The History of the Rise, Progress and Accomplishment of the Abolition of the African Slave-Trade | Page 7

obtained, and by the unanimity with which all Abolitionists
now were resolved to procure emancipation. He also recommenced his
journeys through the different parts of the island, and visited in
succession part of Scotland, almost all England, and the whole of
Wales, encouraging and interesting the friends of humanity wherever
he went, and forming local societies and committees for furthering the
common object.
But it was, after all, in Parliament that the battle must be fought; and
Mr. Buxton, of whose invaluable services in the House of Commons
the cause has lately been deprived, repeatedly, with the support of
Messrs. Wilberforce, William Smith, Brougham, Lushington, and

others, urged the necessity of interference upon the representatives of a
people unanimous in demanding it; and he repeatedly urged it in vain.
The Government always leaned towards the planter, and the most
flimsy excuses were constantly given for preferring to the effectual
measures propounded by the Abolitionists, the most flimsy of
expedients, useless for any one purpose, save that of making pretences
and gaining time.
At length came the great case of the missionary Smith's persecution,
trial, and untimely death, when all the forms of judicature had been
prostituted, all the rules of law broken, all the principles of justice
outraged, by men assuming to sit in judgment as a court of criminal
jurisprudence; and though assisted by legal functionaries, exhibiting
such a spectacle of daring violation of the most received and best
known canons of procedure, as no civilized community ever before
were called upon to endure. This subject was immediately brought
before Parliament by Mr. Brougham, and his motion of censure, which
might have been an impeachment of the governor and the court of
Demerara, was powerfully supported by Mr. Wilberforce, the amiable,
eloquent, and venerable leader of the party, Mr. Denman, Mr. Williams,
and Dr. Lushington, but rejected by a majority of the Commons, whom
Mr. Canning led, in a speech little worthy of his former exertions
against the Slave Trade, and far from being creditable either to his
judgment or to his principles. Yet this memorable debate was of
singular service to the cause. The great speeches delivered were spread
through all parts of the country; the nakedness of the horrid system was
exposed; the corruptions as well as cruelty of slavery were laid bare;
the determination of colonies to protect its worst abuses was
demonstrated; necessity of the mother-country interfering with a strong
hand was declared; and even the loss of the motion showed the people
of England how much their own exertions were still required if they
would see slavery extirpated, by proving that upon them alone the fate
of the execrable system hung.
The effects of this great debate cannot be over estimated. The case of
the missionary became the universal topic; The name of the martyred
Smith, the general rallying cry. The superior interest excited by

individual sufferings to any general misery inflicted upon masses of the
people, or any evil, however gigantic, which operates over a large
space, and in a course of time, has always been observed. The remark
was peculiarly applicable in this instance. Although all reflecting men
had, for many long years, been well aware of the evils pervading our
colonial system, and though the iniquity and perverseness of West
Indian judicatures had long been the topic of universal comment, yet
this single case of a persecuted individual falling a victim to those gross
perversions of law and justice which are familiar to the colonial people,
produced an impression far more general and more deep than all that
had ever been written or declaimed against system of West India
slavery; and looking back on the consummation of all our hopes in
1833 and 1838, we at once revert from this auspicious era to that ever
memorable occasion as having laid the solid foundation of our ultimate
triumph.
In this important day, which has thus by its effects proved decisive of
the Emancipation question, Mr. Stephen bore no part. He had long
ceased to adorn and enlighten the House of Commons. His retirement
was the result of honest differences of opinion respecting West India
slavery with his political friends, then in the plenitude of their power.
Those differences caused him to take the noble part, so rarely acted by
politicians, of withdrawing from Parliament rather than lend his great
support to men with whom he differed upon a question admitting no
compromise; and he devoted his exertions in private life to the
furtherance of the cause ever nearest his heart, the publication of his
able and elaborate work on the Colonial Slave Laws was the fruit of his
leisure; and had he never lent any other aid to the Emancipation, this
would alone have placed him high among its most able and effective
supporters.