In the year 1776, the abbé Proyart brought out, at Paris, his History of
Loango, and other kingdoms in Africa, in which he did ample justice to the
moral and intellectual character of the natives there.

The same year produced two new friends in England, in the same cause, but
in a line in which no one had yet moved. David Hartley, then a member of
parliament for Hull, and the son of Dr. Hartley who wrote the Essay on Man,
found it impossible any longer to pass over without notice the case of the
oppressed Africans. He had long felt for their wretched condition, and,
availing himself of his legislative situation, he made a motion in the
house of commons, "That the Slave-trade was contrary to the laws of God,
and the rights of men." In order that he might interest the members as much
as possible in his motion, he had previously obtained some of the chains in
use in this cruel traffic, and had laid them upon the table of the house of
commons. His motion was seconded by that great patriot and philanthropist,
sir George Saville. But though I am now to state that it failed, I cannot
but consider it as a matter of pleasing reflection, that this great subject
was first introduced into parliament by those who were worthy of it; by
those who had clean hands and irreproachable characters, and to whom no
motive of party or faction could be imputed, but only such as must have
arisen from a love of justice, a true feeling of humanity, and a proper
sense of religion.

About this time two others, men of great talents and learning, promoted the
cause of the injured Africans, by the manner in which they introduced them
to notice in their respective works.

Dr. Adam Smith, in his Theory of Moral Sentiments, had, so early as the
year 1759, held them up in an honourable, and their tyrants in a degrading