of the Colonial Legislature to check misconduct was witnessed; far less
was the least disposition perceived to give any rights to the slaves,
any security against oppression, any title independent of his Master,
any intermediate state or condition which might prepare him for freedom.
It is enough to say, that a measure which every man, except Mr. Stephen,
had regarded as the natural, almost the necessary effect of the
abolition--attaching the slaves to the soil--was not so much as
propounded, far less adopted; it may be even said, was never mentioned
in any one local assembly of any of our numerous colonies, during the
thirty years which elapsed between the abolition and the emancipation!
This is unquestionable, and it is decisive.

As soon as it began to be perceived that such was likely to be the
result of the abolition in regard to the emancipation, Mr. Stephen's
authority with his coadjutors, always high, rose in proportion to the
confirmations which the event had lent his predictions; and his zealous
endeavours and unwearied labours for the subversion of the accursed
system became both more extensive and more effectual. If, however,
strict justice requires the tribute which we have paid to this eminent
person's distinguished services, justice also renders it imperative on
the historian of the Abolition in all its branches, to record an error
into which he fell. Having originally maintained that the traffic would
survive the Act of 1807, in which he was right, that Act only imposing
pecuniary penalties, he persisted in the same opinion after the Act of
1811 had made slave-trading a felony; and long after it had been
effectually put down in the British dominions, he continued to maintain
that it was carried on nearly as much as ever, reasoning upon
calculations drawn from the island returns. Hence he insisted upon a
general Registry Act, as essential to prevent the continuance of an
importation which had little or no real existence. The importance of