It seemed, therefore, necessary that we should again be looking
out for evidence on the part of the abolition. Nor did it seem to me to
be unreasonable, if our opponents were allowed to come forward in a new
way, because it was more constitutional, that we should be allowed the
same privilege. By these means the evidence, of which we had now lost
the use, might be restored; indifference might be fanned into warmth;
commercial calculation might be overpowered by justice; and abolition,
rising above the reach of the cry of regulation, might eventually
triumph.
I communicated my ideas to the committee, and offered to go round the
kingdom to accomplish this object. The committee had themselves been
considering what measures to take, and as each in his own mind had come
to conclusions similar with my own, my proposal was no sooner made than
adopted.
I had not been long upon this journey when I was called back. Mr.
Wilberforce, always solicitous for the good of this great cause, was of
opinion that, as commotions had taken place in France, which then aimed
at political reforms, it was possible that the leading persons concerned
in them might, if an application were made to them judiciously, be
induced to take the Slave Trade into their consideration, and
incorporate it among the abuses to be done away.
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