--Continuation from July 1793 to July 1794.--Author travels round the
kingdom again.--Motion to abolish the foreign Slave Trade renewed in
the Commons; and carried; but lost in the Lords; further proceedings
there.--Author, on account of his declining health, obliged to retire
from the cause.
The committee for the abolition could not view the proceedings of both
Houses of Parliament on this subject during the year 1793, without being
alarmed for the fate of their question. The only two sources of hope,
which they could discover, were in the disposition then manifested by
the Peers, as to the conduct of the Earl of Abingdon, and in their
determination to proceed in the hearing of evidence. The latter
circumstance indeed was the more favourable, as the resolution, upon
which the witnesses were to be examined, had not been renewed by the
Commons. These considerations, however, afforded no solid ground for the
mind to rest upon. They only broke in upon it, like faint gleams of
sunshine, for a moment, and then were gone. In this situation, the
committee could only console themselves by the reflection, that they had
done their duty. In looking, however, to their future services, one
thing, and only one, seemed practicable; and this was necessary; namely,
to complete the new body of evidence, which they had endeavoured to form
in the preceding year. The determination to do this rendered another
journey on my part indispensable; and I undertook it, broken down, as my
constitution then was, beginning it in September 1793, and completing it
in February 1794.
Mr. Wilberforce, in this interval, had digested his plan of operations;
and accordingly, early in the session of 1794, he asked leave to renew
his former bill, to abolish that part of the trade, by means of which
British merchants supplied foreigners with slaves. This request was
opposed by Sir William Yonge; but it was granted; on a division of the
House, by a majority of sixty-three to forty votes.
When the bill was brought in, it was opposed by the same member; upon
which the House divided; and there appeared for Sir William Yonge's
amendment thirty-eight votes, but against it fifty-six.
On a motion for the recommitment of the bill, Lord Sheffield divided the
House, against whose motion there was a majority of forty-two. And, on
the third reading of it, it was opposed again; but it was at length
carried.
The speakers against the bill were: Sir William Yonge, Lord Sheffield,
Colonel Tarleton, Alderman Newnham and Messrs; Payne, Este, Lechaiere,
Cawthorae, Jenkinson, and Dent. Those who spoke in favour of it were:
Messrs. Pitt, Fox, William Smith, Whitbread, Francis, Burdon, Vaughan,
Barham, and Serjeants Watson and Adair.
While the foreign Slave-bill was thus passing through its stages in the
Commons, Dr. Horsley, Bishop of Rochester, who saw no end to the
examinations, while the witnesses were to be examined at the bar of the
House of Lords, moved, that they should be taken in future before a
committee above-stairs. Dr. Porteus, Bishop of London, and the Lords
Guildford, Stanhope, and Grenville, supported this motion. But the Lord
Chancellor Thurlow, aided by the Duke of Clarence, and by the Lords
Mansfield, Hay, Abingdon, and others, negatived it by a majority of
twenty-eight.
At length the bill itself was ushered into the House of Lords. On
reading it a second time, it was opposed by the Duke of Clarence, Lord
Abingdon, and others. Lord Grenville and the Bishop of Rochester
declined supporting it. They alleged as a reason, that they conceived
the introduction of it to have been improper, pending the inquiry on the
general subject of the Slave Trade. This declaration brought up the
Lords Stanhope and Lauderdale, who charged them with inconsistency as
professed friends of the cause. At length the bill was lost. During
these discussions the examination of the witnesses was resumed by the
Lords; but only two of them were heard in this session[A].
[Footnote A: After this the examinations wholly dropped in the House of
Lords.]
After this decision the question was in a desperate state; for if the
Commons would not renew their own resolution, and the Lords would not
abolish the foreign part of the Slave-trade, what hope was there of
success? It was obvious too, that in the former House, Mr. Pitt and Mr.
Dundas voted against each other. In the latter, the Lord Chancellor
Thurlow opposed every motion in favour of the cause. The committee
therefore were reduced to this;--either they must exert themselves
without hope, or they must wait till some change should take place in
their favour. As far as I myself was concerned, all exertion was then
over. The nervous system was almost shattered to pieces. Both my memory
and my hearing failed me. Sudden dizzinesses seized my head. A confused
singing in the ears followed me, wherever I went. On going to bed the
very, stairs seemed to dance up and down under me, so that, misplacing
my foot, I sometimes fell. Talking too, if it continued but half an
hour, exhausted me, so that profuse perspirations followed; and the same
effect was produced even by an active exertion of the mind for the like
time. These disorders had been brought on by degrees in consequence of
the severe labours necessarily attached to the promotion of the cause.
For seven years I had a correspondence to maintain with four hundred
persons with my own hand. I had some book or other annually to write in
behalf of the cause. In this time I had travelled more than thirty-five
thousand miles in search of evidence, and a great part of these journeys
in the night. All this time my mind had been on the stretch. It had been
bent too to this one subject; for I had not even leisure to attend to my
own concerns. The various instances of barbarity, which had come
successively to my knowledge within this period, had vexed, harassed,
and afflicted it. The wound which these had produced, was rendered still
deeper by those cruel disappointments before related, which arose from
the reiterated refusal of persons to give their testimony, after I had
travelled hundreds of miles in quest of them. But the severest stroke
was that inflicted by the persecution, begun and pursued by persons
interested in the continuance of the trade, of such witnesses as had
been examined against them; and whom, on account of their dependent
situation in life, it was most easy to oppress. As I had been the means
of bringing these forward on these occasions, they naturally came to me,
when thus persecuted, as the author of their miseries and their ruin.
From their supplications and wants it would have been ungenerous and
ungrateful to have fled[A]. These different circumstances, by acting
together, had at length brought me into the situation just mentioned;
and I was therefore obliged, though very reluctantly, to be borne out of
the field, where I had placed the great honour and glory of my life.
[Footnote A: The late Mr. Whitbread, to whom one day in deep affliction
on this account I related accidentally a circumstance of this kind,
generously undertook, in order to make my mind easy upon the subject, to
make good all injuries, which should in future arise to individuals from
such persecution; and he repaired these, at different times, at a
considerable expense. I feel it a duty to divulge this circumstance, out
of respect to the memory of one of the best of men, and of one, whom, if
the history of his life were written, it would appear to have been an
extraordinary honour to the country to have produced.]