"
In the year 1755, Dr. Hayter, bishop of Norwich, preached a sermon before
the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, in which he bore his
testimony against the continuance of this trade.
Dyer, in his poem called The Fleece, expresses his sorrow on account of
this barbarous trade, and looks forward to a day of retributive justice on
account of the introduction of such an evil.
In the year 1760, a pamphlet appeared, entitled, "Two Dialogues on the
Mantrade, by John Philmore." This name is supposed to be an assumed one.
The author, however, discovers himself to have been both an able and a
zealous advocate in favour of the African race.
Malachi Postlethwaite, in his Universal Dictionary of Trade and Commerce,
proposes a number of queries on the subject of the Slave-trade. I have not
room to insert them at full length. But I shall give the following as the
substance of some of them to the reader: "Whether this commerce be not the
cause of incessant wars among the Africans--Whether the Africans, if it
were abolished, might not become as ingenious, as humane, as industrious,
and as capable of arts, manufactures, and trades, as even the bulk of
Europeans--Whether, if it were abolished, a much more profitable trade
might not be substituted, and this to the very centre of their extended
country, instead of the trifling portion which now subsists upon their
coasts--And whether the great hindrance to such a new and advantageous
commerce has not wholly proceeded from that unjust, inhuman,
unchristian-like traffic, called the Slave-trade, which is carried on by
the Europeans.
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