be a man of real courage. I admire your firmness, an confess that it is a barbarous custom which stamps this cruel practice with the name of honor. My friend, you have preferved my life; and language is too feeble to exprefs the grateful fenfations of my heart for fuch a kindness.

SPEECH OF MR. PITT, IN THE BRITISH PARLIAMENT, ON THE SUBJECT OF THE SLAVE TRADE.

SIR,

WHILE I regret the ill fuccefs which has

hitherto attended my efforts on this subject, I am confoled with the thought that the houfe has now come to a resolu tion declarative of the infamy of the flave trade.

2. The only queftion now is, on the continuance of this traffic, a traffic of which the very thought is beyond all human endurance; a traffic which even its friends think fo intolerable that it ought to be crushed. Yet the abolition of it is to be refolved into a question of expediency.

3. Its advocates, in order to continue it, have deferted even the principles of commerce; fo that, it feems, a traffic in the liberty, the blood, the life of human beings, is not to have the advantage of the common rules of arithmetic, which govern all other commercial dealings.

4. The point now in difpute is the continuance for one year. As to thofe who are concerned in this trade, a year will not be of any confequence; but will it be of none to the unhappy flaves? It is true, that in the course of commercial concerns in general, it is faid fometimes to be beneath the magnanimity of a man of honor to infift on a fcrupulous exactness, in his own favor, upon a difputed item in

accounts.

5. But does it make any part of our magnanimity to be exact in our own. favor in the traffic of human blood? If I could feel that any calculation upon the fubject were to be made in this way, the fide on which I fhould determine, would be in favor of the unhappy fufferers; not of thofe who oppreffed them.

6. But this one year is only to fhow the planters that Parliament is willing to be liberal to them! Sir, I do not understand complimenting away the lives of fo many hu man beings. I do not comprehend the principle on which a few individuals are to be complimented, and their minds fet at reft, at the expenfe and total facrifice of the intereft, the fecurity, the happiness of a whole quarter of this world, which, from our foul practices, has, for a vaft length of time, been a scene of mifery and horror.

7% I fay, because I feel, that in continuing this trade you are guilty of an offence beyond your power to atone for; and by your indulgence to the planters, thousands of human beings are to be configned to mifery.

8, Every year in which you continue this trade, you add thousands to the catalogue of mifery, which, if you could behold in a fingle inftance, you would revolt with horror from the fcene; but the fize of the misery prevents you from beholding it. Five hundred out of one thousand who are obtained in this traffic perifh in this fcene of horror; and are brought miferable victims to their graves.

9. The remaining part of this wretched group are tainted both in body and mind, covered with disease and infection, carrying with them the feeds of peftilence and infurrection to your islands,

10. Let me then afk the house, whether they can derive any advantage from thefe doubtful effects of a calculation on the continuance of the traffic? and whether two years will not be better than three for its continuance ?

11. For my part, I feel the infamy of the trade fo heavily, the impolicy of it fo clearly, that I am afhamed not to have been able to have convinced the houfe to abandon it altogether at an inftant; to pronounce with one voice 'the immediate and total abolition. There is no excufe for us. It is the very death of juftice to utter a fyllable in fupport of it.

I

12. I know, Sir, I ftate this fubject with warmth. I feel it is impoffible for me not to do fo; or if it were, I fhould deteft myself for the exercise of moderation. cannot, without fuffering every feeling and every paffion that ought to rife in the cause of humanity to fleep within me, fpeak coolly upon fuch a fubject. And did they feel as I think they ought, I am fure the decifion of the house

H

would

would be with us for a total and immediate abolition of this abominable traffic.

13. In short, unless I have misunderstood the fubject, and unless some reasons should be offered, much fuperior to any I have yet heard, I fhall think it the moft fingular act that ever was done by a deliberative assembly, to refuse to affent to the proposed amendment. It has been by a refolution declared to be the first object of their defire, the first object of their duty, and the first object of their inclination.

THE SLAVES. AN ELEGY.

IF late I paus'd upon the twilight plain

Of Fontenoy, to weep the free-born brave;
Sure fancy now may crofs the western main,
And melt in fadder pity for the flave.

2. Lo! where to yon plantation drooping goes A fable herd of human kind; while near

Stalks a pale defpot, and around him throws
The fcourge, that wakes, that punishes the tear.
3. O'er the far beach the mournful murmur strays,
And joins the rude yell of the tumbling tide,
As faint they labor in the folar blaze,

To feed the luxury of British pride!

