The question having been then put, the resolution was agreed to
unanimously. Thus ended the first debate that ever took place in the
Commons, on this important subject. This debate, though many of the
persons concerned in it abstained cautiously from entering into the
merits of the general question, became interesting, in consequence of
circumstances attending it. Several rose up at once to give relief, as
it were, to their feelings by utterance; but by so doing they were
prevented, many of them, from being heard. They who were heard, spoke
with peculiar energy, as if warmed in an extraordinary manner by the
subject. There was an apparent enthusiasm in behalf of the injured
Africans. It was supposed by some, that there was a moment, in which, if
the Chancellor of the Exchequer had moved for an immediate abolition of
the trade, he would have carried it that night; and both he and others,
who professed an attachment to the cause, were censured for not having
taken a due advantage of the disposition which was so apparent. But
independently of the inconsistency of doing this on the part of the
ministry, while the privy council were in the midst of their inquiries,
and of the improbability that the other branches of the legislature
would have concurred in so hasty a measure; what good would have accrued
to the cause, if the abolition had been then carried? Those concerned in
the cruel system would never have rested quietly under the stigma under
which they then laboured.
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