, as well as in America, belongs to the Society of
Friends, a society which is ever ready to exert its influence for the
good of mankind. By degrees, however, the subject was taken up by men
of all creeds and classes; orators, poets, and prose writers exposed the
iniquity of trafficking in the bones and sinews of men, and by this time
a general feeling existed in favour of the oppressed sons of Africa. A
society was now formed, indeed, and a considerable sum of money raised,
with a view to collect information on the subject, and to support the
expense of an application to parliament for the total abolition of the
slave-trade; great exertions being necessary to insure success, because
it was foreseen that self-interest would oppose a powerful barrier to
the proposed emancipation. Among those who exerted themselves in this
holy cause were Mr. Thomas Clarkson, Mr. Ramsy, Mr. Thornton, Mr.
Granville Sharpe, Lady Middleton, and Mrs. Bouverie, the two former
as writers on the subject, and the remainder as labourers in procuring
converts and subscriptions in the principal towns of England. The great
champion of the cause, however, was the philanthropic and warm-hearted
Wilberforce, the bosom-friend of the premier. Mr. Wilberforce seems to
have been impressed with the idea that this work, with the reformation
of manners, were the two great objects of his life; and to the
suppression of the slave-trade he resolved to devote his whole
parliamentary career. As might be expected, Wilberforce endeavoured to
bring Pitt over to his cause; and he so far succeeded--his persuasions
also being aided by thirty petitions which had, during this session,
been laid on the table--as to induce the minister to issue a summons to
certain members of the privy-council, to examine, as a board of trade,
the state of our commercial intercourse with Africa. This privy-council
was soon engaged in hearing witnesses; some on the part of the African
merchants, who endeavoured to prove the necessity and humanity of the
slave-trade; and others on the part of the London committee, who as
earnestly laboured to show its abomination and iniquity. In the meantime
Mr. Wilberforce undertook to bring forward a motion in the house of
commons on the subject; and as he was a member for one of the greatest
counties in the kingdom (Yorkshire) and an admirable speaker, his party
were sanguine as to his success. Before Wilberforce could carry out his
intentions, however, he f