n this cruel traffic, and
had laid them upon the table of the House of Commons. His motion was
seconded by that great patriot and philanthropist, Sir George Saville.
But though I am now to state that it failed, I cannot but consider it as
a matter of pleasing reflection, that this great subject was first
introduced into parliament by those who were worthy of it; by those who
had clean hands and an irreproachable character, and to whom no motive
of party or faction could be imputed, but only such as must have arisen
from a love of justice, a true feeling of humanity, and a proper sense
of religion.

About this time two others, men of great talents and learning, promoted
the cause of the injured Africans, by the manner in which they
introduced them to notice in their respective works.

Dr. Adam Smith, in his _Theory of Moral Sentiments_, had, so early as
the year 1759, held them up in an honourable, and their tyrants in a
degrading light. "There is not a Negro from the coast of Africa, who
does not, in this respect, possess a degree of magnanimity which the
soul of his sordid master is too often scarce capable of conceiving.
Fortune never exerted more cruelly her empire over mankind, than when
she subjected those nations of heroes to the refuse of the gaols of
Europe, to wretches who possess the virtue neither of the countries they
came from, nor of those they go to, and whose levity, brutality, and
baseness so justly expose them to the contempt of the vanquished." And
now, in 1776, in his _Wealth of Nations_ he showed in a forcible manner
(for he appealed to the interest of those concerned,) the dearness of
African labour; or the impolicy of employing slaves.

Professor Millar, in his _Origin of Ranks_, followed Dr. Smith on the
same ground. He explained the impolicy of slavery in general, by its bad
effects upon industry, population, and morals. These effects he attached
to the system of agriculture as followed in our islands. He showed,
besides, how little pains were taken, or how few contrivances were
thought of, to ease the labourers there. He contended that the Africans
ought to be better treated, and to be raised to a better condition; and
he ridiculed the inconsistency of those who held them in bondage. "It
affords," says he, "a curious spectacle to observe that the same people,
who talk in a high strain of political liberty, and who consider the
privilege of imposing their own taxes as one of the unalienable ri