assing was an encouragement to do more,
was adopted to its full extent by the chief of his colleagues, Lord
Grenville, who, in February, 1807, himself brought forward a motion for
the entire abolition of the trade. Though he was Prime-minister, he
could not introduce it as a government measure, since two of his
colleagues--Lord Sidmouth, the President of the Council, and Mr.
Windham, the Secretary of State for the Colonies--opposed it; though the
former professed a desire to see the trade abolished, but would have
preferred to attain that end by imposing such a tax on every slave
imported as should render the trade unprofitable. He had another
obstacle also to encounter, in the vehement opposition of some of the
princes of the royal family, the Dukes of Clarence and Sussex more
especially, who were known to be canvassing against the bill, and were
generally understood, in so doing, to be acting in accordance with the
views of their elder brothers. But he was confident that by this time
the feeling of the whole country was with him on the subject. He was
resolved to rest his case on its justice, and therefore consented that
the House should hear counsel on the subject, though he resisted their
demand to be allowed to call witnesses. Accordingly, counsel were heard
for the whole body of West India planters, and for those of one or two
separate islands, such as Jamaica and Trinidad; for the Liverpool
merchants, and even for the trustees of the Liverpool Docks. But some of
their reasonings he even turned against themselves, refusing for a
moment to admit "that the profits obtained by robbery could be urged as
an argument for the continuance of robbery." He denounced the trade as
"the most criminal that any country could be engaged in," and as one
that led to other crimes in the treatment of the slaves after they
reached the West Indies. He instanced "three most horrible and dreadful
murders of slaves" that had been committed in Barbadoes, and quoted the
report of Lord Seaforth, governor of the island, who, on investigation,
had found that by the law of the colony the punishment affixed to such
murders was a fine of eleven pounds. He was opposed by the Duke of
Clarence, who directed his remarks chiefly to a defence of the general
humanity of the planters; and by Lord Westmoreland, who, in a speech of
singular intemperance, denounced the principle of the measure, as one
after the passing of which "no property could be rendered