derived from that trade to an individual, it was derived from dishonour and
dishonesty. He forced from the unhappy victim of it that, which the latter
did not wish to give him; and he gave to the same victim that, which he in
vain attempted to show was an equivalent to the thing he took, it being a
thing for which there was no equivalent; and which, if he had not obtained
by force, he would not have possessed at all. Nor could there be any answer
to this reasoning, unless it could be proved, that it had pleased God to
give to the inhabitants of Britain a property in the liberty and life of
the natives of Africa. But he would go further on this subject. The
injustice complained of was not confined to the bare circumstance of
robbing them of the right to their own labour. It was conspicuous
throughout the system. They, who bought them, became guilty of all the
crimes which had been committed in procuring them; and, when they possessed
them, of all the crimes which belonged to their inhuman treatment. The
injustice in the latter case amounted frequently to murder. For what was it
but murder to pursue a practice, which produced untimely death to thousands
of innocent and helpless beings? It was a duty, which their lordships owed
to their Creator, if they hoped for mercy, to do away this monstrous
oppression.

With respect to the impolicy of the trade (the third point in the
resolution), he would say at once, that whatever was inhuman and unjust
must be impolitic. He had, however, no objection to argue the point upon
its own particular merits; and, first, he would observe, that a great man,
Mr. Pitt, now no more, had exerted his vast powers on many subjects to the
admiration of his hearers; but on none more successfully than on the
subject of the abolition of the Slave-trade. He proved, after making an
allowance for the price paid for the slaves in the West Indies, for the
loss of them in the seasoning, and for the expense of maintaining them
afterwards, and comparing these particulars with the amount in value of
their labour there, that the evils endured by the victims of the traffic
were no gain to the master, in whose service they took place. Indeed Mr.
Long had laid it down in his History of Jamaica, that the best way to
secure the planters from ruin would be to do that, which the resolution
recommended. It was notorious, that when any planter was in distress, and
sought to relieve himself by increasing the labour on his