We appeal to each member of parliament to further this counsel. The question of negro-emancipation is virtually before them. It is conceived, by all those whose properties are at stake, to be presented in its most objectionable form, and they unanimously oppose it. Before deciding on the subject, let every member reflect on the sentiments of two of our greatest statesmen.
Mr. Pitt, in every discussion in which negro-emancipation was agitated, pronounced, that it was an act which must “flow from the master alone.”
When that presiding genius of the country’s commercial greatness was no more—when Mr. Fox had coalesced with Lord Grenville,—and above all, when the whole anti-colonial party, with Mr. Wilberforce at its head, had joined his ranks, Mr. Fox, in the full tide of his popularity and his power, declared—
“That the idea of an act of parliament to emancipate the slaves in the West Indies, without the consent and concurrent feeling of all parties concerned, BOTH IN THIS COUNTRY AND IN THAT, would not only be mischievous in its consequences, but totally extravagant in its conception, as well as impracticable in its execution.”
THE END.
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TRANSCRIBER’S NOTE
Obvious typographical and punctuation errors have been corrected after careful comparison with other occurrences within the text and consultation of external sources.