nd here I was obliged to disclose our weakness in this
respect. I owned with sorrow that, though I had obtained specimens and
official documents in abundance to prove many important points, yet I had
found it difficult to prevail upon persons to be publicly examined on this
subject. The only persons, we could then count upon, were Mr. Ramsay, Mr.
H. Gandy, Mr. Falconbridge, Mr. Newton, and the Dean of Middleham. There
was one, however, who would be a host of himself, if we could but gain him.
I then mentioned Mr. Norris. I told Mr. Pitt the nature[A] and value of the
testimony which he had given me at Liverpool, and the great zeal he had
discovered to serve the cause. I doubted, however, if he would come to
London for this purpose, even if I wrote to him; for he was intimate with
almost all the owners of slave-vessels in Liverpool, and living among these
he would not like to incur their resentment, by taking a prominent part
against them. I therefore entreated Mr. Pitt to send him a summons of
council to attend, hoping that Mr. Norris would then be pleased to come up,
as he would be enabled to reply to his friends, that his appearance had not
been voluntary. Mr. Pitt, however, informed me, that a summons from a
commitee of privy council sitting as a board of trade was not binding upon
the subject, and therefore that I had no other means left but of writing to
him, and he desired me to do this by the first post.

[Footnote A: See his evidence Chap. xvii.]

This letter I accordingly wrote, and sent it to my friend William Rathbone,
who was to deliver it in person, and to use his own influence at the same
time; but I received for answer, that Mr. Norris was then in London. Upon
this I tried to find him out, to entreat him to consent to an examination
before the council. At length I found his address; but before I could see
him, I was told by the Bishop of London, that he had come up as a Liverpool
delegate in support of the Slave-trade. Astonished at this information, I
made the bishop acquainted with the case, and asked him how it became me to
act; for I was fearful lest, by exposing Mr. Norris, I should violate the
rights of hospitality on the one hand, and by not exposing him, that I
should not do my duty to the cause I had undertaken on the other. His
advice was, that I should see him, and ask him to explain the reasons of
his conduct. I called upon him for this purpose, but he was out. He sent
me, however, a letter soo