e of being employed in that trade. It may now be sufficient to say
that this bill also passed both houses of parliament; soon after which the
session ended.

CHAPTER X.

_Continuation from July 18O6 to March 18O7--Death of Mr. Fox--Bill for the
total abolition of the Slave-trade carried in the House of Lords--sent from
thence to the Commons--amended and passed there--carried back, and passed
with its amendments by the Lords--receives the royal assent--Reflections on
this great event._

It was impossible for the committee to look back to the proceedings of the
last session, as they related to the great question under their care,
without feeling a profusion of joy, as well as of gratitude to those, by
whose virtuous endeavours they had taken place. But, alas, how few of our
earthly pleasures come to us without alloy! a melancholy event succeeded.
We had the painful intelligence, in the month of October 1806, that one of
the oldest and warmest friends of the cause was then numbered with the
dead.

Of the character of Mr. Fox, as it related to this cause, I am bound to
take notice. And, first, I may observe, that he professed an attachment to
it almost as soon as it was ushered into the world. Early in the year 1788,
when he was waited upon by a deputation of the committee, his language was,
as has appeared in the first volume, "that he would support their object to
its fullest extent, being convinced that there was no remedy for the evil
but in the total abolition of the trade."

His subsequent conduct evinced the sincerity of his promises. He was
constant in his attendance in Parliament whenever the question was brought
forward; and he never failed to exert his powerful eloquence in its favour.
The countenance, indeed, which he gave it, was of the greatest importance
to its welfare; for most of his parliamentary friends, who followed his
general political sentiments, patronized it also. By the aid of these,
joined to that of the private friends of Mr. Pitt, and of other members,
who espoused it without reference to party, it was always so upheld, that
after the year 1791 no one of the defeats, which it sustained, was
disgraceful. The majority on the side of those interested in the
continuance of the trade was always so trifling, that the abolitionists
were preserved a formidable body, and their cause respectable.

I never heard whether Mr. Fox, when he came into power, made any
stipulations with His Majesty