nbridge, Mr. Newton,
and the Dean of Middleham. There was one, however, who would be a host
of himself, if we could but gain him. I then mentioned Mr. Norris. I
told Mr. Pitt the nature[A] and value of the testimony which he had
given me at Liverpool, and the great zeal he had discovered to serve the
cause. I doubted, however, if he would come to London for this purpose,
even if I wrote to him; for he was intimate with almost all the owners
of slave-vessels in Liverpool, and, living among these, he would not
like to incur their resentment by taking a prominent part against them.
I therefore entreated Mr. Pitt to send him a summons of council to
attend, hoping that Mr. Norris would then be pleased to come up, as he
would be enabled to reply to his friends that his appearance had not
been voluntary. Mr. Pitt, however, informed me, that a summons from a
committee of privy council, sitting as a board, was not binding upon the
subject; and therefore that I had no other means left, but of writing to
him, and he desired me to do this by the first post.

[Footnote A: See his evidence, Chap. XVII.]

This letter I accordingly wrote, and sent it to my friend William
Rathbone, who was to deliver it in person, and to use his own influence
at the same time; but I received for answer, that Mr. Norris was then in
London. Upon this I tried to find him out, to entreat him to consent to
an examination before the council. At length I found his address; but
before I could see him, I was told by the Bishop of London that he had
come up as a Liverpool delegate in support of the Slave Trade.
Astonished at this information, I made the bishop acquainted with the
case, and asked him how it became me to act; for I was fearful lest, by
exposing Mr. Norris, I should violate the rights of hospitality on the
one hand, and by not exposing him that I should not do my duty to the
cause I had undertaken on the other. His advice was, that I should see
him, and ask him to explain the reasons of his conduct. I called upon
him for this purpose, but he was out. He sent me, however, a letter soon
afterwards, which was full of flattery; and in which, after having paid
high compliments to the general force of my arguments, and the general
justice and humanity of my sentiments on this great question, which had
made a deep impression upon his mind, he had found occasion to differ
from me, since we had last parted, on particular points, and that he had
therefore le