ished,--peace with
Europe--and the abolition of the Slave Trade." But knowing well, that we
could much better protect ourselves against our own external enemies,
than this helpless people against their oppressors, he added, "but of
the two I wish the latter." These sentiments he occasionally repeated,
so that the subject was frequently in his thoughts in his last illness.
Nay, "the very hope of the abolition (to use the expression of Lord
Howick in the House of Commons) quivered on his lips in the last hour of
it." Nor is it improbable, if earthly scenes ever rise to view at that
awful crisis, and are perceptible, that it might have occupied his mind
in the last moment of his existence. Then indeed would joy ineffable,
from a conviction of having prepared the way for rescuing millions of
human beings from misery, have attended the spirit on its departure from
the body; and then also would this spirit, most of all purified when in
the contemplation of peace, good-will, and charity upon earth, be in the
fittest state, on gliding from its earthly cavern, to commix with the
endless ocean of benevolence and love.

At length the session of 1807 commenced. It was judged advisable by Lord
Grenville, that the expected motion on this subject should, contrary to
the practice hitherto adopted, be agitated first in the Lords.
Accordingly, on the 2nd of January he presented a bill, called an act
for the abolition of the Slave Trade; but he then proposed only to print
it, and to let it lie on the table, that it might be maturely
considered, before it should be discussed.

On the 4th, no less than four counsel were heard against the bill.

On the 5th the debate commenced. But of this I shall give no detailed
account; nor, indeed, of any of those which followed it. The truth is,
that the subject has been exhausted. They, who spoke in favour of the
abolition, said very little that was new concerning it. They, who spoke
against it, brought forward, as usual, nothing but negative assertions
and fanciful conjectures. To give therefore what was said by both
parties at these times, would be but useless repetition[A]. To give, on
the other hand, that which was said on one side only would appear
partial. Hence I shall offer to the reader little more than a narrative
of facts upon these occasions.

[Footnote A: The different debates in both Houses on this occasion would
occupy the half of another volume. This is another circumstance, which
r