And as he now called upon the House not to allow any conjectural losses to become impediments in the way of the abolition of the Slave Trade, so he called upon them to beware how they suffered any representations of the happiness of the state of slavery in our islands to influence them against so glorious a measure.  Admiral Barrington had said in his testimony, that he had often envied the condition of the slaves there.  But surely, the honourable admiral must have meant, that, as he had often toiled like a slave in the defence of his country, (as his many gallant actions had proved,) so he envied the day when he was to toil in a similar manner in the same cause.  If, however, his words were to be taken literally, his sensations could only be accounted for by his having seen the negroes in the hour of their sports, when a sense of the misery of their condition was neither felt by themselves not visible to others.  But their appearance on such occasions did by no means disprove their low and abject state.  Nothing made a happy slave but a degraded man.  In proportion as the mind grows callous to its degradation, and all sense of manly pride is lost, the slave feels comfort.  In fact, he is no longer a man.  If he were to define a man, he would say with Shakespeare,

  Man is a being holding large discourse,
  Looking before and after.

But, a slave was incapable of looking before and after; he had no motive to do it; he was a mere passive instrument in the hands of others to be used at their discretion.  Though living, he was, dead as to all voluntary agency; though moving amidst the creation with an erect form, and with the shape and semblance of a human being, he was a nullity as a man.

Mr. Pitt thanked his honourable friend Mr. Wilberforce for having at length introduced this great and important subject to the consideration of the House.  He thanked him also for the perspicuous, forcible, and masterly manner in which he had treated it.  He was sure that no argument compatible with any idea of justice could be assigned for the continuation of the Slave Trade.  And at the same time that he was willing to listen with candour and attention to everything that could be urged on the other side of the question, he was sure that the principles, from which his opinion was deduced, were unalterable.  He had examined the subject with the anxiety which became him, where the happiness and interests of so many thousands were concerned, and with the minuteness which would be expected of him, on account of, the responsible situation which he held; and he averred that it was sophistry, obscurity of ideas, and vagueness of reasoning, which alone could have hitherto prevented all mankind (those immediately interested in the question excepted) from agreeing in one and the same opinion upon the subject.  With respect to the propriety of introducing the individual propositions which had been offered, he differed with Mr. Burke, and he thanked