord, that, if his motion was agreed to, no time should
 
 37 
 
 be lost in forwarding them to the place of their destinatiou ; 
 though, of course, he could not pretend to pledge himself 
 as to the time by which they would terminate their labours. 
 The honourable gontkiiian concluded by moving " That 
 an humble address be presented to his Majesty, praying 
 he would be graciously pleased to give directions tor issuing 
 a commission under the great seal, for inquiring into the 
 state of the Cape of Good Hope, the Mauritius, Ceylon, 
 and the Leeward Islands." 
 
 Mr. WiLBERFOKCK expressed his approbation of the 
 proposed commission. He had no doubt, if the appoint- 
 ments were judiciously made, that good would result from 
 the measure. He hoped, that, in addition to the points 
 mentioned by his honourable friend, precise directions 
 would be given to the commissioners to extend their in- 
 quiries to the state of the Negroes liberated under the 
 Abolition laws at the Cape of Good Hope, who, he under- 
 stood, were retained in a servitude little less severe and 
 degrading than slavery itself. No good reason could exist 
 why these poor creatures, both there and elsewhere, should 
 not be put into complete possession of their liberty, as at 
 Sierra Leone, where they had proved from the first, in con- 
 sequence of the liberal treatment they had received, a most 
 valuable class of colonists. He trusted also that due con- 
 sideration would be given to the means of affording them 
 that religious instruction which had proved so signally bene- 
 ticial to the liberated Slaves at Sierra Leone. 
 
 Earl Nugent. — At so late an hour, sir, 1 should be 
 ashamed to obtrude myself on the uolice of ihe House, did 
 not the peculiar circumstances which have been alluded to 
 by my honourable friend opposite, lead me to hope for 
 your indulgence. I wish to express the sincere pleasure I 
 feel in supporting my honourable friend's motion. For that 
 part of it which relates to the administration of justice in 
 the Leeward Islands, I should almost venture to offer him 
 my personal thanks, were I not aware that he would not 
 easily forgive mc the presumption of thanking him for the 
 merely discharging an act of public duty. The inquiry
 
 38 
 
 which is the object of the present raotion, is one of the 
 highest importance to humanity and justice. It is at this 
 time peculiarly called for, by abuses which have- long been 
 ripening in those islands, and which have now risen to a 
 character and amount of which I believe the House has but 
 a very faint idea. I have to thank my honourable friend 
 for the early intimation, which he was kind enough to give 
 me, of his present motion : it relieves me for the present from 
 a duty which I had set myself, and to which, indeed, in some 
 measure I stood pledged. In consequence partly of a de- 
 tail of abuses in the administration of justice in one of the 
 smaller of those islands, to which I last year called the 
 attention of the House — abuses, however,which in the course 
 of subsequent inquiries I find to prevail generally in the 
 judicial system of those colonies — it had been my intention 
 to move for leave to bring in a bill on that subject : and, 
 but for the notice my honourable friend was kind enough 
 to give me of his intention, I should at an earlier period 
 of the session have submitted the heads of that bill to the 
 House. I feel, however, that the main object which I 
 should have had this session in calling the attention of the 
 House to this subject, has been already more than answered 
 by the motion of to-night. On the details, therefore, of the 
 measure which I should have submitted, or of the evidence 
 on which that measure would have been recommended, I 
 shall not now enter. Indeed, sir, I feel convinced that 
 gentlemen who have not turned their attention particularly 
 to questions of West-Indian grievances, are little aware of 
 the extent or nature of theni; or of the readiness with uhich, 
 for one's own sake, as well as for that of the House, one 
 consents to postpone such a subject, particularly with the 
 benefits in view of the very valuable information which I 
 should hope that the report of those commissioners cannot 
 fail to supply. That report, if the inquiry be properly con- 
 ducted, cannot fail to be of the utmost importance to the 
 object I have in view. Whether it shall tend to confirm or 
 to correct the impressions which, on such evidence as I 
 have been able to collect, I at present cnlcrlaiii, it will al
 
