CHA P. V. Proceedings of Parliament under the New Administration-Motion by Mr. Fox relative to Contracts for Shipping to convey the Hanoverian Army to this Country-Debates on Mr. Wilberforce's Motion for the Abolition of the Slave Trade-Debates on the Motion of the Chancellor of the Exchequer for raising and supporting a permanent Military Force, and for the gradual Reduction of the Additional Militia. WE TE have now to give an account of the proceedings of parliament, under the new administration. But before we exhibit any statement of the measures of the new ministry which are supposed to constitute a greater claim to public confidence than those adopted by the late administration, and which, indeed, chiefly relate to military and naval arrangements, we shall notice, in the order of time, those subjects which were brought under the consideration of parliament. It was generally admitted, that, under the peculiar circumstances of this country, the loss of Hanover was a serious calamity. However impossible it might have been to make an effectual effort for the security of that electorate, it was at least supposed, that something might have been done to convey the Hanoverian army to this country. It was known that his majesty's government had taken some steps for the accomplishment of this object; but its failure was attributed to delay. With a view to public satisfaction on this subject, Mr. Fox, on the 9th of May, moved for an account of the number of ships, with the amount of their tonnage, taken up by order of the transport board, for the purpose of conveying the Hanoverian troops to this country, together with an account of the expense attending the contract, a copy of the orders given for these ships to proceed on their destination, and a copy of any counter orders issued, it any such counter orders existed. The chancellor of the exchequer (Mr. Pitt) had not the smallest objection to urge against the motion. He acknowledged that the incursion of the French into Hanover was a serious calamity; but it was not in the power of his majesty's ministers to take any measures for the protection of that electorate.--Under the circumstances in which the war was renewed, it could not be denied that we had not the means of sending any part of our military force to the relief of Hanover. It was also to be recollected, that at the time the war broke out, there were two treaties in existence for the protection of the neutrality of the north of Germany, to which all the great powers of the continent were parties. If these conventions were disregarded by the French government, it was not to be expected that any remonstrances by his majesty's ministers would be attended with success. At the present moment, he was desirous of anticipating the result of the production of the papers moved for, so far as to state, that ministers had taken the earliest opportunity of providing means for bringing away the Hanoverian troops. Only two days after the re I 4 com commencement of hostilities, a conference was held with his majesty's electoral minister at this court, for the purpose of consulting on the most effectual mode of conveying the Hanoverian army to this country, in case of necessity. The result of this was, that a plan for the purpose was proposed and instantly adopted. On the 18th of May, an agent was sent to Hamburgh, to contract for vessels to bring the troops to the mouth of the Elbe. These vessels were contracted for, and in all respects ready, before the orders for their sailing were issued. Circumstances, which however had no connexion with any want of preparation, did occur to prevent their sailing. At the expiration of two days, measures for bringing over the troops were adopted, and in a week thirty-six transports were ready to proceed on their destination. The house, he trusted, would give him credit for the accuracy of this statement, which would be fully verified by the production of the papers for which the hon. gentle man had moved. This statement appears to have been considered satisfactory; for Mr. Fox did not, later in the ses sion, make any motion in conse. quence of the production of the papers in question. On the 30th of May, Mr. Wilberforce, for the last time, pressed on the attention of the house the abolition of the slave-trade. It will be in the recollection of sonie of our readers, that it is now sixteen years since he first submitted to parliament this most interesting question. In the year 1792, the plan for gradual abolition was adopted, with a view to consult the wishes and the feelings of the West India merchants. The year 1796 was fixed on as the period when this nefarious traffic was in a great measure to cease; and in 1300 its ultimate abolition was to be effected. Till that period, the importation of negroes was to be subjected to the severest restrictions. In 1796 no abolition took place; but, on the contrary, the West India colonists then began to talk of the rights and privileges which they had in those whom they denominated their practical labourers. Persevering in a determination to exert every effort to relieve a race of human beings who have long been exposed to every cruelty of persecution, Mr. Wilberforce again proposed to parlia ment the abolition, within a limited time, of this infamous system.