He reminded the committee, that it was necessary to look farther than the present moment, and to ask themselves, if they had fortified their minds sufficiently to bear the consequences of the step they were that night about to take. When they abandoned the slave trade, the Spaniards and some other foreign power might possibly take it up, and clandestinely supply our West India islands with slaves. Had they virtue enough to see that, to bear the idea of another country reaping profits they had laid down, and to abstain from that envy natural to competitors in trade, so as to keep their virtue, and steadily to pursue their determination? If so, let them thankfully proceed to vote the immediate abolition of the trade. But if they should repent of their virtue, (and he had experienced miserable instances of such repentance) all hopes of future reformation would be lost; they would go back to a trade they had abandoned, with redoubled attachment, and would adhere to it with a degree of avidity and shameless ardour, to their own humiliation and to the degradation and disgrace of the nation in the eyes of all Europe. These were considerations well worth adverting to, before they took a decisive step in a business, in which they ought not to move with any other determination than to abide the consequence at all hazards. If they had virtue enough to act in that manner, they would do themselves immortal honour, and would see the abolition of the most shameful trade that ever the hardened heart of man could bear. Viewing the traffic and all the circumstances of it with the horror which the full view of it that the honourable gentleman had that day displayed, could not fail to excite in the breast of every man not dead to sensibility, he blamed not the honourable genman for knocking at every door, and appealing to every passion; well knowing, as the honourable gentleman had forcibly and correctly said, that mankind were governed by their sympathies. There were other passions, however, to be regarded; men were always ready to obey their sympathies when it cost them nothing. Were they prepared to pay the price of their virtue? The honourable gentleman

had said, the West India planters would have a compensation adequate to the loss incurred by the abolition of the slave trade. He believed they would; but how they would have instant compensation for what they would lose, he could not conceive. In proportion to their loss, would their virtue be the greater.

Having put this very forcibly, Mr. Burke took notice of the testimony of Admiral Barrington, who had said, that he envied the condition of the negroes in the West India islands. The honourable admiral, he should rather suppose, meant, that as he had fought so often and so bravely for his country, he was determined to fight again, rather than suffer his countrymen to be made slaves. If, however, he was to be taken literally, his sensation could only be accounted for by his having seen the negroes in the hours of their sports, when a sense of the misery of their condition was neither felt by themselves, nor visible to others. Mr. Burke reasoned on this with infinite knowledge of human nature, great nicety of discernment, and great truth of observation. Nothing, he said, made a happy slave, but a degraded man. In proportion as the mind grew callous to its degradation, and all sense of manly pride was lost, the slave felt comfort. In fact he was no longer a man. If he were to define a man, Mr. Burke declared, he would say with Shakespeare,

"Man is a being, holding large discourse,
Looking before and after."

A slave was incapable of either looking before or after. Mr. Burke took notice of the reference which Mr. Wilberforce had made to the evidence delivered at the bar with so much ability by Mr. Glover, the author of Leonidas, a gentleman who had fortified the learned world with works that would preserve his reputation to future ages. That gentleman, he said, had told them at their bar the probable mischiefs that the American war would draw on their trade; and because by a happy coincidence of circumstances that mischief had not ensued to its full predicated extent, was

the evidence of Mr. Glover to be despised and ridiculed, and was such a man to be treated as a false prophet? After dwelling upon this for some time, Mr. Burke said, he would conclude as he had begun, with giving his hearty and sincere thanks to the honourable gentleman for his speech; and though he might not entirely approve of his mode of proceeding, he was ready to let him pursue his own mode, be that what it might, and to give him every possible

support.

The resolutions were ordered to be entered on the Journals, and the chairman was directed to report progress, and ask leave to sit again. On the 21st of May, a debate took place upon the motion, that the House should again resolve itself into the commitee; in the course of which,

Mr. BURKE said, that as to the question itself, he thought no farther evidence was necessary, than what had already been laid before the House, to convince them of the necessity of abolishing what he would be bold to say was a system of robbery. He cared not for any objection that any particular persons might make to this expression. The African trade was, in his opinion, an absolute robbery. It therefore could not be a doubt with the House, whether it was proper to abolish it. It was, he said, the end of all law to correct and entirely eradicate, if possible, every evil that existed in any part of the state. The only question before the House was, whether the evil could be cured entirely, or only partially alleviated? He had not the least doubt in his own mind, but it could be totally eradicated, without any of those attendant inconveniencies which existed in the minds of some gentlemen. He was, therefore, anxious that they should proceed to that stage of the business in which such inquiries could be made as would convince the parliament and the country, that the African trade was a robbery that ought to be and could be abolished, consistently with every principle of public justice and humanity. As to the idea of the West

India merchants being reimbursed what they might lose by this abolition, it was totally against every principle of legislation. Government gave their countenance to certain kinds of commerce, as long as they were conducted on such principles of equity and humanity, as deserved their sanction. But when this commerce became an evil, a disgrace to the state, government was certainly competent to withdraw their countenance from what they had before authorized and protected. And those who engaged in this commerce, adopted it with all the conveniences arising from the sanction and encouragement it received from government; it was, therefore, but just that they should be prepared to abide by the losses arising from that sanction and encouragement being withdrawn. It was consequently evident, that there existed no just plea for compensation on the part of the planters. — He next adverted to the impossibility of a country being ever civilized, that was thus in the habits of slavery, as the Africans were. While we continued to purchase them, they must ever remain in a state of barbarity; for it was impossible to civilize a slave; it was contrary to the system of human nature. No country so situated was ever known to be in a state of civilization. On the contrary, those who were in the habit of selling their bodies, must remain in a state of the most savage barbarity. There were but two parts of the world distinguished for this national degradation, Africa, and the countries bordering on the Black Sea. Both were equally barbarous, both equally destitute of those refinements which attended an enlightened policy; and they would remain in this state of savage nature, as long as they remained liable to be purchased as the slaves of other nations.

ON

PENAL LAWS.

May 28.

N the motion for committing the bill to explain and amend the act of the 6th of his present majesty, for encouraging the growth of roots, trees, and shrubs,

Mr. BURKE said, that considering the whole system of the penal laws in this country as radically defective, as he always had opposed, so should he still continue to resist their intended multiplication. Instead of applying a remedy to the source of the evil, whenever inconvenience was felt in any particular instance, recourse was had to the legislature for a new law for that particular case. This was like sticking a bush into a gap in a hedge, which instead of repairing the breach, often ruined the whole fence. Against all offences which admitted of it, a civil was preferable to a criminal remedy, because the damage done could be appreciated by a jury, and not only punishment inflicted on the offender, but reparation made to the injured person. He observed, that the insufficiency of the law was frequently not so much owing to the law itself, as to the remissness of those who were to put it in execution; and hence the legislature was often called on to punish, by rigorous penalties, the negligence of the magistrates on the inadvertencies of the poor. He recommended a revision of the whole criminal code, which, in its present state, he thought abominable.