Labours of the committee continued to February, 1788.--Committee elect
new members; vote thanks to Falconbridge and others; receive letters
from Grove and others; circulate numerous publications; make a report;
send circular letters to corporate bodies; release negroes unjustly
detained; find new correspondents in Archdeacon Paley, the Marquis de
la Fayette, Bishop of Cloyne, Bishop of Peterborough, and in many
others.
The labours of the committee, during my absence, were as I have now
explained them; but as I was obliged, almost immediately, on joining
them, to retire into the country to begin my new work, I must give an
account of their further services till I joined them again, or till the
middle of February, 1788.
During sittings which were held from the middle of December, 1787, to
the 18th of January, 1788, the business of the committee had so
increased, that it was found proper to make an addition to their number.
Accordingly James Martin and William Morton Pitt, Esquires, members of
parliament, and Robert Hunter, and Joseph Smith, Esquires, were chosen
members of it.
The knowledge also of the institution of the society had spread to such
an extent, and the eagerness among individuals to see the publications
of the committee had been so great, that the press was kept almost
constantly going during the time now mentioned. No fewer than three
thousand lists of the subscribers, with a circular letter prefixed to
them, explaining the object of the institution, were ordered to be
printed within this period, to which are to be added fifteen hundred of
BENEZET'S _Account of Guinea_, three thousand of the DEAN of MIDDLEHAM'S
_Letters_, five thousand _Summary View,_ and two thousand of a new
edition of the _Slavery and Commerce of the Human Species_, which I had
enlarged before the last of these sittings from materials collected in
my late tour.
The thanks of the committee were voted during this period to Mr.
Alexander Falconbridge, for the assistance he had given me in my
inquiries into the nature of the Slave Trade.
As Mr. Falconbridge had but lately returned from Africa, and as facts
and circumstances, which had taken place but a little time ago, were
less liable to objections (inasmuch as they proved the present state of
things) than those which happened in earlier times, he was prevailed
upon to write an account of what he had seen during the four voyages he
had made to that continent; and accordingly, within the period which has
been mentioned, he began his work.
The committee, during these sittings, kept up a correspondence with
those gentlemen who were mentioned in the last chapter to have addressed
them. But, besides these, they found other voluntary correspondents in
the following persons, Capell Lofft, Esq., of Troston, and the Reverend
B. Brome, of Ipswich, both in the county of Suffolk. These made an
earnest tender of their services for those parts of the county in which
they resided. Similar offers were made by Mr. Hammond, of Stanton, near
St. Ives, in the county of Huntingdon, by Thomas Parker, Esq., of
Beverly, and by William Grove, Esq., of Litchfield, for their respective
towns and neighbourhoods.
A letter was received also within this period from the society
established at Philadelphia, accompanied with documents in proof of the
good effects of the manumission of slaves, and with specimens of writing
and drawing by the same. In this letter the society congratulated the
committee in London on its formation, and professed its readiness to
co-operate in any way in which it could me made useful.
During these sittings, a letter was also read from Dr. Bathurst,
afterwards bishop of Norwich, dated Oxford, December 17th, in which he
offered his services in the promotion of the cause.
Another was read, which stated that Dr. Home, president of Magdalen
College in the same university, and afterwards bishop of the same see as
the former, highly favoured it.
Another was read from Mr. Lambert, fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge,
in which he signified to the committee the great desire he had to
promote the object of their institution. He had drawn up a number of
queries relative to the state of the unhappy slaves in the islands,
which he had transmitted to a friend, who had resided in them, to
answer. These answers he purposed to forward to the committee on their
arrival.
Another was read from Dr. Hinchliffe, bishop of Peterborough, in which
he testified his hearty approbation of the institution, and of the
design of it, and his determination to support the object of it in
parliament. He gave in at the same time a plan, which he called
_Thoughts on the Means of Abolishing the Slave Trade in Great Britain
and in our West Indian Islands_, for the consideration of the committee.
At the last of these sittings, the committee thought it right to make a
report to the public relative to the state and progress of their cause;
but as this was composed from materials which the reader has now in his
possession, it may not be necessary to produce it.
On the 22nd and 29th of January, and on the 5th and 12th of February,
1788, sittings were also held. During these, the business still
increasing, John Maitland, Esq., was elected a member of the committee.
As the correspondents of the committee were now numerous, and as these
solicited publications for the use of those who applied to them, as well
as of those to whom they wished to give a knowledge of the subject, the
press was kept in constant employ during this period also. Five thousand
two hundred and fifty additional _Reports_ were ordered to be printed,
and also three thousand of FALCONBRIDGE'S _Account of the Slave Trade_,
the manuscript of which was now finished. At this time, Mr. Newton,
rector of St. Mary Woolnoth in London, who had been in his youth to the
coast of Africa, but who had now become a serious and useful divine,
felt it his duty to write his _Thoughts on the African Slave Trade_. The
committee, having obtained permission, printed three thousand copies of
these also.
