to know. He kept up a correspondence with persons in Liverpool for the same purpose. He visited also members of parliament, and this almost daily, to interest them in his cause; to give them information; to answer questions; and to explain doubts, if they had any, on any part of the subject. Among those who appeared most affected by his visits, and most anxious to co-operate with him, was Mr. Wilberforce, the member for the county of York. This gentleman not only read the evidence which Mr. Clarkson sent him on the subject, as he collected it fresh from day to day, but actually sent for, and took the pains to examine, at his own house, those persons who had given it, that he might judge for himself, from their own mouths, of the truth or falsehood of the enormities which had been charged upon the slave trade. The same gentleman appointed also a meeting once a week, at his own house, of a few select friends, to deliberate on the propriety, and, if this were resolved upon, on the proper method of taking up the cause. These meetings continued for some time, when at length, at a dinner at the house of Mr. Bennet Langton, who has been before-mentioned, where several persons of consequence were invited for the purpose of talking over the matter, and of coming to a final determination upon it, Mr. Wilberforce pledged himself to bring forward the great question of the abolition of the slave trade in parliament, as soon as ever he should feel himself prepared for so tremendous a task. Here then the matter began to assume a shape. A parliamentary leader had been secured, and one whose virtuous life corresponded with the sacredness of the cause which he was to advocate. Mr. Clarkson, who was present at this dinner, carried directly the news of what had taken place to several of his friends, but particularly to Mr. Granville Sharp, Mr. Dillwyn, and three or four others of the religious society of the Quakers, all of whom he had previously taught to expect such a result. The consequence was, that the following persons met the next day, and without loss of time formed themselves into a committee, for procuring such information and evidence, and publishing the same, as may tend to the abolition of the slave trade, and for directing the application of such monies as may be collected for the above purpose,' viz. Granville Sharp, Samuel Hoare, George Harrison, John Lloyd, Joseph Woods, Willian Dillwyn, Thomas Clarkson, Richard Phillips, James Phillips, Philip Sansom, John Barton, and Joseph Hooper. Mr. Granville Sharp, the first mentioned, may be considered, from what has been before said, as representing the first of the classes which have been described. The four next were the real representatives of the second. The third class, or that of the Quakers in America, may be considered as represented in the person of William Dillwyn, by whom, indeed, it was afterwards united to the committee now formed; and Mr. Clarkson and Mr. R. Phillips as representing the fourth, most of the members of which they had been the means of raising. Thus,' says the historian, on the 22d of May, 1787, the representatives of all the four classes, of which I have been giving a history from the year 1516, met together, and were united in that committee to which I have been all along directing the attertion of the reader; a committee, which, laboring afterwards with Mr. Wilberforce as a parliamentary head, did, under Providence, in the space of twenty years, contribute to put an end to a trade, which., measuring its magnitude by its crimes and sufferings, was the greatest practical evil that ever afflicted the human race. After the formation of the committee, notice was sent to Mr. Wilberforce of the event; and a friendship began, which has continued uninterruptedly between them from that to the present day. In the following month, that is, in June 1787, the committee simplified its former title, and was ushered into the world. It professed to have nothing to do with the emancipation of slaves already in bondage. Its only object was the abolition of the African slave trade. From this period we shall trace the history of its proceedings annually. When the committee was formed, Mr. Clarkson drew up A Summary View of the SlaveTrade, and of the probable Consequences of its Abolition.' It consisted only of about a dozen pages. It detailed the different methods of making slaves in Africa, their treatment, sufferings, and mortality in the passage; and also the treatment of the survivors in the colonies to which they were carried; and it promised the publication of an Essay on the Impolicy of the Slave-Trade. This Summary the committee determined to print, and to circulate all over the kingdom. In the mean time Mr. Clarkson was to take a journey to the different slave-ports, to increase his own knowledge of the subject. The first place he visited was Bristol, where he resided for some weeks. Here he obtained a knowledge of several articles of African produce, such as rice, indigo, cotton, spices, and woods, and collected specimens of them. He obtained specimens also of the different manufactures of the natives of Africa, both in wood, cotton, leather, iron, and gold. He examined the construction of slave-ships, and took the dimensions of several. He obtained histories of their former voyages. He collected chains, handcuffs, thumb-screws, and other horrid instruments used in this execrable traffic. He discovered the scandalous modes of procuring and paying those seamen who were employed in it, the sad ratio of their mortality on the voyage, and the prodigious difference between the mortality of these and of those employed in other trades, of which he was enabled to take a comprehensive view, from