consequences of such an event, which others had held out, he desired to lay
in his claim for observation upon them, when the great question should come
before the house.

Soon after this the house broke up; and the discussion of the propositions,
which was the next parliamentary measure intended, was postponed to a
future day, which was sufficiently distant to give all the parties
concerned time to make the necessary preparations for it.

Of this interval the committee for the abolition availed themselves to
thank Mr. Wilberforce for the very able and satisfactory manner, in which
he had stated to the house his propositions for the abolition of the
Slave-trade, and for the unparalleled assiduity and perseverance, with
which he had all along endeavoured to accomplish this object, as well as to
take measures themselves for the further promotion of it. Their opponents
availed themselves of this interval also. But that, which now embarrassed
them, was the evidence contained in the privy council report. They had no
idea, considering the number of witnesses they had sent to be examined,
that this evidence, when duly weighed, could by right reasoning have given
birth to the sentiments, which had been displayed in the speeches of the
most distinguished members of the House of Commons, or to the contents of
the propositions, which had been laid upon their table. They were
thunder-struck as it were by their own weakness; and from this time they
were determined, if possible, to get rid of it as a standard for decision,
or to interpose every parliamentary delay in their power.

On the twenty-first of May, the subject came again before the attention of
the house. It was ushered in, as was expected, by petitions collected in
the interim, and which were expressive of the frightful consequences, which
would attend the abolition of the Slave-trade. Alderman Newnham presented