The question was, not whether there was not some evil attending the Slave-trade, but whether by the measure now before them they should increase or diminish the quantum of human misery in the world.

He believed, for one, considering the internal state of Africa, and the impossibility of procuring the concurrence of foreign nations in the measure, that they would not be able to do any good by the adoption of it.
As to the impolicy of the trade, the policy of it, on the other hand, was so great, that he trembled at the consequences of its abolition.

The property connected with this question amounted to a hundred millions.

The annual produce of the islands was eighteen millions, and it yielded a revenue of four millions annually.

How was this immense property and income to be preserved?
Some had said it would be preserved, because the Black population in the islands could be kept up without further supplies.