procuring the muster-rolls of almost every ship belonging to the port. But that which hurt his feelings the most, and which kept him indeed in a state of constant misery while in Bristol, was the barbarous usage, and this almost without an exception, of the seamen employed in this traffic. He took many out of the slave-vessels there. He took up the cause of some of these, and obtained damages for them in the courts of law. He sent a chief mate to prison for the murder of one of the crew acting under him. While at Bristol he formed a committee to act in union with that of London, and obtained pro order a committee of privy-council to enquire mises of petitions to parliament against the continuance of the inhuman traffic from that city, and from Bath, Monmouth, and Bridgewater. On his journey from Bristol to Liverpool he procured the promise of similar petitions from Gloucester, Worcester, and Chester, and secured the provincial newspapers as he travelled on in behalf of his cause. On his arrival at Liverpool he followed the same line of enquiry as at Bristol, for six weeks, after which period (so incensed were merchants, captains of ships, and others connected with the trade, against him) it would have been dangerous to stay. From thence he visited Lancaster, the last of the slaveports, and at length returned to London, after an absence of five months, in the December of 1787. The committee, in the mean while, that is, during his absence, had been equally well employed, and had been equally indefatigable. The first thing they did was to make known, by public advertisement, their existence as a committee, and the great object they had in view. They ordered a seal to be engraved for their correspondence. The device upon it was a negro in chains, kneeling, and in a supplicating manner lifting up his hands to heaven. The motto round the device consisted of these words, Am I not a man and a brother?' They then added to their committee to increase their laborers; and, having done so, they directly opened a correspondence throughout England, Wales, and Scotland, which they extended afterwards to America. This gave them an opportunity of making their cause known in the most extensive manner. Accordingly, when things had been thus prepared, they circulated many thousands of the Summary Views before-mentioned, and, at the same time, addressed by letter all the corporate bodies in the kingdom. These efforts soon convinced them that there were thousands of kindred souls in their own country, who felt with them on the great subject of their institution. The Quakers were the first, as a body, to acknowledge and approve it; the general Baptists the next: then followed letters of approbation, and promises of support, from people of all religious denominations. Among these were the famous Dr. Price and John Wesley; Mr. Roscoe, the historian and poet; Dr. Porteus, bishop of Chester; Dr. Woodward, bishop of Cloyne; Dr. Hinchliffe, bishop of Peterborough; Dr. Horne, afterwards bishop of Norwich; Dr. Bathurst, now bishop of the same; archdeacons Paley and Plymley (now Corbett); the celebrated marquis de la Fayette, who was soon afterwards conspicuous in the French revotation; and Brissot and Claviere, afterwards two distinguished members of the national convention in France, and who suffered under the tyranny of Robespierre. This good feeling continued to spread, when, in the month of February, 1788, there appeared to be among the people of England a general feeling in behalf of the injured Africans. By this time thirty-five petitions had been presented to parliament from different places, praying for the abolition of the slavetrade, and several others had been resolved upon. These proceedings produced such an effect upon the government that the king was advised to VOL. XX 2 G he thought it was the duty of the house to take care that it should be carried on with as much humanity as possible in the interim. His great object, therefore, was to alleviate the sufferings of the poor Africans in their transportation, by allowing them more room, which might be done by regulating the number to be carried by the tonnage of the vessel. Leave was accordingly given; but the merchants of Liverpool determined to oppose the bill in every stage. They despatched immediately to London those very persons to be examined before the house whom they had before sent for examination to the privy-council. When counsel had closed their case, a debate ensued, in which the statements of these witnesses were exposed, greatly to their mortification, and the bill passed by a majority of fifty-five to five. It was then carried to the lords. Here a still more determined opposition was begun, and carried on in such a manner, and with so much apparent success (the house being very thin at that season), as to alarm the abolitionists, not only for the fate of the bill itself, but for that of their great question the ensuing year. At length it passed the upper house, as through an ordeal of fire, and received the king's assent, on July 11. During all this time the privy-council continued their examinations. Mr. Clarkson underwent an examination among others. It was at this time that he brought out his powerful essay on the impolicy of the slavetrade. This was circulated in great numbers by the committee, upon whom too much praise cannot be bestowed for their labors. From July 1787 to July 1788, the time we are now come to, they had held fifty-one long committees: they had held as many more sub-committees: they had distributed (besides 26,526 reports, debates in parliament, and other matters) 51,432 pamphlets or books. They had roused the feelings of the whole English nation, and had attracted the notice