trade; and he concluded by moving, that the word "gradual" should be
inserted before the word "abolition." In reply, Pitt asked why injustice
was to be suffered to remain for a single hour? "Reflect," said he, "on
the eighty thousand persons annually torn from their native land; on
the connexions which are broken; on the friendships, attachments, and
relationships that are rent asunder! There is something in the horror of
it that surpasses all the bounds of imagination. How shall we repair the
mischiefs we have brought upon that continent? If, knowing the miseries
we have caused, we refuse, even now, to put a stop to them, how greatly
aggravated will be the guilt of Britain! Shall we not rather count
the days and hours that are suffered to intervene, than to delay the
accomplishment of such a work? If we listen to the voice of reason and
duty, and pursue this night the line of conduct which they prescribe,
some of us may live to see the reverse of that picture from which we now
turn our eyes with shame and regret. We may live to behold the natives
of Africa engaged in the calm occupations of industry; in the pursuits
of a just and legitimate commerce. We may behold the beams of science
and philosophy breaking in upon their land, which, at some happy period,
in still later times, may blaze with full lustre; and, joining their
influence to that of pure religion, may illuminate and invigorate the
most distant extremities of that immense continent." It was argued
by some of its supporters, that slavery was a necessary evil. On this
argument Pitt remarked:--"The origin of the evil is indeed beyond the
reach of human understanding; and the permission of it by the Supreme
Being is a subject into which we are not concerned to inquire. But where
the evil in question is a moral evil, which a man can scrutinise,
and where that moral evil has its origin within ourselves, let us not
imagine that we can clear our consciences by this general, not to say
irreligious, way of putting aside the question." Pitt concluded by
urging on the house the influence which their decision would produce
in other countries, and that the divine blessing was to be expected
on their own, by exertions in such a righteous cause. His speech was
rapturously applauded, but he failed in obtaining total and immediate
abolition; the amendment which Dundas proposed being adopted by
one hundred and ninety-three against one hundred and twenty-five.
Wilberforce was n