Allow me therefore to make a few observations on this head, and to consider a little whether there may not be other causes besides reason and argument, from which the continued opposition of what is termed the West Indian body may probably be owing in no inconsiderable degree. It is not surprising that a great effect has been produced by the declaration of so numerous and respectable a class of the community as that of the West Indian body, that the abolition would be ruinous to their interests; especially, considering that there has been full scope for the operation of party spirit, we should not be surprized to find this opinion held somewhat strongly and generally by the colonial world, and their numerous connections. Yet surely we have been too much accustomed to hear men predicting the most fatal consequences from incidents and measures, which have been depending, when the event has afterwards proved that their fears, if not utterly groundless, have been at least excessively magnified, to conclude that the mere circumstance of such apprehensions being entertained, is a sufficient proof of their having a sound foundation. We have already stated a striking instance of this kind, in the progress of this very contest—that of the violent opposition which was made by all the parties concerned, to the passing of the Slave-carrying Bill; a measure which a very few years after was acknowledged, as it is still universally confessed, to have been beneficial to them all. One of the most efficient of the opponents of abolition, in 1792, frankly acknowledged this common delusion; and even declared, that he anticipated the period when the question of abolition itself would afford another instance of its having occurred. He stated a particular fact in confirmation of his opinion; which, as the story is not long, it may be worth while to relate. “There was a species of slavery prevailing only a few years ago in some boroughs in Scotland. Every child that carried a coal from the pit, was the bound slave of that borough. Their emancipation was thought by Parliament to be material; and was very much agitated in the House. It was urged by those who opposed the emancipation, that, let every man’s genius be what it might, yet that those pits in which the work, from its nature, was carried on under ground, were quite an excepted case; and that without the admission of slavery in this particular instance, the collieries could not be worked; that the price of coals would be raised to a most immoderate height; and all the neighbouring manufactories, which depended on them, would essentially suffer in their interests. After several years struggle, the Bill, however, was carried through both houses of Parliament. Within a year after, the whole idea of the collieries being in the least hurt by the abolition of this sort of slavery, vanished into smoke, and there was an end of the business.”