--Various motions
within this period.]
I purpose, though it may seem abrupt after the division which has
hitherto been made of the contents of this volume, to throw the events
of the next five years into one chapter.
Mr. Wilberforce and the members of the committee, whose constitutions
had not suffered like my own, were still left; and they determined to
persevere in the promotion of their great object as long as their health
and their faculties permitted them. The former, accordingly, in the
month of February, 1795, moved in the House of Commons for leave to
bring in a bill for the abolition of the Slave Trade. This motion was
then necessary, if, according to the resolution of that House, the Slave
Trade was to cease in 1796. It was opposed, however, by Sir William
Yonge, and unfortunately lost by a majority of seventy-eight to
fifty-seven.
In the year 1796, Mr. Wilberforce renewed his efforts in the Commons. He
asked leave to bring in a bill for the abolition of the Slave Trade, but
in a limited time. The motion was opposed as before; but on a division,
there were for it ninety-three, and against it only sixty-seven.
The bill having been brought in, was opposed in its second reading; but
it was carried through it by a majority of sixty-four to thirty-one.
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