of some of the most distinguished persons in France and Germany. The session of 1788 was no sooner over than Mr. Clarkson undertook a journey to all the seaports between Kent and Cornwall. His object was to find out, if possible, new witnesses to strengthen the good cause. He met with considerable success in his journey, and he formed committees, auxiliary to that of London, as he went along. On his return to London he was again examined by the privy-council, to whom he showed, by way of evidence, his collection of African curiosities, consisting of produce and manufactures, which he had now completed. He introduced also to their lordships, for examination, all the new witnesses he had discovered, and whose testimony was of the highest value. The committee, in the mean time, had been indefatigable. They had directed their correspondence to new parts of the kingdom, as well as of North America. They had addressed the rulers of Spain, Portugal, and Sweden, in behalf of their institution, and had opened a communication with Germany on the same subject. They had printed and circulated no less than five new works to promote their cause, and, besides, that famous engraving of the section of the slave-ship (where the bodies of the negroes were seen packed in the different parts of it), which afterwards excited such universal sympathy in the country, and which caused such a universal abhorrence of the trade. About this time, that is, on the 19th of March, 1789, Mr. Wilberforce, who was then but just recovered from his long and severe illness, moved, in the commons, that the house should on Thursday, the 29th of April, take into consideration its own resolution of the last session. This motion was agreed to; but it became immediately the signal to all those who supposed themselves interested in the continuance of the trade, such as planters, mortgagees, merchants, manufacturers, and others, to begin a tremendous opposition. Meetings were called, and frightful resolutions entered into. The public papers were filled with them. Here, as well as in pamphlets, the most bitter invectives were poured forth against the abolitionists. Emanci pation was industriously confounded with abolition. Compensation was demanded to a most monstrous degree. The cry, indeed, was such that many began to be staggered about the propriety of the total abolition of the trade. At this time Mr. Pitt, his majesty's chancellor of the exchequer, laid the privy-council report, consisting of the examinations before-mentioned, which came out in the shape of a large folio volume in print, upon the table of the house of commons, and moved, in order that members might have time to become acquainted with the evidence it contained, that the consideration of the slave-trade, which stood, by Mr. Wilberforce's motion, for the 29th of April, should be postponed to the 12th of May. This was agreed to. On the day appointed Mr. Wilberforce rose, and, in a speech of three hours and a half, introduced the great question into parliament. He reasoned entirely from the evidence contained in the report just mentioned, and deduced from it twelve grand propositions, which he read, and then laid them upon the table. These propositions contained the whole question. He wished them to be argued at a future day. Upon this, great opposition was manifested by the members for Liverpool and others, and a warm debate took place, when it was agreed that they should be taken into consideration on the 21st of May. When the day arrived, several petitions were presented to the house, by persons interested in the traffic, against its abolition. Mr. Wilberforce rose up and addressed the house. After this, an altercation took place rather than a debate, in which much heat and animosity were manifested. Those members who espoused the cause of the interested persons, seeing that it would be overthrown, if they judged of the merits of it by the privy-council report, would not now abide by the latter, but rejected it as an imperfect sort of evidence, and demanded that witnesses should be heard at the bar of the house of commons in explanation of many of the mis-statements which that book contained. By these means they endeavoured to get rid of the propositions altoge ther. Their demand, however, after a good deal of contention, was complied with, and on the 26th of May counsel were heard, and one witness, a slave-captain, was examined. Their object now was to interpose every legal species of delay, and in this they succeeded so well that from the 26th of May to the 9th of June only iwo of their witnesses had been examined. In this slow way they went on till the 23d of the same month, when it was seen that it would be utterly impossible to bring the question to a final decision in that session; for they declared that they had many evidences yet to produce, and that they must and would be heard. Accordingly they moved, and Mr. Wilberforce agreed, that the farther consideration of the subject should be postponed to the next sessions. Those who were interested in the continuance of the trade, having now got rid of the privycouncil report, and introduced new evidences to the commons in behalf of their case, it became the committee to collect as respectable a body of witnesses as possible on their own side of the question. Mr. Clarkson had undertaken to traverse the kingdom again for this purpose, and had set out, when, hearing that the French revolution had broken out, and that a committee for the abolition of the slave-trade had been formed in Paris, he returned, and immediately hastened to the latter city, where he arrived at the latter end of July. He soon became acquainted with the marquis de la Fayette, monsieur Necker, the