I proved that they were never to be remedied by any acts of the British
parliament. Thus, for instance, what bill could alter the nature of the
human passions? What bill could prevent fraud and violence in Africa, while
the Slave-trade existed there? What bill could prevent the miserable
victims of the trade from rising, when on board the ships, if they saw an
opportunity, and felt a keen sense of their oppression? Those of the second
I stated to admit of a remedy, and, after making accurate calculations on
the subject of each, I showed that those merchants, who were to do them
away effectually, would be ruined by their voyages. The work was called An
Essay on the comparative Efficiency of Regulation or Abolition as applied
to the Slave-trade.

The committee also in this interval brought out their famous print of the
plan and section of a slave-ship; which was designed to give the spectator
an idea of the sufferings of the Africans in the Middle Passage, and this
so familiarly, that he might instantly pronounce upon the miseries
experienced there. The committee at Plymouth had been the first to suggest
the idea; but that in London had now improved it. As this print seemed
to make an instantaneous impression of horror upon all who saw it, and
as it was therefore very instrumental, in consequence of the wide
circulation given it, in serving the cause of the injured Africans,
I have given the reader a copy of it in the annexed plate, and I will
now state the ground or basis, upon which it was formed.

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]