een obliged to take up with those of the
lowest condition. This idea was circulated directly after the
introduction of Isaac Parker, before mentioned, a simple mariner, and
who was now contrasted with the admirals on the other side of the
question. This outcry was not only ungenerous, but unconstitutional. It
is the glory of the English law, that it has no scale of veracity which
it adapts to persons, according to the station which they may be found
to occupy in life. In our courts of law, the poor are heard as well as
the rich; and if their reputation be fair, and they stand proof against
the cross-examinations they undergo, both the judge and the jury must
determine the matter in dispute by their evidence. But the House of
Commons was now called upon by our opponents, to adopt the preposterous
maxim of attaching falsehood to poverty, or of weighing truth by the
standard of rank and riches.

But though we felt a considerable degree of pain in finding this adverse
disposition among so many members of the Lower House, it was some
consolation to us to know that our cause had not suffered with their
constituents,--the people. These were still warmly with us. Indeed,
their hatred of the trade had greatly increased. Many circumstances had
occurred in this year to promote it. The committee, during my absence in
France, had circulated the plate of the slave-ship throughout all
England. No one saw it but he was impressed. It spoke to him in a
language which was at once intelligible and irresistible. It brought
forth the tear of sympathy in behalf of the sufferers, and it fixed
their sufferings in his heart. The committee, too, had been particularly
vigilant during the whole of the year with respect to the public papers.
They had suffered no statement in behalf of those interested in the
continuance of the trade to go unanswered. Dr. Dickson, the author of
the _Letters on Slavery_, before mentioned, had come forward again with
his services on this occasion; and, by his active co-operation with a
sub-committee appointed for the purpose, the coast was so well cleared
of our opponents, that, though they were seen the next year again,
through the medium of the same papers, they appeared only in sudden
incursions, as it were, during which they darted a few weapons at us;
but they never afterward ventured upon the plain to dispute the matter,
inch by inch, or point by point, in an open and manly manner.

But other circumstances occur