And, first, the House, the nation, and all Europe were under great obligations to Mr. Wilberforce for having brought this important subject forward.  He had done it in a manner the most masterly, impressive, and eloquent.  He had laid down his principles so admirably, and with so much order and force, that his speech had equalled anything he had ever heard in modern oratory, and perhaps it had not been excelled by anything to be found in ancient times.  As to the Slave Trade itself, there could not be two opinions about it, where men were not interested.  A trade begun in savage war, prosecuted with unheard-of barbarity, continued during the transportation with the most loathsome imprisonment, and ending in perpetual exile and slavery, was a trade so horrid in all in circumstances, that it; was impossible to produce a single argument in its favour.  On the ground of prudence, nothing could be said in defence of it, nor could it be justified by necessity.  It was necessity alone that could be brought to justify inhumanity; but no case of necessity could be made out strong enough to justify this monstrous traffic.  It was therefore the duty of the House to put an end to it, and this without further delay.  This conviction, that it became them to do it immediately, made him regret (and it was the only thing he regretted in the admirable speech he had heard) that his honourable friend should have introduced propositions on this subject.  He could have wished that the business had been brought to a conclusion at once, without voting the propositions which had been read to them.  He was not over fond of abstract propositions; they were seldom necessary, and often occasioned great difficulty, embarrassment, and delay.  There was, besides, no occasion whatever to assign detailed reasons for a vote, which nature herself dictated, and which religion enforced.  If it should happen that the propositions were not carried in that House or the other, such a complication of mischiefs might follow, as might occasion them heartily to lament that they were ever introduced.  If the ultimate resolution should happen to be lost, he was afraid the propositions would pass as waste paper, if not be injurious to the cause at a future time.

And now, as the House must bring this matter to an issue, he would beg their attention to a particular point.  He entreated them to look further than the present moment, and to ask themselves if they had fortified their minds sufficiently to bear the consequences which might arise from the abolition of the Slave Trade, supposing they should decide upon it.  When they abandoned it, other foreign powers might take it up, and clandestinely supply our islands with slaves.  Had they virtue enough to see another country reaping profits, which they themselves had given up; and to abstain from that envy natural to rivals, and firmly to adhere to their determination?  If so, let them thankfully proceed to vote the immediate abolition of the Slave Trade.  But if they should