duke de la Rochefoucauld, the marquis de Condorcet, and Messrs. Mirabeau, Petion, Brissot, Claviere, and other distinguished persons. He spent his time, while in Paris, in attending the committee there, in visiting members of the National Assembly, and in the personal distribution of books among them, but particularly his Essay on the Impolicy of the Slave-Trade, which he had caused to be translated into French for that purpose. Returning to London, in January 1790, he found that Mr. Wilberforce had carried a motion in the commons, that witnesses should not be examined in future at the bar of that house, but in a committee-room, which should be open to all members. This was necessary for the sake of despatch, as the examinations otherwise might have taken up ten years. Mr. Clarkson now resumed the journey which he had begun in the preceding summer, in search of new and respectable witnesses. He made a tour of 1200 miles in three weeks, during which he found out sixteen persons capable of giving good testimony on the subject, but could only prevail upon three to be examined. On his return to London, he found that the examinations of witnesses in behalf of those interested were going on in the committee of the house of commons, and with so much rapidity that it was expected their case would be soon closed. This alarmed him exceedingly; for out of seventeen persons who stood upon his list as having promised to give their testimony in behalf of the abolition, one had lately died, and no less than eight, being seafaring persons, were then out of the kingdom. He determined, therefore, upon another journey; and, on turning the subject over in his mind, he thought he should obtain the greatest number of disinterested witnesses, in the shortest possible time, if he could go on board all the ships of war lying in ordinary at the king's ports in different parts of the kingdom. Impressed with this idea, he went to Deptford, and first boarded all the men of war that were lying there. He then proceeded to Woolwich, and afterwards to Chatham, Sheerness, Portsmouth, and Plymouth, where he boarded others in like manner, to the number altogether of 400, in which he picked up several very excellent and important witnesses. On the 20th of April, the persons interested had just closed their case. Accordingly Mr. Wilberforce moved, on the 23d of the same month, in the house of commons, that witnesses should be heard in behalf of the abolition. Upon this much clamor ensued. The members who acted in union with the persons interested in the continuance of the slave-trade wished to have the case directly argued, that is, upon their own evidence, and without hearing any on the other side, and resisted accordingly. Their opposition, however, proved ineffectual against the eloquence of Mr. Wilberforce, supported powerfully as he was by that of Mr. Pitt and Mr. Fox. At length the witnesses in behalf of the abolition took possession of the ground which the others had left, and no less than twenty-four, some of whom had been found out since the last tour, were examined before the close of the session. At this time it is very curious to remark that the feelings of parliament, and those of the people, were very different on this great question. The tide certainly ran against the abolitionists in the house of commons. The old hue and cry had been revived of intended emancipation under the pretence of abolition; of monstrous indemnification to the planters; and of the certain massacre of the whites by the negroes, if the trade were to be abolished, but in more furious language, and to a greater extent than before. The feeling, on the other hand, in the country, was warmly on the side of the abolition. It had been kept up and increased by various circumstances. The committee had been daily employed in answering, through the medium of the public papers, every objection which had been started as hostile to their cause. They had also by this time distributed all over England, Scotland, and Wales, the horrible and af fecting engraving of the section of the slave ship before mentioned. Individuals, too, had kept alive the popular feeling in various ways. Wedgewood, the celebrated manufacturer, had taken the committee's seal, as before explained, for a model, and had struck off and distributed many thousand small cameos in plaster. The ground of each of these cameos was white, but the negro, who was seen imploring compassion on his knees in the middle of it, was of his own native color. Cowper also, and other poets, had written beautiful and affecting songs on the subject. These were circulated very copiously through the kingdom, and some of them were sung in the very streets. Not more than half the evidence, which was deemed necessary, having been heard on the side of the abolition in the session just passed, it became a duty in the committee to use every possible exertion to complete it, and this in the best possible manner, before the next. Mr. Clarkson was, therefore, again solicited to traverse the kingdom, and Mr. Wilberforce prepared an in genious list of questions to assist him in his examinations and enquiries. With this he departed, and travelled from August 1790 to February 1791, during which time he went over the greatest part of the island, and had the good fortune to add a considerable number of new and important witnesses to his list. At length the examinations were resumed in the committee of the house of commons, and closed finally on the 4th of April. No less than sixty-nine persons had given their testimony, in this and the preceding session, in behalf of the abolition of the slave-trade. The evidence having been printed on both sides for the use of the members, as