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Clarkson, Thomas, 1760-1846

"The History of the Rise, Progress and Accomplishment of the Abolition of the African Slave-Trade, by the British Parliament (1839)"

Those who spoke in favour of it were:
Messrs. Pitt, Fox, William Smith, Whitbread, Francis, Burdon, Vaughan,
Barham, and Serjeants Watson and Adair.
While the foreign Slave-bill was thus passing through its stages in the
Commons, Dr. Horsley, Bishop of Rochester, who saw no end to the
examinations, while the witnesses were to be examined at the bar of the
House of Lords, moved, that they should be taken in future before a
committee above-stairs. Dr. Porteus, Bishop of London, and the Lords
Guildford, Stanhope, and Grenville, supported this motion. But the Lord
Chancellor Thurlow, aided by the Duke of Clarence, and by the Lords
Mansfield, Hay, Abingdon, and others, negatived it by a majority of
twenty-eight.
At length the bill itself was ushered into the House of Lords. On
reading it a second time, it was opposed by the Duke of Clarence, Lord
Abingdon, and others. Lord Grenville and the Bishop of Rochester
declined supporting it. They alleged as a reason, that they conceived
the introduction of it to have been improper, pending the inquiry on the
general subject of the Slave Trade. This declaration brought up the
Lords Stanhope and Lauderdale, who charged them with inconsistency as
professed friends of the cause.


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