Page:History of the Anti corn law league.pdf/21

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MR. COBBETT'S CONVERSION.
5

slavery, but that he should support, to the utmost of his power, any man who would vote for its abolition. The following, addressed to the people of Manchester, gave much more surprise to those who were hunting on the wrong scent than it gave to the persons who had been vituperated:—" I have always said that I detested slavery in every form, and under every name; that I never would accept of the services of the slave when his master offered them to me for nothing; that, however, the question with us was, whether we should abandon the West Indian Islands, or continue to maintain this slavery. Since I was last in the north, I have seen quite enough to convince me, that it would be better to abandon the islands altogether than to uphold the negro slavery. It now appears, that, in fact, these slaves are in general the property of English boroughmongers; that they are so in great part at least; and that the fruit of the labour of these slaves has long been converted into the means of making us slaves at home. Travelling in Wiltshire some years ago, I found a whole village the property of one man, and I found the neighbouring borough one half his property also. His establishments were those of a prince, both in town and country, and I now find that the source of all this was the labour of slaves in Jamaica. Besides these discoveries, brought to light by recent meetings, of the aristocracy being the chief proprietors in the islands there are the bloody transactions which have recently taken place; there is the execution of the dissenting ministers, whose offence appears to have been that of teaching the Christian religion to the slaves—that religion forbidding the holding of men in slavery. For these reasons, and particularly for the reason that slavery is made use of as the means of keeping us in slavery, I am resolved to support any man, to the utmost extent of my power, who shall propose the abolition of the slavery of the negroes. When I find the Marquis of Chandos, the Earl of Harewood,