ss reluctantly yielded to the call of becoming a
delegate,--though notwithstanding he would gladly have declined the
office if he could have done it with propriety.

At length the council began their examinations. Mr. Norris, Lieutenant
Matthews, of the navy, who had just left a slave employ in Africa, and
Mr. James Penny, formerly a slave captain, and then interested as a
merchant in the trade, (which three were the delegates from Liverpool,)
took possession of the ground first. Mr. Miles, Mr. Weuves, and others,
followed them on the same side. The evidence which they gave, as
previously concerted between themselves, may be shortly represented
thus:--They denied that kidnapping either did or could take place in
Africa, or that wars were made there for the purpose of procuring
slaves. Having done away these wicked practices from their system, they
maintained positions which were less exceptionable, as that the natives
of Africa generally became slaves in consequence of having been made
prisoners in just wars, or in consequence of their various crimes. They
then gave a melancholy picture of the despotism and barbarity of some of
the African princes, among whom the custom of sacrificing their own
subjects prevailed. But, of all others, that which was afforded by Mr.
Norris on this ground was the most frightful. The King of Dahomey, he
said, sported with the lives of his people in the most wanton manner. He
had seen at the gates of his palace two piles of heads, like those of
shot in an arsenal. Within the palace, the heads of persons, newly put
to death, were strewed at the distance of a few yards in the passage,
which led to his apartment. This custom of human sacrifice by the King
of Dahomey was not on one occasion only, but on many; such as on the
reception of messengers from neighbouring states, or of white merchants,
or on days of ceremonial. But the great carnage was once a year, when
the poll-tax was paid by his subjects. A thousand persons, at least,
were sacrificed annually on these different occasions. The great men,
too, of the country, cut off a few heads on festival-days. From all
these particulars the humanity of the Slave Trade was inferred, because
it took away the inhabitants of Africa into lands where no such
barbarities were known. But the humanity of it was insisted upon by
positive circumstances also; namely, that a great number of the slaves
were prisoners of war, and that in former times all such wer