For men to emancipate themselves from this bondage, it requires not so much an uncommon degree of judgment and foresight, not even so much of impartiality and candour, as it calls for such a share of firmness and independence of mind as rarely indeed falls to the lot of men in any times, and less than almost in any other, in our own, in which fashion and party rule with such a rigorous despotism, as if it were to revenge on us our not submitting to any other yoke. Yet are there not a few West Indian Proprietors, both in and out of Parliament, who, though owners of large colonial possessions, have refused to join the West Indian body; who are exempt from West Indian prejudices, and who, to their honour, are resolved that the source from which their annual income is derived, shall not be polluted by injustice and cruelty. There are also various individuals connected with the colonies, whose complete personal acquaintance with the whole system of West Indian management has given them an opportunity of discovering it’s vices, and has prevented their becoming the dupes of party violence or sophistry. And though, in quitting a formed party when we have once joined it, we obviously have greater difficulties to encounter, and obstacles to overcome, than even in originally refusing to combine with our brethren in constituting it, yet one splendid conquest of this kind has been made well it deserves such an epithet, for he, who knows any thing of human nature, knows full well, that these are the most difficult of all masteries. Yet this difficult conquest has been achieved by one of those gentlemen who originally took the lead, in committing to the colonial legislatures the service of superseding the necessity of abolishing the Slave Trade by internal regulations. He has since abundantly proved that he did not support the measure, in order merely to defeat the efforts of the Abolitionists, and with a real view of prolonging the continuance of the Slave Trade; but that he conceived, that the question then at issue was, whether that traffic should be abolished by the Colonial Assemblies or the British Legislature: and now, that the former have refused to accept the commission which the House of Commons offered to instruct to them, he has embraced the other part of the alternative, and cordially co-operated in the attempt to abolish by the Imperial Parliament. Instances of such conduct as this are rare; for being rare, they are the more honourable. The mind loves to dwell on them. Perhaps, from never having been a party man myself I may feel their excellencies with peculiar force.