The first public steps taken after my arrival in Paris were at a
committee of the Friends of the Negroes, which was but thinly attended.
None of those mentioned, except Brissot, were present. It was resolved
there, that the committee should solicit an audience of Mr. Necker; and
that I should wait upon him, accompanied by a deputation consisting of
the Marquis de Condorcet, Monsieur de Bourge, and Brissot de Warville:
secondly, that the committee should write to the president of the
National Assembly, and request the favour of him to appoint a day for
hearing the cause of the Negroes; and thirdly, that it should be
recommended to the committee in London to draw up a petition to the
National Assembly of France, praying for the abolition of the Slave
Trade by that country. This petition, it was observed, was to be signed
by as great a number of the friends to the cause in England, as could be
procured. It was then to be sent to the committee at Paris, who would
take it in a body to the place of its destination.
I found great delicacy as a stranger in making my observations upon
these resolutions, and yet I thought I ought not to pass them over
wholly in silence, but particularly the last.
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