Page:Substance of the speech of His Royal Highness the Duke of Clarence, in the House of Lords.djvu/52

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stead of proposing his amendments, voted for the Bill as it stood.

In the session of 1797, the House of Commons presented an Address to his Majesty, and a Circular Letter was sent out to the different Governors in the British West Indies, to recommend colonial regulations, and to pass different acts of the Legislature for the amelioration of slaves. It is, my Lords, with real pleasure I can observe, that the British Planters in the different islands have, with that proper deference which is due to their King and the Mother Country, given the most satisfactory answers upon that subject. All the islands indeed have taken some steps, except the island of Dominica, where the Assembly happened to be dissolved. However, my Lords, it is but justice due to the Proprietors of the British West India islands to observe, that all that has been gained upon the subject of the amelioration of the state of the Negro is, that that is now made law