ustice and truth, I
am convinced, demand some little declaration on this subject at my hands.
Brissot then was a man of plain and modest appearance. His habits, contrary
to those of his countrymen in general, were domestic. In his own family he
set an amiable example, both as a husband and as a father. On all occasions
he was a faithful friend. He was particularly watchful over his private
conduct. From the simplicity of his appearance, and the severity of his
morals, he was called The Quaker; at least in all the circles which I
frequented. He was a man of deep feeling. He was charitable to the poor as
far as a slender income permitted him. But his benevolence went beyond the
usual bounds. He was no patriot in the ordinary acceptation of the word;
for he took the habitable globe as his country, and wished to consider
every foreigner as his brother.

I left France, as it maybe easily imagined, much disappointed, that my
labours, which had been of nearly six months continuance, should have had
no better success; nor did I see, in looking forward, any circumstances
that were consoling with respect to the issue of them there; for it was
impossible that Mr. Pitt, even if he had been inclined to write to
Mirabeau, circumstanced as matters then were with respect to the hearing of
evidence, could have given him a promise, at least of a speedy abolition;
and, unless his answer had been immediate, it would have arrived, seeing
that the French planters were daily profiting by their intrigues, too late
to be effectual.

I had but just arrived in England, when Mr. Wilberforce made a new motion
in the House of Commons on the subject of the, Slave-trade. In referring to
the transactions of the last sessions, he found that twenty-eight days had
been allotted to the hearing of witnesses against the abolition, and that
eleven persons only had been examined in that time. If the examinations
were to go on in the same manner, they might be made to last for years. He
resolved therefore to move, that, instead of hearing evidence in future in
the house at large, members should hear it in an open committee above
stairs; which committee should sit notwithstanding any adjournment of the
house itself. This motion he made; and in doing it he took an opportunity
of correcting an erroneous report; which was, that he had changed his mind
on this great subject. This was, he said, so far from being the case, that
the more he contemplated the trade, the