dogma was not
dissimilar. 'Rationalisation' and 'Spiritualisation' are in some
directions similar. The general spread of philanthropic sentiment,
which found its formula in the _Rights of Man_, fell in with the Quaker
hatred of war and slavery. Voltaire heartily admires Barclay, the Quaker
apologist. It is, therefore, not surprising to find the names of the
deists, Franklin and Paine, associated with Quakers in this movement.
Franklin was an early president of the new association, and Paine wrote
an article to support the early agitation.[124] Paine himself was a
Quaker by birth, who had dropped his early creed while retaining a
respect for its adherents. When the agitation began it was in fact
generally approved by all except the slave-traders. Sound Whig divines,
Watson and Paley and Parr; Unitarians such as Priestley and Gilbert
Wakefield and William Smith; and the great methodist, John Wesley, were
united on this point. Fox and Burke and Pitt rivalled each other in
condemning the system. The actual delay was caused partly by the
strength of the commercial interests in parliament, and partly by the
growth of the anti-Jacobin sentiment.

The attempt to monopolise the credit of the movement by any particular
sect is absurd. Wilberforce and his friends might fairly claim the glory
of having been worthy representatives of a new spirit of philanthropy;
but most certainly they did not create or originate it. The general
growth of that spirit throughout the century must be explained, so far
as 'explanation' is possible, by wider causes. It was, as I must venture
to assume, a product of complex social changes which were bringing
classes and nations into closer contact, binding them together by new
ties, and breaking up the old institutions which had been formed under
obsolete conditions. The true moving forces were the same whether these
representatives announced the new gospel of the 'rights of man'; or
appealed to the traditional rights of Englishmen; or rallied supporters
of the old order so far as it still provided the most efficient
machinery for the purpose. The revival of religion under Wesley and the
Evangelicals meant the direction of the stream into one channel. The
paralytic condition of the Church of England disqualified it for
appropriating the new energy. The men who directed the movements were
mainly stimulated by moral indignation at the gross abuses, and the
indolence of the established priesthood naturally