This little piece Cowper presented in manuscript to some of his friends
in London; and these, conceiving it to contain a powerful appeal in
behalf of the injured Africans, joined in printing it. Having ordered it
on the finest hot-pressed paper, and folded it up in a small and neat
form, they gave it the printed title of _A Subject for Conversation at
the Tea-table_. After this, they sent many thousand copies of it in
franks into the country. From one it spread to another, till it
travelled almost over the whole island. Falling at length into the hands
of the musician, it was set to music; and it then found its way into the
streets, both of the metropolis and of the country, where it was sung as
a ballad; and where it gave a plain account of the subject, with an
appropriate feeling, to those who heard it.
Nor was the philanthropy of the late Mr. Wedgewood less instrumental in
turning the popular feeling in our favour. He made his own manufactory
contribute to this end. He took the seal of the committee, as exhibited
in Chap. XX., for his model; and he produced a beautiful cameo, of a
less size, of which the ground was a most delicate white, but the Negro,
who was seen imploring compassion in the middle of it, was in his own
native colour.
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