, and Alexander
Hood, Esq., (afterwards Lord Bridport,) who were the members for the
town of Bridgewater. It was ordered to lie on the table. The answer
which these gentlemen gave to their constituents relative to the
reception of it in the House of Commons is worthy of notice:--"There did
not appear," say they in their common letter, "the least disposition to
pay any further attention to it. Every one almost says that the
abolition of the Slave Trade must immediately throw the West Indian
islands into convulsions, and soon complete their utter ruin. Thus they
will not trust Providence for its protection for so pious an
undertaking."

In the year 1786, Captain J.S. Smith, of the royal navy, offered himself
to the notice of the public in behalf of the African cause. Mr. Ramsay,
as I have observed before, had become involved in a controversy in
consequence of his support of it. His opponents not only attacked his
reputation, but had the effrontery to deny his facts. This circumstance
occasioned Captain Smith to come forward. He wrote a letter to his
friend Mr. Hill, in which he stated that he had seen those things, while
in the West Indies, which Mr. Ramsay had asserted to exist, but which
had been so boldly denied. He gave, also, permission to Mr. Hill to
publish this letter. Too much praise cannot be bestowed on Captain
Smith, for thus standing forth in a noble cause, and in behalf of an
injured character.

The last of the necessary forerunners and coadjutors of this class, whom
I am to mention, was our much-admired poet, Cowper; and a great
coadjutor he was, when we consider what value was put upon his
sentiments, and the extraordinary circulation of his works. There are
few persons who have not been properly impressed by the following
lines:--

My ear is pain'd,
My soul is sick with every day's report,
Of wrong and outrage with which earth is fill'd.
There is no flesh in man's obdurate heart,
It does not feel for man. The natural bond
Of brotherhood is sever'd as the flax
That falls asunder at the touch of fire.
He finds his fellow guilty of a skin
Not colour'd like his own, and having power
To inforce the wrong, for such a worthy cause
Dooms and devotes him as his lawful prey.
Lands intersected by a narrow frith
Abhor each other. Mountains interpos'd,
Make enemies of nations, who had else,
Like kindred drops been mingled into one.
Thus man devotes his brother, and destro