The Martyrdom of Man by Winwood Reade (mini ebook reader .TXT) ๐
The Egyptians were islanders, cut off from the rest of the world by sand and sea. They were rooted in their valley; they lived entirely upon its fruits, and happily these fruits sometimes failed. Had they always been able to obtain enough to eat, they would have remained always in the semi-savage state.
It may appear strange that Egypt should have suffered from famine, for there was no country in the ancient world where food was so abundant and so cheap. Not only did the land produce enormous crops of corn; the ditches and hollows which were filled by the overflowing Nile supplied a harvest of wholesome and nourishing aquatic plants, and on the borders of the des
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abolition was a question near his heart. A short time after,
there was a dinner at Mr. Bennet Langtonโs, at which Sir Joshua
Reynolds, Boswell, Windham, and himself were present. The
conversation turned upon the African slave-trade, and Clarkson
exhibited some specimens of cotton cloth manufactured by the
natives in their own looms, the plant being grown in their own
fields. All the guests expressed themselves on the side of
abolition, and Mr. Wilberforce was asked if he would bring it
forward in the House. He said that he would have no objection
to do so when he was better prepared for it, providing no more
proper person could be found.
The Committee now went to work in earnest, and held weekly
meetings at Mr. Wilberforceโs house. Clarkson was sent to
Bristol and Liverpool, where he collected much information,
though not without difficulty, and even, as he thought, danger
of his life. A commission was appointed by the Lords of the
Privy Council to collect evidence. It was stated by the
Liverpool and planter party that not only the colonial
prosperity, but the commercial existence of the nation was at
stake; that the Guinea trade was a nursery for British seamen;
that the slaves offered for sale were criminals and captives
who would be eaten if they were not bought; that the middle
passage was the happiest period of a negroโs life; that the
sleeping apartments on board were perfumed with frankincense;
and that the slaves were encouraged to disport themselves on
deck with the music and dances of their native land. On the
other hand, the Committee proved from the muster rolls which
Clarkson had examined that the Guinea trade was not the nursery
of British seamen, but its grave; and they published a picture
of an African slaver, copied from a vessel which was lying in
the Mersey, and certain measurements were made, which, being
put into feet and inches, justified the statement of a member
in the House, that never was so much human suffering condensed
into so small a space.
Lord Chancellor Thurlow and two other members of the Cabinet
were opposed to abolition, and therefore Mr. Pitt could not
make it a government measure; and so although it was called the
battle between the giants and the pigmies; although Pitt, Fox,
Burke, Sheridan, Windham, and Wilberforce, the greatest orators
and statesmen of the day, were on one side, and the two members
for Liverpool on the other, the brute votes went with the
pigmies, and the bill was lost.
But now the nation was beginning to be moved. The Committee
distributed books, and hired columns in the newspapers. They
sealed their letters with a negro in chains kneeling, and the
motto, โAm I not a man and a brother?โ Wedgwood made cameos
with the same design; ladies wore them in their bracelets or
their hair-pins; gentlemen had them inlaid in gold on the lids
of their snuff boxes. Cowper sent to the Committee the well-known poem, โFleecy locks and black complexionโ; the Committee
printed it on the finest hot-pressed paper, folded it up in a
small and neat form, gave it the appropriate title of โA
subject for conversation at the tea-table,โ and cast it forth
by thousands upon the land. It was set to music, and sung as a
street ballad. People crowded at shop windows to see the
picture of the ship in which the poor negroes were packed like
herrings in a cask. A murmur arose, and grew louder and louder;
three hundred thousand persons gave up drinking sugar in their
tea; indignation meetings were held; and petitions were sent
into Parliament by the ton. Everything seemed to show that the
nation had begun to loathe the trade in flesh and blood, and
would not be appeased till it was done away. And then came
events which made the sweet words Liberty, Humanity, Equality,
sound harsh and ungrateful to the ear: which caused those who
spoke much of philanthropy, and eternal justice, to be avoided
by their friends, and perhaps supervised by the police; which
rendered negroes and emancipation a subject to be discussed
only with sneers and shakings of the head.
When the slave-trade question had first come up, Mr. Pitt
proposed to the French Government that the two nations should
unite in the cause of abolition. Now in France the peasantry
themselves were slaves; and the negro trade had been bitterly
attacked in books which had been burnt by the public
executioner, and the authors of which had been excommunicated
by the Pope. Mr. Pittโs proposal was at once declined by the
coterie of the OEil de Boeuf. In the meantime it was discovered
that the French nation was heavily in debt; there was a loss of
nearly five million sterling every year; a fact by no means
surprising, for the nobles and clergy paid no taxes; each
branch of trade was an indolent monopoly; and poor Jacques
Bonhomme bore the weight of the court and army on his back.
