Lord Napier,in presenting a petition from Gallowshiels in Scotland, praying for the gradual abolition of Slavery, said, that in the course of his services it had fallen to his lot to visit the principal places in which slavery prevailed. He could therefore speak upon the subject with the advantages of actual experience, and he could assure their Lordships, that slavery was an affair of considerably more importance than people generally thought it to be. His experience, and the consideration he had given to the subject, had led him to this opinion, namely—that their Lordships would never understand the matter until it was thoroughly examined by a committee of their own number. He did not mean a committee which should be roasting up stairs during the summer months, and which should listen to the evidence of self-styled philanthropists and philosophers, who would come before them with a lie in their right hands, for the purpose of deceiving their Lordships,—he did not mean such a committee as that, but a committee which should visit the colonies, inspect the slave-markets, and contemplate slavery in its naked deformity. This was the only way, he was convinced, in which their Lordships could arrive at a correct understanding of the subject; and, for his own part, he cheerfully offered his services to go as one of such a committee.