the English embassy at the
Hague, honorary and corresponding members; and that they concluded their
annual labours with a suitable report, in which they noticed the
extraordinary efforts of our opponents to injure our cause in the
following manner:--"In the progress of this business, a powerful
combination of interest has been excited against us. The African trader,
the planter, and the West India merchant, have united their forces to
defend the fortress, in which their supposed treasures lie. Vague
calculations and false alarms have been thrown out to the public, in
order to show that the constitution, and even the existence, of this
free and opulent nation depend on its depriving the inhabitants of a
foreign country of those rights and of that liberty which we ourselves
so highly and so justly prize. Surely, in the nature of things, and in
the order of Providence, it cannot be so. England existed as a great
nation long before the African commerce was known amongst us, and it is
not to acts of injustice and violence that she owes her present rank in
the scale of nations."

CHAPTER XXVI.

--Continuation from July, 1790, to July, 1791.--Author travels again
throughout the kingdom; object of his journey.--Motion in the House of
Commons to resume the hearing of evidence in favour of the abolition;
list of all those examined on this side of the question; machinations
of interested persons, and cruel circumstances of the times previously
to the day of decision.--Motion at length made for stopping all
further importation of Slaves from Africa; debates upon it; motion
lost.--Resolutions of the committee for the Abolition of the Slave
Trade.--Establishment of the Sierra Leone Company.

It was a matter of deep affliction to us to think, that the crimes and
sufferings inseparable from the Slave Trade were to be continued to
another year. And yet it was our duty, in the present moment, to
acquiesce in the postponement of the question. This postponement was not
now for the purpose of delay, but of securing victory. The evidence, on
the side of the abolition, was, at the end of the last session, but half
finished. It was impossible, for the sake of Africa, that we could have
then closed it. No other opportunity might offer in parliament for
establishing an indelible record in her favour, if we were to neglect
the present. It was our duty, therefore, even to wait to complete it,
and to procure such a body of evidence, as s