talize the people, and being an offence contra bonos mores. Whether magistrates had by the existing law a power to prevent these exhibitions of cruelty he knew not, but thought it time to apply a remedy to the evil.

After a short reply from Mr. Dent,

General Gascoyne rose, and moved as an amendment, that the bill should be read this day three months; which amendment being adopted by a majority of thirteen, the bill was lost for the session.

On the 27th of May, a debate took place in the house of commons on Mr. Canning's motion respecting the cultivation of the isle of Trinidad. Mr. Canning began his speech by mentioning, that having been prevented from giving his opinion in parliament, on the definitive treaty, by circumstances which it was not necessary to explain, he should not, now that it had received the sanction of parliament, attempt to give his opinion upon it, but should confine his attention to considering how to make the best of the peace, we have concluded. It was merely with this intention that he had now risen, to call the attention of the house to one of those inrportant acquisitions which we had retained, namely, the island of Trinidada. It was the connection between that which appeared the only mode of bringing this island into cultivation, and the opinion which the house and the public had already expressed on the African slave trade, which first turned his thoughts to this subject. If the whole island was to be at once brought into cultivation by newly imported negroes, it would produce an extension of the slave trade to a degree, which must appal

the feelings of every member of that house. He did not mean on that occasion to enter into a long discussion on the slave trade; he should merely refer to the recorded opinion of that house upon the subject. He neither wished to depreciate the value of Trinidada, or to obstruct its improvement. He did not wish to embarrass the present government by the discussion; but he should have felt it his duty, under any administration that could exist, to lay before parliament those important considerations which appeared to him to flow from the cultivation of newly acquired settlements in the West Indies. He should first, however, mention this fact, that very shortly after the signing of the preliminaries, a paper was circulated, not only in the city of London, but in the Leeward islands, purporting to be a copy of the plan for the allotment and sale of the unclaimed lands in the island: this paper contained such a description of the fertility and situation of this colony, as must hold out strong temptations to the monied men. A notice was also given in that house by the chancellor of the exchequer, that for defraying the debt of the civil list, there would probably be a sale of the crown lands in the West India islands. Putting these circumstances together, he had taken the liberty of putting a question to the chancellor of the exchequer in that house, whether this intention extended to the unclaimed lands in Trinidad. Not having received any explicit answer to that question, he saw no other course than to submit the matter to the opinion of parliament. He wished to prevent the immediate, and, as it would strike him, the improvident

improvident sale of the lands in Trinidad, in a manner which must completely frustrate the opinion already expressed by that house on the question of the slave trade. He did not mean in the slightest degree to touch the slave trade as it now exists, or the vested interests of the West India merchants; on the contrary, he wished to maintain them against those dangers which he thought this unlimited extension of the slave trade would threaten them with. There were two distinct points to which he should direct his argument: 1st, how far the house is pledged not to adopt any measure, which must operate to a great extension of the slave trade; and, 2d, what is the best account to which Trinidada could be turned in every view of colonial and national policy? In arguing on the first point, he desired the resolution of the house of commons, of the 2d of April 1792, to be read, "that the slave trade ought to be gradually abolished;" as also the address of the 6th of April 1797, to his majesty, "praying that he would direct such measures to be taken, as should gradually diminish the necessity, and lead to the termination of the slave trade;" together with his majesty's answer to that address," that he would give directions accordingly." He then very forcibly appealed to those who had voted for that resolution and that address, whether they did not conceive themselves now bound, by their former solemn resolutions, to interfere against a measure, tending greatly to increase the evil then complained of. He could not apprehend any difference of opinion, except from two classes of persons: the 1st, those who saw something

in the slave trade which pleased them for its own sake. With those men he could hold no argument: he had no fellow feeling with them; the constitutions of their minds must be totally different from what his was. The second class was those who wished for a total repeal, and would disapprove of what appeared to them to be only half measures. Only 1-25th of the island was now in cultivation, and there were 10,000 negroes there already: to cultivate the whole would require 250,000, at a moderate calculation. Jamaica contained as many in 1791, and yet the number of acres fit for sugar were less than in Trinidada. Jamaica had been nearly a century and a half in arriving at its present state of cultivation, and was in 1763 in nearly the same state as Trinidad at present. Above 800,000 negroes had been imported into Jamaica during that time; and if there was a question of suddenly cultivating such an island as Trinidad, we must make up our minds. to the destruction of a million of the human species. Besides, in a military point of view, Trinidad would then be as weak as any other West India settlement, where the population would be as much to be dreaded as the invading enemy, and would employ as much of our force. He wished, on the other hand, that this island should be peopled, not by an immense importation of slaves, but by encouragement held out to settlers, which might be drawn from the meritorious ranks of our West India regiments, and also from the free blacks and creoles of the other islands. Besides those sources of a new population, there was a hardy race of men, who annually frequented the island from the neigh