 39 
 
 eII events put the House in possession, upon the best autito- 
 rity, of the principal grounds on which it is my intention 
 at a future period to found my bill. In truth, sir, every 
 question of West-Indian jurisprudence is surrounded by very 
 many and very great dithculties. Among these, I admit, is 
 the difficulty of separating truth from falsehood, in the evi- 
 dence obtained from the islands themselves. A general 
 impression of misgovernment may often lead to much mis- 
 statement, and great grievances may provoke to great ex- 
 aggeration. It is, as we know, in the nature of all such 
 inquiries to be overwhelmed with gratuitous information 
 from all sides; and, with all the precaution which a sense 
 of duty would suggest in the outset to every man, the other 
 difficulties of such an inquiry are small compared with that 
 of ascertaining, ia every instance, the amount of character 
 and credibility which fairly belongs to those who volunteer 
 their information and assistance. On one point, however, 
 I am sure that my honourable friend, even thus early, will 
 agree with me — what has already fallen from him to-night 
 bears ample testimony to his opinion on that subject ; — 
 that one of the greatest obstacles, in looking to an admi- 
 nistration of public justice, such as we all shoidd wish to 
 see perfected in a British colony, unhappily lies at the very 
 root of our West-Indian system ; I mean, in the existence 
 of slavery : it lies in the obvious and insuperable anomaly 
 of the attempt to introduce the machinery of a free govern- 
 ment into a society composed of master and slave. In one 
 respect, perhaps, this may be fortunate : it may be fortunate 
 for the cause of humanity and liberty in general, that, 
 wherever that first vice, that^^Mm aimen servihttix, exists, 
 it is found impracticable to introduce beneficially those in- 
 stitutions of government and of law which, under that hap- 
 pier dispensation of general freedom for which Providence 
 designed man, are the best securities for the protection of 
 private property and the maintenance of public justice. 
 Whilst, however, it shall be unhappily necessary, that to a 
 certain degree this dreadful curse of slavery should yet find 
 countenance in colonies dependent upon England — (and one
 
 40 
 
 of the most grievous parts of that wicked and unnatural 
 system is, as ray honourable friend the Member for Bram- 
 ber has so strongly remarked, the difficulty, when it has 
 been once established, of after relaxing or finally abolishing 
 it, without, on the one hand, great caution ; or, on the 
 other, if rashly attempted, without great risk); — but, whilst 
 this remains, it is peculiarly our duty to endeavour to re- 
 move, as far as we may, those minor obstacles which pre- 
 sent themselves to the general operation of British justice. 
 And here obviously we are met by an obstacle, difficult 
 indeed to deal with, in the smallness of society in the lesser 
 islands: I mean, the smallness of the free White population, 
 the only persons possessing any share of political rights. 
 Where men live together in very small societies, all public 
 spirit soon becomes merged in a feeling of private conven- 
 tional arrangement : a sort of corporate spirit soon pre- 
 vails, fatal to the fair administration of the laws ; and, above 
 all, public opinion becomes a very weak and ineffectual 
 check. In truth, public opinion in the lesser islands there 
 is none. In consequence, numerous offices, some quite in- 
 compatible in principle and in duties with each other, are 
 frequently held by the same person. Magistrates have fre- 
 quently to decide in matters of property, if not directly 
 affecting themselves, affecting cases so strictly analogous 
 to their own, that the principle of their own case is often 
 involved in their decision on the case of another. The 
 chief justices of these islands, without a single exception, 
 are, instead of being rendered independent of suitors, de- 
 pendent for the greater part of their salaries upon annual 
 votes of tlie assemblies : and these assemblies are entirely 
 composed of resident planters, or managers of estates; be- 
 tween whom and their servants, or between whom and non- 
 resident proprietors or merchants, every issue which these 
 judges have to try must generally lie. Under such a system, 
 sir, it may be difficnlt to expect that impartial justice can 
 be done. But alhnv me to say, that it is impossible to ex- 
 pect that magistrates, or courls, or judges, can be properly 
 respected. Judges will not do their duty, because they are
 
