Joseph Townsend of Baltimore, in Maryland, an
honorary and corresponding member.
Parliament having met, Mr. Wilberforce, in February 1793, moved, that
the House resolve itself into a committee of the whole House on Thursday
next, to consider of the circumstances of the Slave Trade. This motion
was opposed by Sir William Yonge, who moved, that this day six months
should be substituted for Thursday next. A debate ensued: of this,
however, as well as of several which followed. I shall give no account;
as it would be tedious to the reader to hear a repetition of the same
arguments. Suffice it to say, that the motion was lost by a majority of
sixty-one to fifty-three.
This sudden refusal of the House of Commons to renew their own vote of
the former year, gave great uneasiness to the friends of the cause. Mr.
Wilberforce, however, resolved that the session should not pass without
an attempt to promote it in another form; and accordingly, on the 14th
of May, he moved for leave to bring in a bill to abolish that part of
the Slave Trade, by which the British merchants supplied foreigners with
slaves. This motion was opposed like the former; but was carried by a
majority of seven.
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