ow asked whether he meant to bring in a gradual
abolition bill; but he declared that he could not do any such thing;
he could not sanction for a time that which ought not to endure for
one moment longer. It was for Dundas, or some one of his supporters,
he said, to bring in such a bill; and though Dundas exhibited much
unwillingness to take up the matter, he felt called upon to do so; and
on the 23rd of April, therefore, he produced twelve resolutions, to
the effect that all that branch of the trade which did not refer to the
supply of the British West India islands, should cease forthwith; that
no male slaves above the age of twenty-five, or female slaves above
the age of twenty, should henceforth be exported from Africa in British
ships; that the tonnage employed in the slave-trade should be limited
and strictly ascertained; that the duties on slaves imported into the
colonies should be increased; that laws should be enacted against those
who maltreated their slaves; that the colonial legislatures should
be invited to concur in these measures; and that the trade should be
finally abolished in the year 1800. Wilberforce, Pitt, and Fox warmly
opposed these resolutions; and amendments were made, first, that the
trade should cease in 1793, and then 1795, both of which were lost; but
it was finally agreed, on the motion of Sir Edward Knatchbull, that
the final abolition should take place on the 1st of January, 1796. The
resolutions, as thus amended, were carried up to the lords on the 2nd
of May; on which occasion Prince William, Duke of Clarence, who, in the
course of his naval training, had visited the West India islands, and
who, conceiving that the state of society there did not justify the
pictures drawn of it by the abolitionists, opposed the abolition with
great facility of elocution. The friends of immediate abolition were
very few in the house of lords; and in order to retard the business,
a committee for the hearing of evidence at the bar of the house was
proposed. This was objected to by Lords Grenville, Porchester, Stanhope,
and Rawdon, and by Bishop Beilby Porteus; but it was carried by a large
majority. The examination of witnesses at the bar commenced forthwith;
but little progress was made in it before the prorogation, so that the
business was virtually postponed till the next session. Wilberforce
complained that it was owing to the appeal made by Dundas to the gradual
abolition of this horrid traffic, that h