→→ Whether, upon this occasion, the eloquence of the hon. gentleman derived additional vigour from a hope, that his last exertions, in this important cause, might perhaps be attended with success, or whether,sti mulated by despair, he was resolved to appeal to every feeling of the heart, in defence of the claims of humanity and justice,certain it is that his language never assumed a higher tone of passion, or displayed greater force of reasoning than in supporting this grand and truly interesting cause. The importance of the subject, the hon. gentleman was convinced, would be denied by no one; or that this importance was augmented by considerations derived from the present state of the West Indies, and from the general situation of Europe. An opportunity, he thought, was now offered, of bringing this abominable traffic to a termination, by parliamentary regu lations, without any material injury to individuals. He proceeded to take a general view of the various iniquitous means employed to pro cure cure supplies of slaves. Such was procuring slaves, and the manner the infatuation of the ignorant and of transporting them, was this unfortunate princes of Africa, that, trade to be deprecated: their in order to get slaves for sale, they treatment when arrived at the place often engaged in wars with each of their destination, was also a other, upon the most frivolous subject of serious consideration. grounds, and frequently without Those who were conveyed to the any pretence whatever. To aug- West Indies were not only doomed ment this evil, and to render the to be slaves for life, but their pospassion for warfare still stronger, terity were condemned to the same we tempt them with spirituous fate, and their treatment, in many liquors, their attachment to which instances, was unworthy the characbecomes so strong, that they will ter of men. But it had been reprenot hesitate to perpetrate any injus- sented, in justification of this harshtice to gratify the passion. In ness, that the negroes were no better pursuance of this abominable trade, than a species of brutes. They had we set fire to their villages, that we even been thus described by Mr. may catch the wretched fugitives Long, the historian of Jamaica. in their attempts to escape from Mr. Wilberforce demanded, if they that dangerous element. From are not endowed with recollection; this pernicious traffic, which we en- if they are not capable of antici courage, all their transactions with pating the future; if they are not each other, and even the admi- possessed of social feelings, and of nistration of justice itself is made remembrances which endear the subservient to the procuring of past? However much we may slaves. It is worthy of remark, have calumniated them, they have that so pernicious has been our con- lately proved, in the West Indies, nection with the unfortunate Afri- that they are capable of thought, cans, that the general progress of of enterprise, and exertion. They civilization has been reversed; and, have displayed the highest degree contrary to fermer experience, the of courage and resolution. They interior of the country has become have discovered astonishing persethe most refined, while those on the verance in the pursuit of their purcoast, who have the greatest cor- pose, and have shown that they are respondence with us, have become capable of opposing tyranny with the most profligate, the most igno- a steady resistance. It may be rerant, and the most corrupt. These membered, that the original invaevils are not extended over a small ders of America attempted to justract of country, butover a coast of tify their cruelties to the natives, not less than between three and four by representing them as beings of thousand miles, and to a distance an inferior nature. They at last of seven hundred miles up the in- obtained relief from a powerful terior. It is impossible to reflect quarter, where the rights of huon the wreched state of such a vast manity had in general been repopulation, without pity and indig- spected-from the spirit of the Ronation; and of what baseness, he man catholic religion. To relieve asked, may we not accuse ourselves, the distresses of those unfortunates, when we consider that we are the the pope, in the year 1537, issued cause of most of their evils? a bull, ordaining that it had pleased But not only from the mode of him to acknowledge the Americans to to be true men, and that they should be entitled to the privileges of men. Not only, according to the testimony of Mr. Moore and Mr. Acton, are the campaigns of the native Africans in general commenced and carried on for the purpose of making captives and slaves, but since the year 1704 all punishments have been commuted into slavery; and men in power have very frequently accused people of crimes of which there is no proof, in order to dispose of them. The older writers state the punishments in Africa as being mild and easy. Banishment was formerly the greatest pnnishment that could be inflicted; but now, the smallest crime is followed by slavery for life. With respect to the argument, that the Africans are so wretch ed and so poor in their own country, that their situation could not be altered for the worse, Mr. Wilberforce said, that he was strongly inclined to doubt the principle of this objection. But he would ask, was there no harm in separating men from their families, from their country, from all they held dear in life? It had been stated, that if we did not take the slaves offered for sale, they would all be massacred. But so far was this from being the case, that those who are brought to the coast from the interior parts of the country, and not disposed of according to the wishes of the sellers, are employed in labour, in agriculture, and other avocations, till a better or more profitable opportunity of selling them occurs.