It was once a mere fishing hamlet, but it has risen into prosperity in exact proportion to the extent of the African Slave Trade, so as to become the second place in wealth and population in the Brit- ish empire, renowned for its loyalty, as well as for its commercial enterprise. Its exports, independent of the African Slave Trade, are superior to any other port except that of London, in the King’s dominions, and the sum which it contributes to the public purse, is near three million annually. But Liverpool has suffered much by the accession of the Right


Honourable Gentleman [Mr Fox] to office. I say that Liverpool has suffered, and will suffer considerably, in consequence of the restrictions which have been put upon the African Trade. Your shipping will thereby be much impaired; and great inconveniences have been and will still be felt, from the disputes which the discus- sions upon this subject in Parliament have produced, between the merchants and the planters. Sir, I will put it to the House to consider, that this war is likely


to continue: if so, we must prepare for an increase of taxation, and this measure is one which will cut up, by the roots, the sources of our wealth; so that one of these two evils must be the consequences, either we must consent to an ignoble peace, or we must tax the landed interest to carry on the war, a point so clear that I wonder the landed interest do not appear most decidedly against such a measure as this. Nor is this all: those who are to suffer by the abolition of the


Slave Trade will come to Parliament for compensation for their losses. Tere will be no pretence for refusing such a compensation, because, whatever may be said about the injustice or the inhumanity of this Trade, it is not to be denied that it is a Trade which has been carried on under the auspices of this House, and agreeable to law. And therefore if this Trade is now to be abolished, all those who


have carried it on must have their losses made up, particularly those who have been concerned in building ships for the Trade, which, from their peculiar construction, are unfit for any other; and this compensation, I can assure his Majesty’s ministers, will be very considerable in its amount. I have no doubt that much evil will result to this country at large, from the abolition of the Slave Trade, should that measure be adopted; but with regard to Liverpool, I am confident that great distress, public and private, will be the re- sult; that bankruptcies will follow; and that a number of our most loyal, industrious, and useful subjects will emigrate to America.


Then rose Lord Castlereagh (aka Robert Stewart), who said: As to the general principle on which this Resolution is founded, I agree to it, and I do not know who can entertain a con- trary opinion in this House. I think it is a proposition on which no human being can entertain a doubt, namely “that the Slave Trade is a great evil in itself”, and I think


that as little doubt can be entertained upon another proposition, namely that it is the duty and the policy of Parliament to abrogate that evil and to exterminate it, if that be practicable, it being a stain upon the national character. But the question is, whether in point of fact you can do so. Conceiving, therefore, that nothing can be worse imagined than


the policy of this Resolution, I am extremely anxious not to be understood to give it my unqualified, and therefore I do not give an unexplained, concurrence. But, Sir, before I proceed further upon this subject, I should take notice of the situation in which we, at present, stand. I had not the honour of a seat in this House when this subject


was discussed in it, but it struck my mind that when a House of Parliament expressed the precise period at which the abolition of the African Slave Trade was to take place, and when that period arrived, and the House failed to redeem its pledge with the public, it carried with it an idea, either that Parliament did not really wish to accomplish that object, or that there was something impracti- cable in the thing itself, and that the view which was taken then, of the policy of the measure, was such as experience has shown it to be, a superficial one. I have no hesitation in saying, that had I been in Parliament


when this subject was first discussed, such is the natural repugnance I should feel to this Traffick, that the impulse of it would have carried me into a general concurrence in its unqualified abolition. But still, I hope the Right Honourable Gentleman [Mr Fox]


will be prepared to admit that if his own exertions and those of other eloquent members of this House, and particularly of my lately departed and ever to be esteemed Right Honourable Friend [Mr Pitt], failed of success [sic], the genuine sense of Parliament was decidedly against them. And therefore I do say that the general consent of all the parent states of Europe, supposing you could obtain it, would effect nothing without the cordial cooperation of the colonies. Ten, if in that view of the matter the thing is impracticable


in itself as a general system, I am persuaded that our taking it up in the way which seems to be in view, will be so far from serving the cause of humanity, that it will increase the evil and expose us to the risk of losing a source of Traffick which is essential to our naval strength, without any advantage of any kind whatever, to counterbalance the loss. I should therefore wish that our national interest was considered in a more enlarged point of view. I am not only convinced that this measure would throw the


Trade into other hands, but by occasioning a deficiency in the supply of our own colonies, would drive them to adopt means of obtaining supplies against the law. Our colonies will be as well supplied as they now are, and that by a contraband trade, after all your regulations shall have been passed. Now, it may be asked: “Is this country forever to remain satis-


fied, to admit of an evil of this great extent, and to make no effort to get rid of it?” No Act of Parliament passed in this country can have an effectual operation in a remote part of our dominion against the natural interest of those who are to carry it into execution. For I am convinced we shall never make any effectual progress


in the diminution of this evil, but by some measure which shall carry the interests and the feelings of the colonies along with us; and that we shall never, as a nation, do any good in controlling them unless we can show the policy of our act to be consistent with their immediate interest. If we were to prohibit the importation into our colonies, it would


operate only on our own shipping, for the importation would be immediately carried on by France, and you will only make France, instead of yourselves, a drain upon Africa.


New African | October 2011 | 39


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