slave trade in general, and of this case in particular, which I am enabled to substantiate by legal evidence, and removes a large share of the diffidence which I must otherwise have experienced in appearing before you this day.
I would take this occasion to remark, that the humane and anxious desire of the Parliament of the British empire to abolish the barbarous traffic in slaves is universally known; the remotest tribe on the face of the earth are apprized long ere this of the benevolent desire of every good mind in England, that, however savage might be the race of distant climes, their land should not contain a single slave. This feeling, the first-born of an admirable constitution, did not content itself with mere latent existence, but was openly manifested by treaties, negotiations, missions, and many other public acts, done and published from time to time during the present reign. Of late years we find, with undivided satisfaction, that though the unwise and tyrannical system of Dutch, Portuguese, Danish, Spanish, and French colonization, England was obliged, unwillingly, to acquiesce in the temporary policy of an iniquitous slave trade, yet she never for a moment lost sight of the grand and ultimate determination of effecting its radical and signal prostration. Evidence of this assertion clearly appears in the well-directed acts of parliament enjoining benevolent restrictions on all vessels and all persons concerned in slave trading.
Gentlemen of the Jury, you will allow me to bring to your thoughts the leading features of your indispensable duty; you have often been called upon as arbiters of the life, liberty, honour, and property of your fellow-subject. You are now called upon to protect the honour and dignity of your King, and to support those laws which, under his virtue and authority, were enacted for the deliverance of this country from the wretchedness of slavery.