— The arguments said to be derived from providence, and even from scripture itself, in justification of the system, he regarded as in the highest degree profane. The improper and cruel treatment of the slaves on the passage, he observed, was manifest from the numbers that died. Some diminution in the number of deaths, he admitted, had taken place in consequence of the adoption of better regulations. He denied that the vessels employed in the slave-trade were a nursery for seamen. On the contrary, they were so liable to disease, and so apt to spread contagion, that they became unfit for the navy. Foreign nations, it was said, would take up the trade, if it were abolished in this country. This would be productive of no disadvantage, but, on the other hand, would enable us to apply our capital and our industry in some other way, without hardening our hearts in cruelty, or staining our hands with blood. Mr. Wilberforce proceeded to state the causes of the decreasing negro population in the West Indies. It is a melancholy fact, he observed, that the system of keeping up slaves by the natural increase of population, has never engaged any share of the attention of those most interested in this business. Their decrease is to be traced to two distinct causes. In the first place, the negroes in our West India settlements are not sufficiently fed; and in this respect the treatment of the slaves in the American states appeared to be infinitely better. They received full three times as much food as the negroes in our islands. Secondly, excessive labour in proportion to the quantity of food received, was another cause of the decrease of the negroes in our settlements. In this respect, also, the difference of regulation in America is far preferable. The slaves are there employed in task work,which gives them opportunities of occasional recreation. Could there, Mr. Wilberforce asked, be a stronger proof proof of the miserable, oppressed condition of the negroes, than the fact that they were anxious to relieve themselves from this degraded state, at the expense of the earnings and savings of their whole lives? If it were urged, as a reason for the continuance of the trade, that it was carried on by other nations, there was no species of wanton cruelty, no sort of guilt or villainy in the history of nations, which could not be justified by this sort of appeal. Another argument against the abolition was, that the West India merchants should have time to provide for the consequences which would necessarily result from the measure. However just, or politic, or necessary, might be the abolition, it was not to be expected that the West India proprietors would ever give their hearty concurrence. Mr. Wilber. force stated, that since the time the proposition for the abolition was carried, not fewer, he be lieved, than 300,000 additional negroes had been imported into the West Indies. Into the island of Jamaica alone no less than 140,000 negroes had been imported since the year 1792: a number far more than sufficient to keep up the population, and to complete the establishment of such plantations as happened to have deficiencies, at the time the proposition of abolition was adopted. Another important consideration, at the present moment, was the expediency of vesting British capital in a part of the dominions of the empire which was most vulnerable, most liable to the external attack of the enemy, and most subject to internal convulsion. The profits on this capital are quite inconsider able;-in Jamaica, not above four per cent., and not above five or six in the other islands. The number of executions on West India colonial property, he represented to be truly alarming. In the course of twenty years, these executions were for sums to the amount of no less than thirty-two millions currency. Another important objection to the continuance of the trade was, that it operated as a continual and alarming drawback upon the popu lation of this country; from the necessity of having an additional number of troops for the protection of the external safety, as well as the internal tranquillity of our colonies. The present situation of St. Domingo suggested an additional reason for not increasing the number of new negroes in our West India islands; for it was perfectly well ascertained, that the newly imported negroes were the most ready to join in any plan of insurrection. In answer to the objection that the agitation of the question of abolition might at the present moment be productive of serious consequences, he thought it necessary to state, that whatever. danger might be supposed to exist, arose not from the question of abolition, but of emancipation. After the question of abolition was disposed of, any subsequent measures must be left to the colonial assem blies themselves, and with them it would rest how far the condition of the negroes was susceptible of further improvement. It was not fair in those who opposed the abo lition, to confound it with the ques tion of emancipation, with which, in the first instance, it had no im mediate connexion. Having refuted, with consider. able strength of argument, a variety of other objections which have been, at different times, advanced against the abolition of this disgraceful system, Mr. Wilberforce concluded by |