it is not too much to say, that, unless the system be now made general, the Orders in Council for registering slaves in the ceded French islands, at least, ought to be repealed. For all these reasons, the expediency of an immediate parliamentary interposition is not less apparent than the constitutional right.

The task we proposed to ourselves is now fully, though feebly, accom. plished. A general registry of the slaves in the British colonies, has been shown to be necessary to the guarding them from a contraband slave trade; to the maintenance of their agriculture by innocent means; and to the preservation of the interesting hope that their opprobrious slavery will be henceforth so mitigated in practice, as to prepare the means of its future extinction. It has been further shown, that this measure is clearly within the constitutional authority of Parliament; that it may most conveniently be taken by that authority; and that it neither will, nor effectually cạn, proceed from any other.

The question is not, By whom shall the law be passed? but, Shall the measure be adopted at all? Will you make it impossible that men shall he held in bondage, under the British Crown, contrary to law? Or shall manstealers be encouraged to pursue their felonious and inhuman crimes, by the facility of holding their victims, when brought into our colonies, in perpetual and hereditary slavery?

Surely it is enough, after these observations, to appeal to principles on which all British subjects are now happily agreed; to the same moral principles upon which this country, to its immortal honor, has abolished the slave trade; and which we have so generously laboured to inculcate on other nations. A registry of slaves is in truth a plain, practical corollary from the abolition. In limiting the lawful sources of slavery to existing titles and their hereditary fruits, we virtually bound ourselves to take care that this limitation shall be effectual within all the British dominions. We may not be able to obtain the same moral reformation in foreign territories; but it would be opprobrious not to secure it in our own. As philanthropists, we must deplore the continuance of the slave trade by other countries; but as moralists, it should cost us as much deeper regret, if even a small number of unfortunate Africans were carried into slavery by British subjects and kept in bondage for life, within the dominions of his Majesty, through means which we had the power to exclude.

Humanity, also, would soon have reason to regard the latter mischief, with more concern than the former. If a general registry be not speedily, established, the abolition will be fatally prejudiced in the eyes of foreign. powers, who will carefully watch the effect of the experiment we have made. The existing stock of slaves in our islands, instead of being kept up and increased by natural means, through a meliorated treatment, will,

by perseverance in former habits on the part of their masters, be rapidly reduced; unless smuggling on a large scale should supply the want of legal importations. In the one case, our new system will be discredited by the ruin of our colonial agriculture; in the other case, by the inefficiency of our laws. In either case, foreign governments will be deterred from following our example. They will ascribe the failure, not to the defect of our means, but to the impracticability of our object; and the British Abolition, instead of delivering Africa from the slave trade, may rather tend to make its ravages eternal.

Let the system, then, that has been wisely begun by his Majesty's Government, be immediately followed up by Parliament. It is due to half a million of human beings, whose bondage we are bound to alleviate: it is due even to those benevolent masters who may otherwise possess the will, without the power, to reform existing abuses: it is due to Africa, which has so deep an interest in the credit of the British Abolition: and, above all, we owe it to ourselves; to those high principles of public conduct which have exalted us among the nations of the earth, and recommended us, as we may humbly hope, to the protection and favor of Heaven,

THE

SPEECH

OF

MR. PHILLIPS,

DELIVERED

IN THE

COURT OF COMMON PLEAS, DUBLIN,

IN THE CASE OF

GUTHRIE versus STERNE,

FOR

ADULTERY.

SPEECH

OF

MR. PHILLIPS

MY LORD, AND GENTLEMEN OF THE JURY,

N this case I am counsel for the plaintiff, who has deputed me, with the kind concession of my much more efficient colleagues, to, tell you the story of his misfortunes. In the course of a long friendship which has existed between us, originating in mutual pursuits, and cemented by mutual attachment, never until this instant did I feel any thing but pleasure in the claims which it created, or the duty which it imposed. In selecting me, however, from this bright array of learning and of eloquence, I can not help being pained at the kindness of a partiality which forgets its interest in the exercise of its affection, and confides the task of practised wisdom to the uncertain guidance of youth and inexperience, He has thought, perhaps, that truth needed no set phrase of speech; that misfortunes should not veil the furrows which its tears had burned; or hide, under the decorations of an artful drapery, the heart-rent heavings with which its bosom throbbed: he has surely thought, that, by contrasting mine with the powerful talents selected by his antagonist, he was giving you a proof that the appeal he made was to your reason, not to your feelings; to the integrity of your hearts, not the exasperation of your passions. Happily, however, for him, happily for you, happily for the country, happily for the profession, on subjects such as this, the experience of the oldest amongst us is but slender; deeds such