My charming friend! it is full time
To close this argument in rhime;
The rhapsody must now be ended,295
My proposition I’ve defended;
For, Slavery there must ever be,
While we have Mistresses like thee!
THE END.
[1] Had he the command of thunder, there can be no doubt that he would long before now have cleared a troublesome quarter.
Sedet [eternumque] sedebit
Infelix Theseus.
Virg.
[3] If the abettors of the Slave trade Bill should think they are too harshly treated in this Poem, let them consider how they should feel if their estates were threatened by an agrarian law; (no unplausible measure) and let them make allowances for the irritation which themselves have occasioned.
[4] That the Africans are in a state of savage wretchedness, appears from the most authentic accounts. Such being the fact, an abolition of the slave trade would in truth be precluding them from the first step towards progressive civilization, and consequently of happiness, which it is proved by the most respectable evidence they enjoy in a great degree in our West-India islands, though under well-regulated restraint. The clamour which is raised against this change of their situation, reminds us of the following passage in one of the late Mr. Hall’s ‘Fables for Grown Gentlemen.’
“’Tis thus the Highlander complains,
’Tis thus the Union they abuse,
For binding their backsides in chains,
And shackling their feet in shoes;
For giving them both food and fuel,
And comfortable cloaths,
Instead of cruel oatmeal gruel,
Instead of rags and heritable blows.”
[5] The question now agitated in the British Parliament concerning slavery, is illustrated with great information, able argument, and perspicuous expression, in a work entitled, “Doubts on the Abolition of the Slave Trade, by an Old Member of Parliament;” printed for Stockdale, in Picadilly, 1790. It is ascribed to John Ranby, Esq.
That the evils of the Slave Trade should, like the evils incident to other departments of civil subordination, be humanely remedied as much as may be, every good man is convinced; and accordingly we find that great advances have been gradually made in that respect, as may be seen in various publications, particularly the evidence taken before the Privy-Council. It must be admitted, that in the course of the present imprudent and dangerous attempt to bring about a total abolition, one essential advantage has been obtained, namely, a better mode of carrying the slaves from Africa to the West-Indies; but surely this might have been had in a less violent manner.