treasure.

and to society? How shall I move your compas sion? I must repeat, too often it cannot be repeated, that you have in various instances, precipitated your nation into all the horrors of a bloody war. How lavish of your blood and of your But lavish for what? For the protection of strangers, and the eventual aggrandisement of ungrateful rivals; whose good will you enjoyed while, and only while you were useful to them. But the poor wretches, whose cause I plead, linger out a most miserable life only for your profit, and the encrease of your national wealth. They have no refuge, no hope, no comfort, no resource, no friend, to whom they can flee, but you, and you alone. Methinks, had I the honour of pleading in your presence, I could more pathetically depict their unutterable miseries and woes, and plead for them with tears, which would more than speak. I would ask you gentlemen, is there not a sufficiency, a superabundance of evil, natural and moral, already in the world, without your augmenting the fatal curse, and arming it with triple destruction? Is the journey through life so pleasant? Are its paths so smooth and delightful, strewed with flowers, and carpeted with roses; as to render it a duty incumbent on you to plant it with thorns and briars? Ask the heart, that is wounded by

untimely distress, and latent sorrow, proceeding from a variety of causes. Such a heart knows its own bitterness. There is a coming world, in which the potentate and the peasant will be upon an equality. The time is approaching, when sickness will seize, and medicine fail, the high, as well as the low; when the former must leave their riches and their honours, their sceptres and their crowns, for others to inherit them. Then will you be able to ascertain, whether there be not a superabundance of calamities and woes in the world. Gentlemen, reflect in time, attend to your own best interests, and those of the brave nation under your jurisdiction.

The simplified plan I have suggested for the alleviation of the unhappy condition of your slaves, may possibly be an introduction to a more generous one. Keeping the local prejudices and avaricious objects of the friends of slavery in view, I proposed mine on a narrow scale; and, therefore, I cannot but indulge a hope, that it will be adopted, or one, on a broader scale, substituted in its room. Not all I have thought, nor half what I have written, is here particularized. On consideration of the selfishness of this degenerate age, I have been necessitated to suppress many a generous sentiment.

Gentlemen, cases occur, and crimes are committed, to which all language, however sonorous, is unequal. Such must your crime be, if you do not immediately concert some effectual measures for affording relief to the oppressed sons and daughters of Africa in your colonies. Among other considerations, permit me to repeat the sentiment, though it has been previously anticipated, recollect the vast revenue you raise from their labours. What think you of two millions sterling annually deposited in the exchequer, from the du ties on sugar and rum, made by the wretched slaves? Not to mention nine hundred thousand more, raised from the trade of the colonies; and the planters who spend their immense incomes in your metropolis; or the eleven hundred thousand for incidental expences. Have you, for many years, received such prodigious sums from the sweat, the blood, the lives, of millions of wretched slaves in your colonial territories; and will you, can you, refuse or delay to take their wretched case into your most serious consideration? What must such a refusal be in the esti mation of Heaven? What will it be in the judg ment of the friends of humanity on earth. What name shall I give to it? Shall I call it injustice, oppression, robbery, murder? What Britain now is, Rome once was, the mistress of the world.

Plunder enriched her; and the millions whom she oppressed rendered her popular. But what was the end of her riches and her popularity? When the hand of Heaven was stretched out, she nodded! she fell! she crumbled into ruins! Of her former magnificence, how few vestiges remain! But, perhaps, gentlemen, I address you in too serious a strain. Shall I, therefore, exchange religious for political topics? The latter are, perhaps, more congenial to your temper, and more agreeable to your taste. Those who take nature and experience for their guide, in these matters, are not easily deceived. Under such auspices, may I not boldly affirm, that those who rob the poor are not likely to prosper? This I have often had occasion to observe, in the course of my life and travels. Strikingly is this observation exemplified and evinced in the case of a privateer on a successful cruize. By plunder, her men are suddenly made rich; but how unsatisfactory and short-lived their riches. How often do crimes and their consequent punishments run parallel with each other? What a privateer is in miniature, a hostile nation is in magnitude. Are nations stimulated to war for the sake of plunder? Has such plunder ever proved a source of solid, satisfactory, and permanent wealth? Cases have occurred, in which war was

sary

ap

necessary, and has been undertaken with the probation of Heaven. The protection of life and property may require it. But when no advantage or security can be obtained by war, but what may be accomplished in peace, war is unnecesand unlawful. The infamous practice of duelling must not every well-disposed man detest? What is a duel, but a public war in miniature? Individual suicide, who does not reprobate? But what is an unprovoked, unnecessary, wantonly cruel war? Is it any thing else, any thing better, than what individual suicide is in miniature? What can be more criminal than an unprovoked, wanton, cruel war? It opens a vein at which the nation bleeds, perhaps, bleeds to death. When the tempest of national passion subsides, and is succeeded by calm reflection, what painful sensations must embitter the recollection of former follies and crimes? What advantages accrue to the nation? Let facts speak: an accumulation of national debt and public taxes.

But even this is not all. The destruction of useful lives, and impoverishment of national resources, are not the only bad effects of war. It indisposes the mind for the cultivation of refined sentiments, and more manly pursuits. Daily spectacles of woe, the cruel and vociferous intelligence