4. E'en at this moment, on the burning gale,
Floats the weak wailing of the female tongue;
And can that fex's foftnefs nought avail ?
Must feeble woman shriek amid the throng?

5. O cease to think, my foul! what thoufands die By fuicide, and toil's extreme despair;

Thousands, who never rais'd to Heaven the eye,
Thoufands, who fear'd no punishment, but here.

6. Are drops of blood the horrible manure,
That fills with luscious juice the teeming cane?
And muft our fellow-creatures thus endure,
For traffic vile, th' indignity of pain?

7. Yes, their keen forrows are the fweets we blend
With the green bev'rage of our morning meal,
The while to love meek mercy we pretend,

Or for fditious ills affect to feel.

8. Yes,

8. Yes, 'tis their anguifh mantles in the bowl,
Their fighs excite the Briton's drusken joy ;
Thofe ignorant fuff'rers know not of a foul,
That we, enlighten'd, may its hopes destroy,

9. And there are men, who, leaning on the larus, What they have purchas'd, claim a right to hold. Curs'd be the tenure, curs'd its cruel cause;

Freedom's a dearer property than gold!

10. And there are men, with fhameless front have said, "That nature form'd the negroes for difgrace; "That on their limbs fubjection is difplay'd;

"The doom of flav'ry stamp'd upon their face."

11.

Send your ftern gaze from Lapland to the line,
And ev'ry region's natives fairly fcan,

Their forms, their force, their faculties combine,
And own the vast variety of man !

12.

Then why fuppofe yourselves the chofen few,
To deal oppreffion's poifon'd arrows round;
To gall, with iron bonds, the weaker crew,
Enforce the labor, and inflict the wound?
13. 'Tis fordid int'reft guides you.
In profit only can ye reafon find;

Bent on gain

And pleasure too; but urge no more in vain,
The felfifh fubject, to the focial mind.

14. Ah! how can he, whofe daily lot is grief,
Whofe mind is vilify'd beneath the rod,
Suppofe his Maker has for him relief?

Can he believe the tongue that speaks of God?

15. And his lov'd daughters, torn by luft away, His fons, the poor inheritors of fmart

For when he fees the female of his heart,

-Had he religion, think ye, he could pray?

16. Alas! he fteals him from the loathsome shed,
What time moist midnight blows her venom'd breath,
And mufing, how he long has toil'd and bled,
Drinks the dire balfam of confoling death!

17. Hafte, hafte, ye winds, on fwifteft pinions fly, Ere from this world of mifery he go,

Tell him his wrongs bedew a nation's eye,

Tell him Britannia blushes for his woe!

18. Say,

18. Say, that in future, negroes shall be bleft,
Rank'd e'en as men, and men's just rights enjoy;
Be neither fold, nor purchas'd, nor oppreft,
No grief fhall wither, and no ftripes destroy!

19. Say that fair freedom bends her holy flight To cheer the infant, and confole the fire;

So fhall he, wond'ring, prove, at lätt, delight,
And in a throb of ecftacy expire.

20. Then fhall proud Albion's crown, where laurels twine, Torn from the bofom of the raging sea,

Boaft, 'midst the glorious leaves, a gem divine,

The radiant gem of pure humanity!

THE HUMANE INDIAN.

AN Indian, who had not

met with his ufual fuccefs hunting, wandered down to a plantation among the back fettlements in Virginia; and feeing a planter at his door, asked for a morfel of bread, for he was very hungry. The planter bid him begone, for he would give

him none.

2.

Will you give me a cup of your beer? faid the Indian. No, you fhall have none here, replied the planter. But I am very faint, faid the favage. Will you give me only a draught of cold water? Get you gone, you Indian dog; you fhall have nothing here, faid the planter.

3. It happened fome months after, that the planter went on a fhooting party up into the woods, where, intent upon his game, he miffed his company, and loft his way; and night coming on, he wandered through the foreft, till he efpied an Indian wigwam.

4.. He approached the favage's habitation, and asked him to fhow him the way to a plantation on that fide the country. It is too late for you to go there this evening, Sir, faid the Indian; but if you will accept of my homely fare, you are welcome.

5. He then offered him fome venifon, and fuch other refreshment as his store afforded, and having laid fome bearfkins for his bed, he defired that he would repofe him

felf