Let this incident, and the conclusions which it suggests, be well considered. It deserves to have the more weight, on account both of the understanding and character of the individual who gave the account of it; for, no man living was ever less likely to confound any hasty expressions of men of warm and feeling minds, or of men of speculation or ingenuity, who might like to defend a paradox, with the real deliberate judgment of men of reflection, practical knowledge, and personal experience. Observe, the only ground on which the Slave Trade was defended, even in Jamaica, was that of the Negroes being an inferior species. This opinion, as I formerly remarked, was the original foundation of the Slave Trade, and it is the only ground on which it can be rested with the smallest pretence to reason, justice, or humanity. Happily, the friends of these wretched beings have, at length, obtained the recognition of their human nature; but as yet it is a barren and unprofitable right, if, while we grant them to be men, we treat them as if we still deemed them of an inferior species. But still more this incident shews, that they, who, from their local circumstances and pursuits were most conversant with this great subject in all it’s parts, had adopted, above thirty years ago, the position which Mr. Pitt asserted so confidently, and proved so unanswerably, that the Slave Trade was contrary not to justice and humanity only, but to sound policy also; and if even so long ago they entertained this opinion; what, if relieved from the blinding effects of prejudice and party, would be their judgment now, when all the facts and principles, on which the Slave Trade system must have been proved impolitic, have received an almost unspeakable accession of force, and when the arguments, by which it’s policy could alone be contended for, have since been almost entirely done away: I regret that I have not time for enlarging on this topic. But any man who has obtained any insight into this question will readily discern the several considerations to which I allude. [Sidenote: The hope of West Indian body’s opposition ceasing.]