Jenkinson (afterwards Earl of
Liverpool), Mr. Addington (subsequently Lord Sidmouth), and Mr. Dundas
(afterwards Lord Melville), continued their opposition during all this
time. Of the first two I shall say nothing at present; but I cannot pass
over the conduct of the latter. He was the first person, as we have
seen, to propose the gradual abolition of the Slave Trade; and he fixed
a time for its cessation on the 1st of January, 1800. His sincerity on
this occasion was doubted by Mr. Fox at the very outset; for he
immediately rose and said, that "something so mischievous had come out,
something so like a foundation had been laid for preserving, not only
for years to come, but for anything he knew, for ever, this detestable
traffic, that he felt it his duty immediately to deprecate all such
delusions upon the country." Mr. Pitt, who spoke soon afterwards, in
reply to an argument advanced by Mr. Dundas, maintained, that "at
whatever period the House should say that the Slave Trade should
actually cease, this defence would equally be set up; for it would be
just as good an argument in seventy years hence, as it was against the
abolition then." And these remarks Mr. Dundas verified in a singular
manner within this period: for in the year 1796, when his own bill, as
amended in the Commons, was to take place, he was one of the most
strenuous opposers of it; and in the year 1799, when in point of
consistency it devolved upon him to propose it to the House, in order
that the trade might cease on the 1st of January, 1800, (which was the
time of his own original choice, or a time unfettered by parliamentary
amendment,) he was the chief instrument of throwing out Mr.
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