uld me made useful.

During these sittings, a letter was also read from Dr. Bathurst,
afterwards bishop of Norwich, dated Oxford, December 17th, in which he
offered his services in the promotion of the cause.

Another was read, which stated that Dr. Home, president of Magdalen
College in the same university, and afterwards bishop of the same see as
the former, highly favoured it.

Another was read from Mr. Lambert, fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge,
in which he signified to the committee the great desire he had to
promote the object of their institution. He had drawn up a number of
queries relative to the state of the unhappy slaves in the islands,
which he had transmitted to a friend, who had resided in them, to
answer. These answers he purposed to forward to the committee on their
arrival.

Another was read from Dr. Hinchliffe, bishop of Peterborough, in which
he testified his hearty approbation of the institution, and of the
design of it, and his determination to support the object of it in
parliament. He gave in at the same time a plan, which he called
_Thoughts on the Means of Abolishing the Slave Trade in Great Britain
and in our West Indian Islands_, for the consideration of the committee.

At the last of these sittings, the committee thought it right to make a
report to the public relative to the state and progress of their cause;
but as this was composed from materials which the reader has now in his
possession, it may not be necessary to produce it.

On the 22nd and 29th of January, and on the 5th and 12th of February,
1788, sittings were also held. During these, the business still
increasing, John Maitland, Esq., was elected a member of the committee.

As the correspondents of the committee were now numerous, and as these
solicited publications for the use of those who applied to them, as well
as of those to whom they wished to give a knowledge of the subject, the
press was kept in constant employ during this period also. Five thousand
two hundred and fifty additional _Reports_ were ordered to be printed,
and also three thousand of FALCONBRIDGE'S _Account of the Slave Trade_,
the manuscript of which was now finished. At this time, Mr. Newton,
rector of St. Mary Woolnoth in London, who had been in his youth to the
coast of Africa, but who had now become a serious and useful divine,
felt it his duty to write his _Thoughts on the African Slave Trade_. The
committee, having obtained permission, printed