aths above births was in the proportion of about
seven-eighths per cent.; that in the first six years of this period it was
in the proportion of rather more than one on every hundred; that in the
last thirteen years of the same it was in the proportion of about
three-fifths on every hundred; and that a number of slaves, amounting to
fifteen thousand, perished during the latter period in consequence of
repeated hurricanes, and of the want of foreign supplies of provisions.

11. That the whole number of slaves in the island of Barbadoes was in the
year 1764 about 70,706; in 1774 about 74,874; in 1780 about 68,270; in
1781, after the hurricane, about 63,248, and in 1786 about 62,115: that by
comparing these numbers with the number imported into this island (not
allowing for any re-exportation), the annual excess of deaths above births
in the ten years from 1764 to 1774 was in the proportion of about five on
every hundred; that in the seven years from 1774 to 1780 it was in the
proportion of about one and one-third on every hundred; that between the
year 1780 and 1781 there had been a decrease in the number of slaves of
about five thousand; that in the six years from 1781 to 1786 the excess of
deaths was in the proportion of rather less than seven-eighths on every
hundred; that in the four years from 1783 to 1786 it was in the proportion
of rather less than one-third on every hundred; and that, during the whole
period, there was no doubt that some had been exported from the island, but
considerably more in the first part of this period than in the last.

12. That the accounts from the Leeward Islands, and from Dominica, Grenada,
and St. Vincent's, did not furnish sufficient grounds for comparing the
state of population in the said islands at different periods with the
number of slaves, which had been from time to time imported there and
exported therefrom; but that from the evidence which had been received
respecting the present state of these islands, as well as that of Jamaica
and Barbadoes, and from a consideration of the means of obviating the
causes, which had hitherto operated to impede the natural increase of the
slaves, and of lessening the demand for manual labour, without diminishing
the profit of the planters, no considerable or permanent inconvenience
would result from discontinuing the further importation of African slaves.

These propositions having been laid upon the table of the house, Lord
Penrhyn rose in b