the basis upon which to argue the case, the 18th of April was fixed upon as the day for deciding it. By this time every effort had been made by the persons interested to render the question unpopular in the commons. Emancipation, indemnification, massacre, ruin, had been vociferated over and over again in the ears of the members there. At this time, unhappily, the most sanguinary scenes were taking place in St. Domingo, in consequence of the revolution which had been effected there, and an insurrection had broken out in the British island of Dominica. All these had been industriously detailed in print, but with great exaggeration, and added to the cries just mentioned. This union of reports and cries had produced such a terrific effect upon many members, that they considered the abolitionists, by persevering in their question, as ferocious monsters; and in this unfavorable frame of mind they went into the house on the day fixed for the discussion, to discharge their duty with respect to this great question. On this day, namely, the 18th of April, 1791, Mr. Wilberforce made a most luminous and affecting speech, in which he took a most masterly view of the whole question in all its different departments, as it related both to Africa and the West Indies. He argued the inhumanity of the traffic; he argued its impolicy; he appealed to feeling; he appealed to reason; he tried to disarm his opponents by candor; he exhorted them to attend to their own interest; and concluded by moving for leave to bring in a bill to prevent the farther importation of slaves into the British colonies in the West Indies. After this, a most serious discussion ensued, which lasted till three in the morning, when, several members being yet desirous of speaking, the business was adjourned to the next day. It was then argued again till half past three in the morning, when the house divided on the original motion. There were for it but eighty-eight votes, and against it 163; so that this great cause of humanity, justice, and religion, which had cost so many years of labor, was lost by a majority of seventy-five votes. Upon the news of this signal defeat, the committee for the abolition of the slave-trade held a meeting, which was conducted with the most solemn dignity. They voted thanks to the illustrious minority which had lately stood forth the assertors of British justice and humanity, and the enemies of a traffic in the blood of man; and entered into several resolutions, the substance of one of which was, that they considered the late decision of the house rather as a delay than a defeat; that they did not despair of final success; and that they would never desist from appealing to their countrymen, till the commercial intercourse with Africa should cease to be polluted with the blood of its inhabitants. These resolutions were followed up by a suitable report, and sent to all the country committees throughout the kingdom. At length the session ended, and a cruel one it had proved to those who had interested themselves in the abolition of this cruel traffic. The defeat, however, which they had experienced, had been rendered more tolerable, because, in consequence of the unjust clamors by which the minds of many members of parliament had been affected, it had been expected. It had been rendered more tolerable again, by knowing that several of the most distinguished characters in the kingdom, and all of splendid talents in the house of commons, such as Pitt, Fox, Burke, Grey, Sheridan, Wyndham, Whitbread, Courtnay, Francis, Rider, W. Smith, and H. Thornton, had supported the sacred cause; and because a bill had been carried through both houses of parliament in this very session for the establishment of the Sierra Leona Company. The people of England, soon after this defeat, began to be sensibly affected by this question; and many, in order to wash their hands of the blood of Africa, left off the use of sugar. Mr. Clarkson, after a consultation with Mr. Wilberforce and the committee, undertook to abridge the evidence which had been offered to the house of commons on the side of the abolition, with a view of circulating its horrible contents through the kingdom, and of thus making the public impression still deeper. This abridgment was begun in June 1791, and was written, printed, and in the hands of all the committee's correspondents in England, Wales, and Scotland, by the latter end of September. Mr. Clarkson now undertook to follow the book, and to see, if possible, that it was actually read. Accordingly he left London in the beginning of November. It was his intention to wait personally upon every person in every county in the kingdom, to whom the book had been sent, to get others of the town or neighbourhood to meet him there, to converse with them on the subject, to entreat their individual perusal of the abridgment, and their united efforts in lending it out judiciously, and in seeing that it was read. This he attempted to realise, but the process was very tedious. He had travelled 6000 miles in the execution of his plan, when he found that he had yet 4000 to go. To perform this was impossible, so as to answer the purpose. He therefore made his situation known to the committee. The consequence was, that Dr. Dickson, a gentleman who had greatly assisted the cause by his writings, set off from London, and took the whole of Scotland off his hands. The result of the two journeys was soon visible. The people could not bear the facts which the abridgment had disclosed to them. Great numbers left off immediately the use both of sugar and rum. The great bulk of the nation, however, vented their feelings in public meetings to address the legislature on the subject, and this : |