he people on
this subject, appeared to those in authority to be a desirable thing. To
abolish the trade, replete as it was with misery, was desirable also;
but it was so connected with the interest of individuals, and so
interwoven with the commerce and revenue of the country, that a hasty
abolition of it without a previous inquiry appeared to them to be likely
to be productive of as much misery as good. The king, therefore, by an
order of council dated February the eleventh, 1788, directed that a
committee of Privy Council should sit as a board of trade, "to take into
their consideration the present state of the African Trade, particularly
as far as related to the practice and manner of purchasing or obtaining
slaves on the coast of Africa, and the importation and sale thereof,
either in the British colonies and settlements, or in the foreign
colonies and settlements in America or the West-Indies; and also as far
as related to the effects and consequences of the trade both in Africa
and in the said colonies and settlements, and to the general commerce of
this kingdom; and that they should report to him in council the result
of their inquiries, with such observations as they might have to offer
thereupon."

Of this order of council Mr. Wilberforce, who had attended to this great
subject, as far as his health would permit, since I left him, had
received notice; but he was then too ill himself to take any measures
concerning it. He therefore wrote to me, and begged of me to repair to
London immediately, in order to get such evidence ready as we might
think it eligible to introduce when the council sat. At that time, as
appears from the former chapter, I had finished the additions to my
_Essay on the Slavery and Commerce of the Human Species_, and I had now
proceeded about half way in that of the Impolicy of it. This summons,
however, I obeyed, and returned to town on the fourteenth of February,
from which day to the twenty-fourth of May I shall now give the history
of our proceedings.

My first business in London was to hold a conversation with Mr. Pitt
previously to the meeting of the council, and to try to interest him, as
the first minister of state, in our favour. For this purpose Mr.
Wilberforce had opened the way for me, and an interview took place. We
were in free conversation together for a considerable time, during which
we went through most of the branches of the subject. Mr. Pitt appeared
to me to have but li