]
I went round accordingly and took leave of my friends. The last of these
was William Rathbone, and I have to regret, that it was also the last
time I ever saw him. Independently of the gratitude I owed him for
assisting me in this great cause, I respected him highly as a man: he
possessed a fine understanding with a solid judgment: he was a person of
extraordinary simplicity of manners. Though he lived in a state of
pecuniary independence, he gave an example of great temperance, as well
as of great humility of mind: but however humble he appeared, he had
always the courage to dare to do that which was right, however it might
resist the customs or the prejudices of men. In his own line of trade,
which was that of a timber-merchant on an extensive scale, he would not
allow any article to be sold for the use of a slave-ship, and he always
refused those, who applied to him for materials for such purposes. But
it is evident that it was his intention, if he had lived, to bear his
testimony still more publicly upon this subject; for an advertisement,
stating the ground of his refusal to furnish anything for this traffic
upon Christian principles, with a memorandum for two advertisements in
the Liverpool papers, was found among his papers at his decease.
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