, they
strain the crimes very hard, in order to get the benefit of selling the
criminal. Not only murder, theft, and adultery, are punished by selling the
criminal for a slave, but every trifling crime is punished in the same
manner."

Loyer affirms that "the King of Sain, on the least pretence, sells his
subjects for European goods. He is so tyrannically severe, that he makes a
whole village responsible for the fault of one inhabitant; and on the least
offence sells them all for slaves."

Such, he said, were the testimonies, not of persons whom he had summoned;
not of friends of the abolition: but of men who were themselves, many of
them, engaged in the Slave-trade. Other testimonies might be added; but
these were sufficient to refute the assertions of his opponents, and to
show the kind services we had done to Africa by the introduction of this
trade.

He would just touch upon the argument, so often repeated, that other
nations would carry on the Slave-trade, if we abandoned it. But how did we
know this? Had not Denmark given a noble example to the contrary? She had
consented to abolish the trade in ten years; and had she not done this,
even though we, after an investigation for nearly five years, had ourselves
hung back? But what might not be expected, if we were to take up the cause
in earnest; if we were to proclaim to all nations the injustice of the
trade, and to solicit their concurrence in the abolition of it! He hoped
the representatives of the nation would not be less just than the people.
The latter had stepped forward, and expressed their sense more generally by
petitions, than in any instance in which they had ever before interfered.
To see this great cause thus triumphing over distinctions and prejudices
was a noble spectacle. Whatever might be said of our political divisions,
such a sight had taught us, that there were subjects still beyond the reach
of party; that there was a point of elevation, where we ascended above the
jarring of the discordant elements, which ruffled and agitated the vale
below. In our ordinary atmosphere clouds and vapours obscured the air, and
we were the sport of a thousand conflicting winds and adverse currents; but
here we moved in a higher region, where all was pure and clear, and free
from perturbation and discomposure.

"As some tall cliff, that lifts its awful form,
Swells from the vale, and midway leaves the storm;
Though round its breast the rolling clouds are