ery, and the Expediency of its Abolition; with some Hints on the
Means whereby it may be gradually effected_,--proved that in lieu of the
usual security required, certain sums paid at the several periods of
manumission would amply secure the public, as well as the owners of the
slaves, from any future burdens. In the same year also, when the
society, joined by several hundreds of others in New Jersey, presented a
petition to the legislature, (as mentioned in the former chapter,) to
obtain an act of assembly for the more equitable manumission of slaves
in that province, William Dillwyn was one of a deputation, which was
heard at the bar of the assembly for that purpose.

In 1774, he came to England, but his attention was still kept alive to
the subject; for he was the person by whom Anthony Benezet sent his
letter to the Countess of Huntingdon, as before related. He was also the
person to whom the same venerable defender of the African race sent his
letter, before spoken of, to be forwarded to the Queen.

That William Dillwyn, and those of his own class in England, acted upon
motives very distinct from those of the former class, may be said with
truth; for they acted upon the constitutional principles of their own
society, as incorporated into its discipline: which principles would
always have incited them to the subversion of slavery, as far as they
themselves were concerned, whether any other person had abolished it or
not. To which it may be added, as a further proof of the originality of
their motives, that the Quakers have had, ever since their institution
as a religious body, but little intercourse with the world.

The third class, to which I now come, consisted, as we have seen, first
of the Quakers in America; and secondly, of an union, of these with
others on the same continent. The principal individuals concerned in
this union were James Pemberton and Dr. Rush. The former of these,
having taken an active part in several of the yearly meetings of his own
society relative to the oppressed Africans, and having been in habits of
intimacy and friendship with John Woolman and Anthony Benezet, with the
result of whose labours he was acquainted, may be supposed to have
become qualified to take a leading station in the promotion of their
cause. Dr. Rush also had shown himself, as has appeared, an able
advocate, and had even sustained a controversy in their favour. That the
two last mentioned acted also on motives of th