With these the
argument of emancipation, which they would have rejected at another time
as ridiculous, obtained now easy credit. The massacres too, and the
ruin, though only conjectural, they admitted also. Hence some of them
deserted our cause wholly, while others, wishing to do justice as far as
they could to the slaves on the one hand, and to their own countrymen on
the other, adopted a middle line of conduct, and would go no further
than the regulation of the trade.
While these preparations were making by our opponents to prejudice the
minds of those who were to be the judges in this contest, Mr. Pitt
presented the privy council report at the bar of the House of Commons;
and as it was a large folio volume, and contained the evidence upon
which the question was to be decided, it was necessary that time should
be given to the members to peruse it. Accordingly, the 12th of May was
appointed, instead of the 23rd of April, for the discussion of the
question.
This postponement of the discussion of the question gave time to all
parties to prepare themselves further. The merchants and planters
availed themselves of it to collect petitions to parliament from
interested persons, against the abolition of the trade, to wait upon
members of parliament by deputation, in order to solicit their
attendance in their favour, and to renew their injurious paragraphs in
the public papers.
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