The committee for the abolition availed themselves of
it to reply to these; and here Dr. Dickson, who had been secretary to
Governor Hey, in Barbados, and who had offered the committee his
_Letters on Slavery_ before mentioned, and his services also, was of
singular use. Many members of parliament availed themselves of it to
retire into the country to read the report. Among the latter were Mr.
Wilberforce and Mr. Pitt. In this retirement they discovered,
notwithstanding the great disadvantages under which we had laboured with
respect to evidence, that our cause was safe, and that, as far as it was
to be decided by reason and sound policy, it would triumph. It was in
this retirement that Mr. Pitt made those able calculations which
satisfied him for ever after, as the minister of the country, as to the
safety of the great measure of the abolition of the Slave Trade; for he
had clearly proved, that not only the islands could go on in a
flourishing state without supplies from the coast of Africa, but that
they were then in a condition to do it.
At length the 12th of May arrived. Mr. Wilberforce rose up in the
Commons and moved the order of the day for the house to resolve itself
into a committee of the whole house, to take into consideration the
petitions which had been presented against the Slave Trade.
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