rived in England, and might be seen by the public; the great
grievances had been redressed; no slave could now be mutilated or
wantonly killed by his owner; one man could not now maltreat, or bruise,
or wound the slave of another; the aged could not now be turned off to
perish by hunger. There were laws, also, relative to the better feeding
and clothing of the slaves. It remained only that the trade to Africa
should be put under as wise and humane regulations as the slavery in the
islands had undergone.

These different statements, appearing now in the public papers from day
to day, began, in this early stage of the question, when the subject in
all its bearings was known but to few, to make a considerable impression
upon those, who were soon to be called to the decision of it. But that
which had the greatest effect upon them, was the enormous amount of the
compensation, which, it was said, must be made. This statement against
the abolition was making its way so powerfully, that Archdeacon Paley
thought it his duty to write, and to send to the committee, a little
treatise called _Arguments against the unjust Pretensions of Slave
Dealers and Holders, to be indemnified by pecuniary Allowances at the
public expense, in case the Slave Trade should be abolished_. This
treatise, when the substance of it was detailed in the public papers,
had its influence upon several members of the House of Commons; but
there were others who had been, as it were, panic-struck by the
statement. These in their fright seemed to have lost the right use of
their eyes, or to have looked through a magnifying glass. With these the
argument of emancipation, which they would have rejected at another time
as ridiculous, obtained now easy credit. The massacres too, and the
ruin, though only conjectural, they admitted also. Hence some of them
deserted our cause wholly, while others, wishing to do justice as far as
they could to the slaves on the one hand, and to their own countrymen on
the other, adopted a middle line of conduct, and would go no further
than the regulation of the trade.

While these preparations were making by our opponents to prejudice the
minds of those who were to be the judges in this contest, Mr. Pitt
presented the privy council report at the bar of the House of Commons;
and as it was a large folio volume, and contained the evidence upon
which the question was to be decided, it was necessary that time should
be given to the members