inished, and of consequence the business brought into a very desirable
state of forwardness against the ensuing session. These observations had
not the desired effect, and the motion of Mr. Alderman Newnham was carried
without a division. Thus the great question, for the elucidation of which
all the new evidences were to be heard at the very first examination, in
order that it might be decided by the ninth of June, was by the intrigue of
our opponents deferred to another year.

The order of the day for going into the further consideration of the
Slave-trade having been discharged, Sir William Dolben rose, to state, that
it was his intention to renew his bill of the former year, relative to the
conveyance of the unhappy Africans from their own country to the West
Indies, and to propose certain alterations in it. He made a motion
accordingly, which was adopted; and he and Mr. Wilberforce were desired to
prepare the same.

This bill he introduced soon afterwards, and it passed; but not without
opposition. It was a matter, however, of great pleasure to find that the
worthy baronet was enabled by the assistance of Captain (afterwards
Admiral) Macbride, and other naval officers in the house, to carry such
clauses, as provided in some degree for the comfort of the poor seamen, who
were seduced into this wicked trade. They could not indeed provide against
the barbarity of their captains; but they secured them a space under the
half deck in which to sleep. They prescribed a form of muster-rolls, which
they were to see and sign in the presence of the clearing officer. They
regulated their food both as to kind and quantity; and they preserved them
from many of the impositions, to which they had been before exposed.

From the time when Mr. Wilberforce gave his first notice this session to
the present, I had been variously employed, but more particularly in the
composition of a new work. It was soon perceived to be the object of our
opponents, to impress upon the public the preference of regulation to
abolition. I attempted therefore to show the fallacy and wickedness of this
notion. I divided the evils belonging to the Slave-trade into two kinds.
These I enumerated in their order. With respect to those of the first kind,
I proved that they were never to be remedied by any acts of the British
parliament. Thus, for instance, what bill could alter the nature of the
human passions? What bill could prevent fraud and violence in Africa,