§ The Sheriffs of the City of London presented a petition from the Lord Mayor, Aldermen and Common Council of the City of London, approving of the Orders in Council with respect to the West-India Colonies, and praying an amelioration of the present condition of the slave population of the Colonies, and the eventual Abolition of Slavery.
Mr. Humecould not remain silent on the present occasion. He was sorry so respectable a body as the Corporation and Common Council of the metropolis should have approached the House with such a petition, if he understood it correctly, as that just presented. He begged to protest against the Orders in Council approved of by the petition, by which discriminating duties were to be enforced as a punishment, which would prove a complete violation of property, if any property could be said to be in the West-India colonies.
Mr. Alderman Woodsaid, the Corporation of London had always expressed liberal feelings and principles, and their great object at present was, to do away with the system of slavery. He begged to move that the petition be laid on the Table, and be printed.
Mr. Alderman Hughes Hughessaid, he had been requested by the enlightened body from whom this petition proceeded to support its prayer, and he had much pleasure in doing so, for his own opinions coincided with those expressed with it, and he admired the moderation of the tone of the petition, as well as of the Orders of Coun- 1277 cil. He hoped the same moderation would be imitated by all parties in that House, when the important subject of slavery came to be discussed.
§ Mr. Alderman Copelandquestioned the prudence of the Corporation of London in coming to the conclusion expressed in this petition. He knew that those citizens who were connected with the colonies viewed every measure which was taken with regard to them, with considerable alarm; and none more so than the Orders in Council, to which reference had been made, as they considered that those Orders had a tendency to injure the colonies, and the shipping trade of the country. Whenever the great question of slavery should come before the House, he should be prepared to offer his sentiments upon it; he begged, however, to say at present he was no advocate for the existence of slavery, but he thought still that the Orders in Council were not calculated to ameliorate the condition of the negroes in the colonies, and, therefore, he could not give the petition his support.
§ Mr. Dixonsaid, that notwithstanding the eulogy which had been bestowed upon the Orders in Council, the noble Lord, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, had expressed his intention to accede to a modification of them, to make them more palatable to the feelings of those best acquainted with the colonies. He was firmly of opinion, that, if they were carried into effect, as they at present existed, they would be destructive to the maritime interests of the country.
Mr. Warburtonthought the Corporation of London had done themselves credit by presenting the petition then before the House, for he was fully convinced that the present system of slavery in the colonies was attended with so much danger, that, if modifications were not speedily admitted into it, with a view to better the condition of the negroes, that the colonies would be lost to this country, and because he wished to preserve them, he approved of the Orders in Council which had that object in view.
§ Petition to be printed.