Before the committee broke up, I represented to them the necessity there
was of obtaining further knowledge on all those individual points which
might be said to belong to the great subject of the abolition of the
Slave Trade. In the first place, this knowledge was necessary for me, if
I were to complete my work on _The Impolicy of this Trade_, which work,
the _Summary View_, just printed, had announced to the world. It would
be necessary, also, in case the Slave Trade should become a subject of
parliamentary inquiry; for this inquiry could not proceed without
evidence. And if any time was peculiarly fit for the procuring of such
information or evidence, it was the present. At this time the passions
of men had not been heated by any public agitation of the question, nor
had interest felt itself biassed to conceal the truth. But as soon as
ever it should be publicly understood, that a parliamentary inquiry was
certain, (which we ourselves believed would be the case, but which
interested men did not then know,) we should find many of the avenues to
information closed against us. I proposed, therefore, that some one of
the committee should undertake a journey to Bristol, Liverpool, and
Lancaster, where he should reside for a time to collect further light
upon this subject; and that if others should feel their occupations or
engagements to be such as would make such a journey unsuitable, I would
undertake it myself.
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