"dual is to be found, by whom that traffic is "not condemned in terms of the strongest re r probation. There is no man, whose feelings "would not shrink from the shame, as well as "his conscience recoil from the guilt, of being " concerned in it. No man who would not con "ceive that he should thereby hand down to his "descendants, profits polluted with blood, and " a name branded with infamy."* The very next year he recants all these liberal opinions, and embraces the calumnious doctrines contained in the Report of the African Institution, "that "African negroes have been illicitly imported "into some, if not all our islands, since the year "1808, and even since the offence was made "felony, there is abundant reason to conclude:"t and that slaves have not ceased to be imported "into our islands to the extent of the actual "demand for them." When Mr. Wilberforce answers Mr. Stephen's letter, it is to be hoped that he will explain the change that has taken place in his belief upon these points, to the satisfaction of the public. In his usual style of declamatory invective, Mr. Stephen accuses the West Indians of claiming it "as their constitutional right, to treat *Letter to Prince Talleyrand, p. 4. † Reasons for Registry, p. 22. + Ibid. p. 51. "more than half a million of human beings, born "or living under the king's allegiance, with what "severity and cruelty they please;"* and talks of their groaning and successively perishing under the heaviest chains that ever pressed on the children of Adam. These calumnies are perpetually repeated, in defiance both of fact and probability: It may be some little excuse for Mr. Stephen,' that he had not then read the evidence given before the Committee of the Jamaica House of Assembly, upon this subject; but how can he justify not yielding to a conviction, which he himself commends in Mr. Wilberforce, who, he says, "wisely relied on the self-interest of the "master, when the fatal competition between the breeding and the buying system should no longer have place, in preference to laws which "the civil magistrate would not in general be "able to enforce." Or with what propriety can he reject that plan, the superiority of which, he tells his readers, was perceived "by the luminous mind of Mr. Burke." With strange inconsistency, he passes great encomiums on others for trusting to the "simplicity and certainty of effect" of a plan, in which he himself refuses to concur. During the war on the Peninsula, I certainly * Defence, p. 16. + Ibid. p. 36. § Ibid. p. 19. declared my opinion in Parliament, that we ought to have availed ourselves of the influence which circumstances then gave us with our allies, and of those feelings which must have been excited in their minds, contending as they were against the attempt of Buonaparte to enslave them and their posterity, to obtain from them the renunciation of the Slave Trade in Africa. But I never, as Mr. Stephen asserts, recommended using force or compulsion;* for I am not zealot enough to believe it lawful to do evil that good may come, or to preach robbery and murder in the name of humanity; and therefore equally reprobate the spoliations upon their commerce, committed under the instructions of the African Institution, and the open war against them, recommended in a recent pamphlet of Mr. Stephen. Mr. Stephen ridicules the idea of "inculcating those principles and feelings on which humanity is founded;" and seems to wonder what this new and happy process may be. He must either In order to give this sense to my words, Mr. Stephen prints in Italics, and marks with inverted commas, the following expression, as a quotation from my pamphlet:-" The opportunity of using compulsion against our allies during the Peninsula war was unfortunately lost."--(Defence, p. 22. note.) Only the two first and three last of these words are mine; all the rest are an interpolation of his own, and unworthy of the gentleman who has made it. + Defence, p. 23. Note. have fully comprehended my meaning, or have written in perfect ignorance of his own, when he mentioned the "benign, though insensible, revolution in opinions and manners," to which he proposes to look forward for the emancipation of the slaves. I believe that great progress has been made in inculcating those principles and feelings throughout Europe at large, by the proceedings of the Congress at Vienna. The Slave Trade cannot long withstand the shock of being declared, by all the great Powers of Europe, even by those who still permit their subjects to carry it on for a limited period, to be contrary to the principles of humanity and of universal morality. More has been done towards the real and effectual abolition of the Slave Trade, by establishing and promulgating this principle, than could have been done by war, robbery, and plunder, although the latter modes of proceeding may appear most congenial to modern philanthropy. This subject has been well illustrated by the Edinburgh Reviewers. They say, "The great"est delicacy is required in the application of violence to moral and religious sentiment. We "forget that the object is not to produce the "outward compliance, but to raise up the in"ward feeling, which secures the outward compliance. The violent modes of making men * Reasons for Registry, p. 8. good, just alluded to, have been resorted to "at periods when the science of legislation was not so well understood as it now is; or "when the manners of the age have been pecu"liarly gloomy or fanatical."* Thus, according to these acute critics, ignorance of the true principles of legislation, or gloomy fanaticism, characterize the enforcement of morality and humanity by violence and compulsion. I am charged with bringing forward prepos terous accusations, and lavishing coarse ribaldry and abuse on Mr. Wilberforce, Mr. Stephen, and other gentlemen who never offended me.† Not a single quotation from my pamphlet is given in support of this accusation; and the best answer to it, is a reference to the work itself. To the merits of Mr. Wilberforce, for his exertions in the cause of the abolition, I have borne, and shall ever be ready to bear, my best testimony; and I the more regret the danger he is in, of forfeiting his well-earned fame, by beingpersuaded to join others, who have their popularity yet to establish, in the intemperate, dangerous, and unnecessary measures they are now meditating. The public conduct of all men in public Edinburgh Review, vol. xiii. p. 337, 338. † Defence, p. 23. Note. |