session.

The Chancellor of the Exchequer said he should be happy, if he thought
the circumstances of the house were such as to enable them to proceed to
an immediate discussion of the question; but as that did not appear,
from the reasons he had before stated, to be the case, he could only
assure the honourable gentleman, that the same motives which had induced
him to propose an inquiry into the subject early in the next session of
parliament, would make him desirous of receiving any other light which
could be thrown upon it.

The question having been then put, the resolution was agreed to
unanimously. Thus ended the first debate that ever took place in the
Commons, on this important subject. This debate, though many of the
persons concerned in it abstained cautiously from entering into the
merits of the general question, became interesting, in consequence of
circumstances attending it. Several rose up at once to give relief, as
it were, to their feelings by utterance; but by so doing they were
prevented, many of them, from being heard. They who were heard, spoke
with peculiar energy, as if warmed in an extraordinary manner by the
subject. There was an apparent enthusiasm in behalf of the injured
Africans. It was supposed by some, that there was a moment, in which, if
the Chancellor of the Exchequer had moved for an immediate abolition of
the trade, he would have carried it that night; and both he and others,
who professed an attachment to the cause, were censured for not having
taken a due advantage of the disposition which was so apparent. But
independently of the inconsistency of doing this on the part of the
ministry, while the privy council were in the midst of their inquiries,
and of the improbability that the other branches of the legislature
would have concurred in so hasty a measure; what good would have accrued
to the cause, if the abolition had been then carried? Those concerned in
the cruel system would never have rested quietly under the stigma under
which they then laboured. They would have urged, that they had been
condemned unheard. The merchants would have said, that they had had no
notice of such an event, that they might prepare, a way for their
vessels in other trades. The planters would have said, that they had had
no time allowed them to provide such supplies from Africa as might
enable them to keep up their respective stocks. They would, both of
them, have called aloud for immediate indemnifica