 41 
 
 dependent upon those who, either in their own persons or 
 by connexion, are parties in every cause which comes before 
 them. Magistrates will not do their duty, because in the 
 discharge of those duties they arc absolutely uncontrouled. 
 Public opinion there is none : and there is no appeal 
 against them, but to the island courts, the president of which 
 courts receives his salary from them as members of assembly; 
 or to the governor in council, which council also consists 
 of these planting magistrates. Hence arise those outrages 
 against law and against humanity, which are perpetrated 
 without disguise and without check, and so frequently, as 
 to weary in the repetition with the almost unvarying atro- 
 city of their details : arbitrary imprisonments, without form 
 of commitment or prospect of delivery by trial, without 
 shadow or pretence of law ; cruel and illegal inflictions of 
 the severest kinds of punishment, some in their consequences 
 affecting life itself, and inflicted not only on Slaves, but 
 on free Blacks. And, above all, hence arises that habitual 
 disregard and contempt with which the institutions of jus- 
 tice are treated in those islands. 
 
 Sir, if it be thus in criminal matters, in cases of property 
 it is, if possible, even worse. Juries cannot be trusted where 
 the cause lies between residents and absentees. Cases are 
 frequently occurring, in which n:erchants and absentee pro- 
 prietors are forced into the most ruinous compromises by 
 the impossibility of obtaining justice against resident plant- 
 ers or managers. Sir, I am not overstating the fact. If it 
 were not making an unauthorized use of the names of indi- 
 viduals, I could cite cases — I could cite a case of late occur- 
 rence, in which a very eminent person, well known and 
 highly respected by this House, was consulted by a non-resi- 
 dent proprietor concerning the recovery of a considerable 
 estate violently confiscated by a resident agent. This gen- 
 tleman felt it his duty, under all the circumstances, to advise 
 his client, and that too where no English jury could have 
 hesitated in finding for him as plaintifl', to meet an ofter of 
 compromise to scarcely the amount of one-third of the value 
 of the property He had been so despoiled of, rather than run 
 
 G
 
 42 
 
 the risk of the verdict of a jury of managers in the island* 
 Were I at liberty to incntiou the name of the adviser in this 
 case, the opinion of such a person on the practice of the 
 island courts would, I am sure, have great influence with the 
 House. 
 
 In truth, I have good reason to believe that, under the 
 present system, the nominal application of the forms of free 
 government ; that, under the present system, a representative 
 government and trial by jury, are instruments only of the 
 most violent oppression and injustice. I believe, that, on 
 the whole, a power entirely arbitrary and irresponsible, 
 vested in the hands of some one with fair dispositions and 
 sufficient independence to do justice, would, in a majority of 
 cases, give a better chance of substantial right. Accord- 
 ingly, where a governor is found well resolved to do justice 
 after his own way, without truckling to local influences, or 
 conforming himself to the prevailing spirit of cabal and 
 intrigue among the planters, he has only to withdraw him- 
 self from under their domination, and his power becomes 
 totally arbitrary, uncontrouled, and practically, as far as 
 relates to the authorities of the island, entirely irresponsible. 
 And yet it is remarkable, that it is generally under such go- 
 vernors that the fewest grievances are suftered, and the 
 fewest subjects of complaint arise. But still, I ask, is this 
 arbitrary system, although on the whole I believe the lesser 
 evil of the two, a desirable or a tolerable system to be 
 countenanced in a colony professedly under the protection 
 of English law? 
 
