e put to
death, whereas now they were saved: so that there was a great accession
of happiness to Africa since the introduction of the trade.

These statements, and those of others on the same side of the question,
had a great effect, as may easily be conceived, upon the feelings of
those of the council who were present. Some of them began immediately to
be prejudiced against us. There were others who even thought that it was
almost unnecessary to proceed in the inquiry, for that the trade was
actually a blessing. They had little doubt that all our assertions
concerning it would be found false. The Bishop of London himself was so
impressed by these unexpected accounts, that he asked me if
Falconbridge, whose pamphlet had been previously sent by the committee
to every member of the council, was worthy of belief, and if he would
substantiate publicly what he had thus written: but these impressions
unfortunately were not confined to those who had been present at the
examinations. These could not help communicating them to others. Hence,
in all the higher circles (some of which I sometimes used to frequent) I
had the mortification to hear of nothing but the Liverpool evidence, and
of our own credulity, and of the impositions which had been practised
upon us: of these reports the planters and merchants did not fail to
avail themselves. They boasted that they would soon do away all the idle
tales which had been invented against them. They desired the public only
to suspend their judgment till the privy council report should be out,
when they would see the folly and wickedness of all our allegations. A
little more evidence, and all would be over. On the 22nd of March,
though the committee council had not then held its sittings more than a
month, and these only twice or thrice a week, the following paragraph
was seen in a morning paper:--"The report of the committee of privy
council will be ready in a few days. After due examination it appears
that the major part of the complaints against this trade are
ill-founded. Some regulations, however, are expected to take place,
which may serve in a certain degree to appease the cause of humanity."

But while they, who were interested, had produced this outcry against
us, in consequence of what had fallen from their own witnesses in the
course of their examinations, they had increased it considerably by the
industrious circulation of a most artful pamphlet among persons of rank
and fort