portion in the end?

It has appeared, I hope, by this time, that what I have been proposing
is not unreasonable, and that, so far from being injurious to the
interests of the planters, it would be highly advantageous to them. I
shall now show, that I do not ask for the introduction of a more humane
system into our Colonies _at a time when it would be improper to grant
it_; or that no fair objection can be raised against the _present
moment_, as _the fit era_ from whence the measures in contemplation
should commence. There was, indeed, a time when the planters might have
offered something like an excuse for the severity of their conduct
towards their slaves, on the plea that the greater part of them then in
the colonies were _African-born_ or _strangers_, and that cargoes were
constantly pouring in, one after the other, consisting of the same sort
of beings; or of _stubborn ferocious people, never accustomed to work,
whose spirits it was necessary to break_, and _whose necks to force down
to the yoke_; and that this could only be effected by the whip, the
chain, the iron collar, and other instruments of the kind. But _now_ no
such plea can be offered. It is now sixteen years since the slave trade
was abolished by England, and it is therefore to be presumed, that no
new slaves have been imported into the British colonies within that
period. The slaves, therefore, who are there at this day, must consist
either of Africans, whose spirits must have been long ago broken, or of
Creoles born in the cradle and brought up in the trammels of slavery.
What argument then can be produced for the continuation of a barbarous
discipline there? And we are very glad to find that two gentlemen, both
of whom we have had occasion to quote before, bear us out in this
remark. Mr. Steele, speaking of some of the old cruel laws of Barbadoes,
applies them to the case before us in these words:--"As, according to
Ligon's account, there were not above two-thirds of the island in