on took place
last year, called The African Institution, under the patronage of the
Duke of Gloucester, as president, and of the Mends to the African cause,
particularly of such as were in parliament, and as belonged to the
committee for the abolition of the Slave Trade.]

CHAPTER XXVII.

--Continuation from July 1791 to July 1792.--Author travels round the
kingdom again; object of his journey.--People begin to leave off the
use of sugar; to form committees; and to send petitions to
Parliament.--Motion made in the House of Commons for the immediate
abolition of the trade; Debates upon it; Abolition resolved upon, but
not to commence till 1796.--Resolution taken to the Lords; latter
determine upon hearing evidence; Evidence at length introduced;
further hearing of it postponed to the next session.

The defeat which we had just sustained, was a matter of great triumph to
our opponents. When they considered the majority in the House of Commons
in their favour, they viewed the resolutions of the committee, which
have been detailed, as the last spiteful effort of a vanquished and
dying animal, and they supposed that they had consigned the question to
eternal sleep. The committee, however, were too deeply attached to the
cause, vanquished as they were, to desert it; and they knew, also, too
well the barometer of public feeling, and the occasion of its
fluctuations, to despair. In the year 1787, the members of the House of
Commons, as well as the people, were enthusiastic in behalf of the
abolition of the trade. In the year 1788, the fair enthusiasm of the
former began to fade. In 1789, it died. In 1790, prejudice started up as
a noxious weed in its place. In 1791, this prejudice arrived at its
growth. But to what were these changes owing? To delay; during which the
mind, having been gradually led to the question as a commercial, had
been gradually taken from it as a moral object. But it was possible to
restore the mind to its proper place. Add to which, that the nation had
never deserted the cause during this whole period.

It is much to the honour of the English people, that they should have
continued to feel for the existence of an evil which was so far removed
from their sight. But at this moment their feelings began to be
insupportable. Many of them resolved, as soon as parliament had rejected
the bill, to abstain from the use of West Indian produce. In this state
of things, a pamphlet, written by William Bell