dly,
Such persons would be obliged to have recourse to falsehoods, that is, to
conceal or misrepresent the objects of their destination, that they might
get their intelligence with safety; which falsehoods the commitee could not
countenance. To which it was added, that few persons would go to these
places, except they were handsomely rewarded for their trouble; but this
reward would lessen the value of their evidence, as it would afford a
handle to the planters and slave-merchants to say that they had been
bribed.

Another circumstance, which came before the commitee, was the following:
Many arguments were afloat at this time relative to the great impolicy of
abolishing the Slave-trade, the principal of which was, that, if the
English abandoned it, other foreign nations would take it up; and thus,
while they gave up certain national profits themselves, the great cause of
humanity would not be benefited, nor would any moral good be done by the
measure. Now there was a presumption that, by means of the society
instituted in Paris, the French nation might be awakened to this great
subject, and that the French government might in consequence, as well as
upon other considerations, be induced to favour the general feeling upon
this occasion. But there was no reason to conclude, either that any other
maritime people, who had been engaged in the Slave-trade, would relinquish
it, or that any other, who had not yet been engaged in it, would not begin
it when our countrymen should give it up. The consideration of these
circumstances occupied the attention of the commitee; and as Dr. Spaarman,
who was said to have been examined by the privy council, was returning
home, it was thought advisable to consider whether it would not be proper
for the commitee to select certain of their own books on the subject of the
Slave-trade, and send them by him, accompanied by a letter, to the King of
Sweden, in which they should entreat his consideration of this powerful
argument which now stood in the way of the cause of humanity, with a view
that, as one of the princes of Europe, he might contribute to obviate it,
by preventing his own subjects, in case of the dereliction of this commerce
by ourselves, from embarking in it. The matter having been fully
considered, it was resolved that the proposed measure would be proper, and
it was accordingly adopted. By a letter received afterwards from Dr.
Spaarman, it appeared that both the letter and the boo