Chancellors of the Exchequer one after, the other were
appointed, and attempted in vain to grapple with the
difficulty. As a last resource, the House of Commons was
revived, that the debt of bankrupt despotism might be accepted
by the nation. A Parliament was opened at Versailles; lawyers
and merchants dressed in black walked in the same procession,
and sat beneath the same roof with the haughty nobles, rustling
with feathers, shining with gold, and wearing swords upon their
thighs. But the commoners soon perceived that they had only
been summoned to vote away the money of the nation; they were
not to interfere with the laws. Their debates becoming
offensive to the king, the hall in which they met was closed
against them. They then gathered in a tennis court, called
themselves the National Assembly, and took an oath that they
would not dissolve until they had regenerated France. Troops
were marched into Versailles; a coup dโetat was evidently in
the wind. And then the Parisians arose; the army refused to
fight against them; the Bastille was destroyed; the National
Assembly took the place of the OEil de Boeuf: democracy became
the Mayor of the Palace. A constitution was drawn up, and was
accepted by the king. The nobility were deprived of their
feudal rights; church property was resumed by the nation; taxes
were imposed on the rich as well as on the poor; the peasantry
went out shooting every Sunday; the country gentlemen fled from
their chateaux to foreign courts, where wars began to brew.
Such was the state of affairs in France when Wilberforce
suggested that Clarkson should be sent over to Paris to
negotiate with the leading members of the National Assembly.
There was in Paris a Society called the Friends of the Blacks;
Condorcet and Brissot were among its conductors. Clarkson,
therefore, was sanguine of success; but it was long before he
could obtain a hearing. At last he was invited to dinner at the
house of the Bishop of Chartres, that he might there meet
Mirabeau and Seiyes, the Duc de Rochefoucauld, Pรฉtion de
Villeneuve, and Bergasse, and talk the matter over. But when
the guests met, a much more interesting topic was in
everybodyโs mouth. The king at that time lived at Versailles, a
little town inhabited entirely by his servants and his bodyguards. The Parisians for some time had been uneasy; they
feared that he would escape to Metz; and that civil war would
then break out. There was a rumour of a bond signed by
thousands of the aristocrats to fight on the kingโs side. The
Guards had certainly been doubled at Versailles; and a Flanders
regiment had marched into the town with two pieces of cannon.
Officers appeared in the streets in strange uniforms, green
faced with red; and they did not wear the tricolour cockade
which had already been adopted by the French nation. And while
thus uneasy looks were turned towards Versailles, an incident
took place which heightened the alarm. On October 1st a banquet
had been given by the Guards to the officers of the Flanders
Regiment. The tables were spread in the court theatre: the
boxes were filled with spectators. After the champagne was
served, and the health of the royal family had been drunk, the
wine and the shouting turned all heads; swords were drawn and
waved naked in the air: the tricolour cockades were trampled
under foot; the band struck up the tender and beautiful ballad,
โO Richard! O my King! the world is all forsaking thee!โ; the
queen came in and walked round the tables, bowing, and
bestowing her sweetest smiles; the bugles sounded the charge;
the men from different regiments were brought in; all swore
aloud they would protect the king, as if he was just then in
danger of his life; and some young ensigns carried by assault
certain boxes which expressed dissent at these proceedings.
This was the subject of conversation at the dinner to which
Clarkson was invited; and the next day the women of Paris
marched upon Versailles; the king was taken to the Tuileries
and the National Assembly became supreme โ under favour of the
mob.
After several weeks Clarkson at last received a definite reply.
The Revolution, he was told, was of more importance than the
abolition of the slave-trade. In Bordeaux, Marseilles, Rouen,
Nantes, and Havre, there were many persons in favour of that
trade. It would be said that abolition would be making a
sacrifice to England. The British parliament had as yet done
nothing, and people doubted the sincerity of Pitt. Mr. Clarkson
asked whether, if the question were postponed to the next
legislature, it would be more difficult to carry it then than
now. โThe question produced much conversation, but the answer
was unanimous โ that people would daily more and more admire
their constitution, and that by the constitution certain solid
and fixed principles would be established, which would
inevitably lead to the abolition of the slave-trade; and if the
constitution were once fairly established, they would not
regard the murmurs of any town or province.โ
Clarkson was not the only envoy who was defeated by the planter
interest on French soil. In the flourishing colony of St.
Domingo there were many mulatto planters, free and wealthy men,
but subject to degrading disabilities. When they heard of the
Revolution, they sent Ogรฉ to Paris with a large sum of money as
a present to the National Assembly, and a petition for equal
rights. The president received him and his companions with
cordiality: he bid them take courage; the Assembly knew no
distinction between black and white; all men were created free
and equal. But soon the planters began to intrigue, the
politicians to prevaricate, and to postpone. Ogรฉโs patience was
at last worn out; he declared to Clarkson that he did not care
whether their petition was granted them or not. โWe can
produce,โ he said, โas good soldiers on our estates as those in
France. If we are once forced to desperate measures, it will be
in vain to send thousands across the Atlantic to bring us back
to our former state.โ He finally returned to St. Domingo, armed
his slaves, was defeated and broken on the wheel. Then the
slaves rose and massacred the whites, and the cause of
abolition was tarnished by their crimes. In England the tide of
feeling turned; a panic fell upon the land. The practical
disciples of Rousseau had formed a club in Paris, the members
of which met in a Jacobin church, whence they took their name.
This club became a kind of caucus for the arrangement of
elections, to decide the measures which should be brought
forward in the National Assembly, and to preach unto all men
the gospel of liberty, equality, and fraternity. It had four
hundred daughter
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