Now will it
be believed that our opponents had the injustice to lay hold of these
circumstances, at this critical moment, to give a death-blow to the
cause of the abolition? They represented the committee, though it had
existed before the French revolution, or the _Rights of Man_ were heard
of, as a nest of Jacobins; and they held up the cause, sacred as it was,
and though it had the support of the minister, as affording an
opportunity of meeting for the purpose of overthrowing the state. Their
cry succeeded. The very book of the abridgment of the evidence was
considered by many members as poisonous as that of the _Rights of Man_.
It was too profane for many of them to touch; and they who discarded it,
discarded the cause also.
But these were not the only circumstances which were used as means, at
this critical moment, to defeat us. News of the revolution, which had
commenced in St. Domingo, in consequence of the disputes between the
whites and the people of colour, had, long before this, arrived in
England. The horrible scenes which accompanied it, had been frequently
published as so many arguments against our cause. In January, new
insurrections were announced as having happened in Martinique.
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