d, that the National Assembly of
France would glory in going contrary to the example of other nations in
a case of generosity and justice, and that the petition in question, if
it could be obtained, would have an influence there, which the people of
England, unacquainted with the sentiments of the French nation, would
hardly credit.

To this I had only to reply, that I would communicate the measure to the
committee in London, but that I could not be answerable for the part
they would take in it.

By an answer received from Mr. Necker, relative to the first of these
resolutions, it appeared that the desired interview had been obtained;
but he granted it only for a few minutes, and this principally to show
his good-will to the cause: for he was then so oppressed with business
in his own department, that he had but little time for any other. He
wrote to me, however, the next day, and desired my company to dinner. He
then expressed a wish to me, that any business relative to the Slave
Trade might be managed by ourselves as individuals, and that I would
take the opportunity of dining with him occasionally for this purpose.
By this plan, he said, both of us would save time. Madame Necker, also,
promised to represent her husband, if I should call in his absence, and
to receive me, and converse with me on all occasions in which this great
cause of humanity and religion might be concerned.

With respect to the other resolutions, nothing ever came of them; for we
waited daily for an answer from the president during the whole of his
presidency, but we never received any; and the committee in London, when
they had read my letter, desired me unequivocally to say, that they did
not see the propriety of the petition which it had been recommended to
them to obtain.

At the next meeting it was resolved, that a letter should be written to
the new president for the same purpose as the former. This, it was said,
was now rendered essentially necessary; for the merchants, planters, and
others interested in the continuance of the Slave Trade, were so alarmed
at the enthusiasm of the French people in favour of the new order of
things, and of any change recommended to them, which had the appearance
of prompting the cause of liberty, that they held daily committees to
watch and to thwart the motions of the friends of the Negroes. It was
therefore thought proper, that the appeal to the Assembly should be
immediate on this subject, before the