In 1171, on the invasion and conquest of Ireland by Henry II. it was the unanimous judgment of a great ecclesiastical council, called at Armagh, that the event was to be regarded as a providential visitation for their guilt in making Slaves of the English, whether obtained from merchants, robbers, or pirates; and this opinion was regarded as the more probable, because England herself, the natives of which, by a vice common to that nation, had been used to sell their children and nearest relatives, even when not under the pressure of famine or other necessity, had formerly expiated a similar crime by a similar punishment (alluding to the Norman Conquest.) To the honour of the Irish, a resolution was then passed, that throughout the kingdom the English Slaves should be immediately emancipated. I trust their Hibernian descendants, in our day, will shew themselves actuated by a like humane spirit, and that the English will no longer continue subject to that foul stain with which, even in these early days, she was contaminated.
The city of Bristol is once more exempt from the disgrace of being concerned in the traffic of human beings.
FINIS
Printed by Luke Hansard & Sons, near Lincoln’s Inn Fields.
[1]. The Report of the Privy Council to the King in 1788, and still more the Reports of the Committee of the House of Commons, to which had been referred the various petitions for and against the abolition, and in the Appendixes to which is contained the Evidence at length of the Witnesses who were examined on that occasion. For the convenience of those who might not have leisure to peruse so voluminous a mass of evidence, an abridged abstract of it was made. This occupies two small octavo volumes, and is entitled “An Abridgement of the Minutes of the Evidence on the Slave Trade. 1790.” It is to be purchased at Phillips’s, George-yard, Lombard-street.—Various Papers and Accounts, tending to give useful information, have also been laid before the House of Commons from time to time. The titles of these will be found in the House of Commons Journals. See especially a voluminous mass of Papers respecting the Slave Trade, ordered to be printed 8th June 1804; and another very important set of Communications from the West Indies, ordered for printing 25th February 1805. See also two very interesting Reports of the House of Assembly of Jamaica.
[2]. Vide, especially, an Abstract of the Debate on Mr. Wilberforce’s Motion for the Abolition of the Slave Trade in 1791, and of the Debate on a similar Motion in 1792; both printed for Phillips, George-yard, Lombard-street.
[3]. Mr. Clarkson’s publications well deserve this epithet, particularly his “Essay on the Impolicy of the African Slave Trade.” See also Remarks on the Decision of the House of Commons concerning the Slave Trade, on April 2d, 1792, by the Rev. J. Gisborne.—Much valuable information likewise concerning Africa is contained in Lord Muncaster’s Historical Sketches of the Slave Trade. Again, almost all the principal arguments involved in the discussion concerning the abolition are to be found in Mr. Brougham’s Colonial Policy, stated with that author’s usual ability.—Once more, a valuable Summary of the Arguments in favour of Abolition, and of the answers to the chief allegations of its Opponents (by a writer, whose name, if subjoined to it, would have added great weight to the publication) was published two years ago, printed for Hatchard, and Longman and Rees, entitled, a “Concise Statement of the Question, regarding the Abolition of the Slave Trade.” An Appendix, containing much valuable matter, soon after followed. A valuable publication appeared also some years ago, by a Member of the University of Oxford, now become a dignitary of the church. I might specify several others on particular parts of the case. In short, were it as easy to prevail on mankind to read publications which have been some time before the world, as to peruse a new one, my present task might well be spared.
[4]. In reading accounts of African wars, the attentive reader will continually meet with expressions such as those here used; which incidentally and undesignedly, and therefore the more strongly prove, that the persons of the natives are regarded as the great booty; and we may therefore not unreasonably infer, that they often constitute the chief inducement for commencing hostilities.
[5]. Vide evidence of Naval Officers, &c. taken before the House of Commons.—Smith also, who visited the coast in the service of the African Company in 1726, says “The Natives who came off to trade with us were mighty timorous of coming aboard, for fear of being panyard.”