Note 20 — APPENDIX.

The principal establishment might be fixed in or near London, and this might be connected with collateral schools, as branches of the same institution, in the several colonies; the whole being subject to the management of a board or committee, appointed expressly for conducting the affairs of the emancipation; and so regulated as to receive the approbation and assistance of the West India proprietors. In doing justice to the slaves, due care should be taken to provide a full compensation for their owners; otherwise, no plan of enfranchisement can be equitable, or administered with a fair prospect of proving beneficial to the colonies. In the measure now suggested, this might form a constituent part of the arrangement: a moderate tax might be raised, both in this country and the settlements, for the combined purpose of aiding the emancipation, and supplying the compensation.

As the system would be progressive in its operation, a very large sum would not be immediately required: perhaps an adequate fund might be derived from the following sources:

1. An appropriation of the “King’s Tax,” now levied in some of the colonies, and an extension of it, to all the British settlements in the West Indies.

2. A Sunday toll, to be collected at every toll-gate throughout the United Kingdom.

3. Voluntary contributions, and collections after charity sermons, to be preached half-yearly on the subject of the emancipation, in every church, chapel, and licensed place of worship in Great Britain and Ireland.

If these means should appear to be insufficient, it may be presumed that, at this happy period of diminishing the national burthens, few Englishmen could refuse themselves the gratification of promoting such a benevolent cause, by contributing ten or fifteen shillings per cent. according to the rate of the tax on property.