Thomas Clarkson, as far as his means extended, aided this great
excitement. He renewed his committees of correspondence all over the
country; aided by the Society of Friends, his early and steady
coadjutors in this pious work, he recommenced the epistolary intercourse
with the provinces, held for so many hopeless years on the Slave Trade,
but now made far more promising by the victory which had been obtained,
and by the unanimity with which all Abolitionists now were resolved to
procure emancipation. He also recommenced his journeys through the
different parts of the island, and visited in succession part of
Scotland, almost all England, and the whole of Wales, encouraging and
interesting the friends of humanity wherever he went, and forming local
societies and committees for furthering the common object.
But it was, after all, in Parliament that the battle must be fought; and
Mr. Buxton, of whose invaluable services in the House of Commons the
cause has lately been deprived, repeatedly, with the support of Messrs.
Wilberforce, William Smith, Brougham, Lushington, and others, urged the
necessity of interference upon the representatives of a people unanimous
in demanding it; and he repeatedly urged it in vain.
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