 A dear and lamented friend of mine, sir who, a few years 
 ago held the government of one of those islands, on his ar- 
 rival there found himself invested, as is usual, with the joint 
 powers of civil and military governor, and, besides, with the 
 presidency of the court of chancery. He entered upon 
 these duties with an ardent desire to do justice according to 
 his own summary and soldierlike views of right and wrong, 
 but with a pure and humane heart, assisted by a highly cul- 
 tivated understanding. He wrote me word, shortly after his 
 arrival, that he had consulted the attorney-general whom
 
 43 
 
 he found there, a person of great experience in the colony, 
 as to the extent of his, the governor's, powers. To xshich 
 the altorney-general replied, " Sir, I have been upwards of 
 twenty years in the situation I now fill — I have often en- 
 deavoured to ascertain the precise limits of tiie governor's 
 power; and am not yet able to answer your excellency's 
 question. But this I will tell you, sir, — they are pretty 
 extensive, so long as you abstain from giving any reasons 
 for your conduct. For example : you see that person in a 
 straw hat and a nankin coat : if your excellency should 
 think fit to direct that that man be taken and hanged at the 
 corner of the street, assign no reason, and I will be ready to 
 take the consequences for your excellency." Now, I do not 
 mean, of course, that the House should believe, that, in this 
 waggish sort of sally of the attorney-general's, it was in- 
 tended by that grave personage to give a regular or formal 
 opinion on the extent of the governor's authority ; but it 
 shewed, at least, that in his judgment those powers were 
 not very nicely or very narrowly circumscribed. 
 
 Sir, on the whole I will venture to state — and here my opi- 
 nion is conlirmed by that of many whose opinions I should 
 urge to the House with much greater confidence, I am sure, 
 than belongs to my own — that the basis of abetter system must 
 be laid, first, in the consolidation of the courts of the different 
 islands; and, secondly, in the disquaUfyiug universally all 
 persons having property, or acting as managers of properly, 
 in the islands, from holding auy offices there in any way 
 connected with the admiiiisiraliou of justice. I am aware 
 of the quarters from which opposition to such a measure 
 would come, and mainly arising out of motives, I will not 
 say not respectable, but I will say not altogether disin- 
 terested. I have good reason to believe, that generally the 
 non-resident proprietors and merchants would be favourable 
 to it. It would give the fairest chance of justice being ad- 
 ministered witli equality and with mercy ; it would provide 
 for the respectability and independence of the colonial 
 bench at a much smaller aggregate charge ; and it would 
 give a tenfold security to the now very precarious tenure ol
 
 44 
 
 West-Indian property. Sir, I do not wish to speak harshly 
 or disrespectfully of the motives of judges or magistrates. 
 It is sufficient for ray argument to shew, that under the pre- 
 sent system their decisions will, at the least, be always sus- 
 pected. 1 have already drawn largely on the indulgence 
 
 of the House. I thank the House for it. I will only obtrude 
 one more observation. It is my intention to submit a bill, 
 early next session, upon this subject. This commission, 
 consisting, as I have every reason to trust it will, of persons 
 adequate and impartial, and appointed in a fair spirit of 
 inquiry, will be of the greatest use to me. But I must 
 entreat my honourable friend, that the report may not be 
 delayed, at the farthest, beyond an early period of next 
 spring. I must venture to suggest, that the commission will 
 meet with many difficulties ; above all, in obtaining wit- 
 nesses, and in overcoming the reluctance of those witnesses 
 to give full evidence, owing to the system of influence and 
 terror exercised by the authorities in the islands. But the 
 subject is one of great importance to justice and humanity. 
 And thus I leave it for the present in the hands of my honour- 
 able friend. I know that no subject of distant legislation is 
 generally very inviting, or very popular : but I trust that it 
 will be remembered, that this is an inquiry into the adminis- 
 tration of justice in matters of very important property 
 between man and man : but, above all, the administration of 
 criminal justice among a class of persons peculiarly entitled 
 to our sympathy and protection, — Slaves ; persons who, 
 while that foul taint of slavery shall still exist a blot upon the 
 name of English government, (a blot which, I trust, by a 
 succession of wise and healing measures, may, by the bless- 
 ing of God, be ere long safely and entirely removed), 
 but who, till then, are a class degraded by us from the sta- 
 tion and communion of their fellow-men; unrepresented; un- 
 protected, except by the humanity and mercy of those whom 
 Providence has blessed with exemption from the cruel lot of 
 being, like them, born to slavery. 
 
