taught others to look up to as the standard by which they were desirous of
being judged: thus they, who had advantages beyond measure in forming a
body of evidence in their own favour, abandoned that, which they had
collected. And here it is impossible for me not to make a short comparative
statement on this subject, if it were only to show how little can be made
out, with the very best opportunities, against the cause of humanity and
religion. With respect to ourselves, we had almost all our witnesses to
seek. We had to travel after them for weeks together. When we found them,
we had scarcely the power of choice. We were obliged to take them as they
came. When we found them, too, we had generally to implore them to come
forward in our behalf. Of those so implored three out of four refused, and
the plea for this refusal was a fear lest they should injure their own
interests. The merchants, on the other hand, had their witnesses ready on
the spot. They had always ships in harbour containing persons, who had a
knowledge of the subject. They had several also from whom to choose. If one
man was favourable to their cause in three of the points belonging to it,
but was unfavourable in the fourth, he could be put aside and replaced.
When they had thus selected them, they had not to entreat, but to command,
their attendance. They had no fear, again, when they thus commanded, of a
refusal on the ground of interest; because these were promoting their
interest by obliging those who employed them. Viewing these and other
circumstances, which might be thrown into this comparative statement, it
was some consolation to us to know, amidst the disappointment which this
new measure occasioned, and our apparent defeat in the eyes of the public,
that we had really beaten our opponents at their own weapons, and that, as
this was a victory in our own private feelings, so it was the presage to us
of a future triumph.

On the twenty-ninth of May, Mr. Tierney made a motion to divide the
consideration of the Slave-trade into two heads, by separating the African