bouring

bouring continent. Those men might be induced to settle by proper encouragement, and would make a hardy militia for the defence of the country. There was also about 1000 native Indians on the island, which would lay a foundation for a native population. He concluded, by moving an address to his majesty, praying him not to alienate any of the uncleared lands in Trinidad, unless upon the condition that they were not to be cultivated by negroes newly imported from Africa." The Chancellor of the Exchequer said, that he could not by any means agree with the motion of the honourable gentleman, and yet did not wish to give it a decided negative. He should therefore take a middle course. The honourable gentleman had mentioned, that he was induced to turn his attention to this subject by two reasons: 1st, a rumour of the plan for the sale of these lands; and, 2d, a kind of notice which had fallen from him, that he considered as a confirmation of it. As to the rumour, he could assure him that it had never reached his ears, and as to what was considered a notice from him, of the intention of disposing of all the crown lands in the West Indies, he never thought of Trinidad, at the time he threw out something of the sale of lands in the West Indies; St. Vincent's was the island which was then in his contemplation. He always wished as much as possible to increase the white and creole population of the West Indies. He could not, howeyer, view the island of Trinidad in any other light than as connected with our West India possessions, taking them all together; and in this point of view he must consider the slave trade, as applied to this

island, to be only a branch of the general question of the slave trade, which the honourable gentleman had left to sleep for many years, in which he sat high in office, and which his humanity had not taken the alarm upon, until peace threw this valuable island into our possession: and yet, during the last five or six years, there had been most considerable importations of slaves into St. Lucia, Martinique, Demarara, Essequibo, and Berbice, places which neither the honourable gentleman, nor his colleagues in office, who conducted the negotiations at Lisle, ever expected would be left by the peace in the possession of this country, whereas this island now constituted a valuable portion of the British empire. As to the principle of the resolution of the house of commors, that the slave trade should be gradually abolished," to that principle he professed himself a friend now as much as ever; but it must be confessed that circumstances had occurred in the latter years, that made it difficult to act upon that principle: parliament had in fact not forfeited any pledge they had given, but circumstances had occurred which interrupted their intentions. As to the principle of that resolution, he was convinced that the present motion would by no means tend to forward it, as suppressing the importation of slaves into Trinidad would only increase the importation of them into other parts of the West Indies, and into the possessions of other nations. He never could consider the West Indies in any other light but as taken all together, in which the demands of the European market must, and for ever would be, supplied by all the islands taken to

gether:

gether: if then you should enact that no slaves should be imported into any one particular island, the only consequence would be, that a greater number would be imported into some other part of the West Indies; not a negro slave the less would come from Africa, but the profits of their labour would enrich other nations instead of this. The produce of St. Domingo has been for a considerable time kept back from the European market; there was therefore a necessity for an increased cultivation somewhere else; besides, he could assure the house, from letters of the highest authority, that such was the fertility of this island, that the soil would with half the labour produce a greater crop than any other West India island in our possession; so that, instead of increasing the demand for African slaves, the cultivation of a soil so fertile and productive would diminish it." He strongly hoped that in the next session of parliament the whole question would be brought before the consideration of the house; not as respecting Trinidad in particular, but as applicable to the whole of our West India colonies. He concluded by moving the previous question.

Mr. Canning said, that by the declaration of the chancellor of the exchequer, it appeared that government intended to take the whole of that great moral and political question, respecting the slave trade, into their consideration, he should therefore for the present withdraw his motion, as this declaration of the intentions of government went still further than the immediate object of his motion.

Mr. Wilberforce then rose to speak on the slave trade in gene

ral, but the universal impatience of the house for the question prevented his being heard at full length. He was also several times called to order for digressing from the particular question into general considerations foreign to it.

Mr. Fuller observed, that the vanity of public speaking when it was quite unnecessary appeared to him to be the most absurd of any.

Mr. Canning then obtained leave to withdraw his motion.

On the 31st of May, upon sir William Scott's moving for the recommittal of a bill he had brought into the house of commons, for the relief of the clergy from vexatious prosecutions under the statute of Henry the Eighth,

Mr. Simeon declared himself an opposer of the bill, on the ground of its changing the constitution of the clergy, and vesting an enormous power in the hands of the bishops. It gave an enormous accession of political power to the bishops, and subjected the inferior clergy, if not to absolute slavery, at least to a very improper degree of influence. If the situation of the clergy was to become a matter of legislative interposition, he thought the distresses of the inferior classes called principally for attention. He wished that the finances of the state could afford a considerable addition to queen Anne's bounty, in order to rescue a worthy, learned, and laborious order of men from all the evils of poverty.

The Chancellor of the Exchequer said, that the necessity of this bill arose from the circumstance of a numerous class of informers having lately started up and having begun to harass the clergy by vexatious prosecutions;