The History of the Rise, Progress and Accomplishment of the Abolition of the African Slave Trade | Page 7

of mine. If I give
you my evidence I lose his patronage. At the house above him lives an
East Indian. The two families are connected: I fear, if I lose the support
of one, I shall lose that of the other also: but I will give you privately
all the intelligence in my power."
The reader may now conceive the many miserable hours I must have
spent, after such visits, in returning home; and how grievously my heart

must have been afflicted by these cruel disappointments, but more
particularly where they arose from causes inferior to those which have
been now mentioned, or from little frivolous excuses, or idle and
unfounded conjectures, unworthy of beings expected to fill a moral
station in life. Yes, O man! often in these solitary journeyings have I
exclaimed against the baseness of thy nature, when reflecting on the
little paltry considerations which have smothered thy benevolence, and
hindered thee from succouring an oppressed brother. And yet, on a
further view of things, I have reasoned myself into a kinder feeling
towards thee. For I have been obliged to consider ultimately, that there
were both lights and shades in the human character; and that, if the bad
part of our nature was visible on these occasions, the nobler part of it
ought not to be forgotten. While I passed a censure upon those, who
were backward in serving this great cause of humanity and justice, how
many did I know, who were toiling in the support of it! I drew also this
consolation from my reflections, that I had done my duty; that I had left
nothing untried or undone; that amidst all these disappointments I had
collected information, which might be useful at a future time; and that
such disappointments were almost inseparable from the prosecution of
a cause of such magnitude, and where the interests of so many were
concerned. Having now given a general account of my own
proceedings, I shall state those of the committee; or show how they
contributed, by fulfilling the duties of their several departments, to
promote the cause in the interim.
In the first place they completed the rules, or code of laws, for their
own government.
They continued to adopt and circulate books, that they might still
enlighten the public mind on the subject, and preserve it interested in
favour of their institution. They kept the press indeed almost constantly
going for this purpose. They printed, within the period mentioned,
Ramsay's Address on the proposed Bill for the Abolition; The Speech
of Henry Beaufoy, esquire, on Sir William Dolben's Bill, of which an
extract was given in the first volume; Notes by a Planter on the two
Reports from the Committee of the honourable House of Assembly of
Jamaica; Observations on the Slave-trade by Mr. Wadstrom; and

Dickson's Letters on Slavery. These were all new publications. To
those they added others of less note, with new editions of the old.
They voted their thanks to the reverend Mr. Gifford, for his excellent
sermon on the Slave-trade; to the pastor and congregation of the Baptist
church at Maze Pond, Southwark, for their liberal subscription; and to
John Barton, one of their own members, for the services he had
rendered them. The latter, having left his residence in town for one in
the country, solicited permission to resign, and hence this mark of
approbation was given to him. He was continued also as an honorary
and corresponding member.
They elected David Hartley and Richard Sharpe, esquires, into their
own body, and Alexander Jaffray, esquire, the reverend Charles
Symmons of Haverfordwest, and the reverend T. Burgess (now bishop
of St. David's), as honorary and corresponding members. The latter had
written Considerations on the Abolition of Slavery and the Slave-trade
upon Grounds of natural, religious, and political Duty, which had been
of great service to the cause.
Of the new correspondents of the committee within this period I may
first mention Henry Taylor, of North Shields; William Proud, of Hull;
the reverend T. Gisborne, of Yoxall Lodge; and William Ellford,
esquire, of Plymouth. The latter, as chairman of the Plymouth
committee, sent up for inspection an engraving of a plan and section of
a slave-ship, in which the bodies of the slaves were seen stowed in the
proportion of rather less than one to a ton. This happy invention gave
all those, who saw it, a much better idea than they could otherwise have
had of the horrors of their transportation, and contributed greatly, as
will appear afterwards, to impress the public in favour of our cause.
The next, whom I shall mention, was C.L. Evans, esquire, of West
Bromwich; the reverend T. Clarke, of Hull; S.P. Wolferstan, esquire, of
Stafford near Tamworth; Edmund Lodge, esquire, of Halifax; the
reverend Caleb