 Under these impressions 1 will give a vote, full of hope 
 in the result of this motion.
 
 45 
 
 Mr. Hume approved of the motion. He proposed, 
 however, that the commission should be made to embrace 
 the Island of Trinidad, and he moved an amendment to that 
 effect. The inhabitants of that colony were exceedingly 
 desirous that a British constitution and British law should 
 be substituted for the existing system of Spanish law, of the 
 operation of which they universally complained. He could 
 see no good reason why this reasonable demand of theirs 
 should be refused ; or why the colony of Trinidad should be 
 excluded from a participation in the same system of political 
 and judicial administration which prevailed in the other West- 
 Indian possessions of the British Crown. 
 
 Mr. Marry AT supported the amendment of Mr. Hume, 
 and entered into a great variety of details, to shew the 
 defects of the present mode of administering the govern- 
 ment of Trinidad. His statements, which ran into great 
 length, were intended to illustrate the oppressive and arbi- 
 trary nature of the Spanish institutions ; and he particularly 
 urged the almost universal desire of the colonists that these 
 should be superseded by a British constitution and by Bri- 
 tish laws. 
 
 Mr. GouLBURN denied the correctness of Mr. Mar- 
 ryat's statements, and pledged himself that papers should 
 be laid on the table, early in the ensuing session, which 
 should fully disprove them. He entered his strong protest 
 against the claim of what was termed the British consilu- 
 tion, and British law, for Trinidad. In a country like this 
 in which we lived, where all the inhabitants, of whatever 
 description, were equal in the eye of the law, no system of 
 government could be better adapted to promote the hap- 
 piness of tlie community : but, unhappily, this was far 
 from being the case in the West Indies. And in our Slave 
 colonies, the effect of the British constitution, as it was 
 called, wherever it prevailed, was to throw the whole power 
 into the hands of the White oligarchy, to the exclusion of 
 every other class from the enjoyment of the advantages of 
 that constitution ; — so that its boasted benefits were con- 
 fined to a twentieth or thirtieth part of the whole pojjula-
 
 46 
 
 tion, who were thus enabled to tyrannize over the rest. In 
 Trinidad there were about 3600 Whites, of all ages and 
 both sexes ; but in the same island there were about 14,000 
 free Persons of Colour, many of them persons of property ; 
 and nearly twice that number of Slaves. Now the Spanish 
 laws secured certain privileges to the free People of Colour, 
 and to the Slaves, which they did not enjoy in colonies 
 governed by what was termed (though, under the peculiar 
 circumstances of the case, most inaccurately) the British 
 constitution and British laws ; — so that, in giving the boon 
 that was demanded to a fraction of the population, we 
 should be inflicting a most serious injury on the great mass 
 of the community. There were serious difficulties, he ad- 
 mitted, in altering the form of government that had been 
 improvidently granted to our old colonies — a form of go- 
 vernment certainly ill adapted to the unhappy peculiarities 
 of their case — but he could not consent that any further ex- 
 tension should be given to this evil ; and whenever, at any 
 time, the proposition of the honourable gentleman with re- 
 spect to Trinidad was brought forward, he should be found 
 in his place, to give it his most vigorous and determined 
 resistance, as a proposition fraught with cruelty and in- 
 justice. 
 
 Similar sentiments were expressed by Mr. Wilmot and 
 Mr. W. Smith, on that part of the question which referred 
 to the communication of what was denominated a British 
 constitution (a British constitution in form only, not in 
 substance) to the island of Trinidad. The amendment of 
 Mr. Hume was finally negatived, and the original motion 
 of Mr. Wilmot carried. 
 
 Ellerton Hnd llnodcisou, Prinlcr&, 
 Jolitibou'ft Court .London.
 
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