During these sittings, the chairman was requested to have frequent
communication with Dr. Porteus, bishop of London, as he had expressed
his desire of becoming useful to the institution.
A circular letter also, with the report before mentioned, was ordered to
be sent to the majors of several corporate towns.
A case also occurred, which it may not be improper to notice. The
treasurer reported that he had been informed by the chairman, that the
captain of the Albion, merchant ship, trading to the Bay of Honduras,
had picked up at sea, from a Spanish ship, which had been wrecked, two
black men, one named Henry Martin Burrowes, a free native of Antigua,
who had served in the royal navy, and the other named Antonio Berrat, a
Spanish negro; that the said captain detained these men on board his
ship, then lying in the river Thames, against their will; and that, he
would not give them up. Upon this report, it was resolved that the cause
of these unfortunate captives should be espoused by the committee. Mr.
Sharp accordingly caused a writ of habeas-corpus to be served upon them;
soon after which he had the satisfaction of reporting, that they had
been delivered from the place of their confinement.
During these sittings the following letters were read also:
One from Richard How, of Apsley, offering his services to the committee.
Another from the Reverend Christopher Wyvill, of Burton Hall, in
Yorkshire, to the same effect.
Another from Archdeacon Plymley, (afterwards Corbett,) in which he
expressed the deep interest he took in this cause of humanity and
freedom, and the desire he had of making himself useful as far as he
could towards the support of it; and he wished to know, as the Clergy of
the diocese of Lichfield and Coventry were anxious to espouse it also,
whether a petition to parliament from them, as a part of the Established
Church, would not be desirable at the present season.
Another from Archdeacon Paley, containing his sentiments on a plan for
the abolition of the Slave Trade, and the manumission of slaves in our
islands, and offering his future services, and wishing success to the
undertaking.
Another from Dr. Sharp, prebendary of Durham, inquiring into the
probable amount of the subscriptions which might be wanted, and for what
purposes, with a view of serving the cause.
Another from Dr. Woodward, bishop of Cloyne, in which he approved of the
institution of the committee. He conceived the Slave Trade to be no less
disgraceful to the legislature and injurious to the true commercial
interests of the country, than it was productive of unmerited misery to
the unhappy objects of it, and repugnant both to the principles and the
spirit of the Christian religion. He wished to be placed among the
assertors of the liberty of his fellow-creatures, and he was therefore
desirous of subscribing largely, as well as of doing all he could, both
in England and Ireland, for the promotion of such a charitable work.
A communication was made, soon after the reading of the last letter,
through the medium of the Chevalier de Ternant, from the celebrated
Marquis de la Fayette of France. The Marquis signified the singular
pleasure he had received on hearing of the formation of a committee in
England for the abolition of the Slave Trade, and the earnest desire he
had to promote the object of it. With this view, he informed the
committee that he should attempt the formation of a similar society in
France. This he conceived to be one of the most effectual measures he
could devise for securing the object in question; for he was of opinion,
that if the two great nations of France and England were to unite in
this humane and Christian work, the other European nations might be
induced to follow the example.
The committee, on receiving the two latter communications, resolved,
that the chairman should return their thanks to the Bishop of Cloyne,
and the Marquis de la Fayette, and the Chevalier de Ternant, and that he
should inform them, that they were enrolled among the honorary and
corresponding members of the society.
The other letters read during these sittings were to convey information
to the committee, that people in various parts of the kingdom had then
felt themselves so deeply interested in behalf of the injured Africans,
that they had determined either on public meetings, or had come to
resolutions, or had it in contemplation to petition parliament, for the
abolition of the Slave Trade. Information was signified to this effect
by Thomas Walker, Esquire, for Manchester; by John Hoyland, William
Hoyles, Esquire, and the Reverend James Wilkinson, for Sheffield; by
William Tuke, and William Burgh, Esquire, for York; by the Reverend Mr.
Foster, for Colchester; by Joseph Harford and Edmund Griffith, Esquires,
for Bristol; by William Bishop, Esquire, the mayor, for Maidstone; by
the Reverend R. Brome and the Reverend J. Wright, for Ipswich; by James
Clarke, Esquire, the mayor, for Coventry; by Mr. Jones, of Trinity
College, for the University of Cambridge; by Dr. Schomberg, of Magdalen
College, for the University of Oxford; by Henry Bullen, Esquire, for
Bury St. Edmunds; by Archdeacon Travis, for Chester; by Mr. Hammond, for
the county of Huntingdon; by John Flint, Esquire, (afterwards Corbett,)
for the town of Shrewsbury and county of Salop; by the Reverend Robert
Lucas, for the town and also for the county of Northampton; by Mr.
Winchester, for the county of Stafford; by the Reverend William Leigh,
for the county of Norfolk; by David Barclay, for the county of Hertford;
and by Thomas Babington, Esquire, for the county of Leicester.