takes sting out of anti-slavery drive

Tory ministers appear to have out-manoeuvred the new group campaigning for the abolition of slavery across the British Empire in a lengthy debate at Westminster.

The debate saw the official change of leadership of anti-slavery MPs, with the veteran William Wilberforce being replaced by the Dorset Independent MP, Thomas Fowell Buxton. He told the Commons that slavery was a crime that “originated in robbery” and was “an outrage upon every principle of justice and every tenet of religion”.

But hopes that MPs would adopt a resolution calling slavery “repugnant” and seeking its gradual abolition throughout British colonies were dashed when the Foreign Secretary, George Canning, put an alternative plan before MPs.

Mr Canning focused on improving the lives of enslaved people in the Caribbean islands to prepare them for eventual emancipation - but only when consistent with the safety of the colonies and the interests of private property and slave-owners. Mr Buxton is said to be sceptical as to when it will ever be “safe” to free Britain’s slaves.