he humane interposition of the
legislature.

"Your petitioners regret that a nation, professing the Christian faith,
should so far counteract the principles of humanity and justice, as by the
cruel treatment of this oppressed race to fill their minds with prejudices
against the mild and beneficent doctrines of the Gospel.

"Under the countenance of the laws of this country many thousands of these
our fellow-creatures, entitled to the natural rights of mankind, are held
as personal property in cruel bondage; and your petitioners being informed
that a Bill for the Regulation of the African Trade is now before the
House, containing a clause which restrains the officers of the African
Company from exporting Negros, your petitioners, deeply affected with a
consideration of the rapine, oppression, and bloodshed, attending this
traffic, humbly request that this restriction may be extended to all
persons whomsoever, or that the House would grant such other relief in the
premises as in its wisdom may seem meet."

This petition was presented by Sir Cecil Wray, who, on introducing it,
spoke very respectfully of the Society. He declared his hearty approbation
of their application, and said he hoped he should see the day when not a
slave would remain within the dominions of this realm. Lord North seconded
the motion, saying he could have no objection to the petition, and that its
object ought to recommend it to every humane breast; that it did credit to
the most benevolent society in the world; but that, the session being so
far advanced, the subject could not then be taken into consideration; and
he regretted that the Slave-trade, against which the petition was so justly
directed, was in a commercial view become necessary to almost every nation
of Europe. The petition was then brought up and read, after which it was
ordered to lie on the table. This was the first petition (being two years
earlier than that from the inhabitants of Bridgewater), which was ever
presented to parliament for the abolition of the Slave-trade.

But the Society did not stop here; for having at the yearly meeting of 1783
particularly recommended the cause to a standing commitee appointed to act
at intervals, called the Meeting for Sufferings, the latter in this same
year resolved upon an address to the public, entitled, The Case of our
Fellow-creatures, the oppressed Africans, respectfully recommended to the
serious Consideration of the Legislature of Grea