While these examinations were going on, petitions continued to be sent to the house of commons, from various parts of the kingdom. No less than one hundred and three were presented in this session, The city of London, though she was drawn the other way by the cries of commercial interest, made a sacrifice to humanity and justice. The two Universities applauded her conduct by their own example. Large manufacturing towns and whole counties expressed their sentiments and wishes in a similar manner. The Established Church in separate dioceses, and the Quakers and other Dissenters, as separate religious bodies, joined in one voice upon this occasion.
The commitee in the interim were not unmindful of the great work they had undertaken, and they continued to forward it in its different departments. They kept up a communication by letter with most of the worthy persons who have been mentioned to have written to them, but particularly with Brissot and Claviere, from whom they had the satisfaction of learning, that a society had at length been established at Paris for the Abolition of the Slave-Trade in France. The learned Marquis de Condorcet had become the president of it. The virtuous Duc de la Rochefoucauld, and the Marquis de la Fayette, had sanctioned it by enrolling their names as the two first members. Petion, who was placed afterwards among the mayors of Paris, followed. Women also were not thought unworthy of being honorary and assistant members of this humane institution; and among these were found the amiable Marchioness of la Fayette, Madame de Poivre, widow of the late intendant of the Isle of France, and Madame Necker, wife of the first minister of state.
The new correspondents, who voluntarily offered their services to the
commitee during the first part of the period now under consideration, were,
S. Whitcomb, esq., of Gloucester; the reverend D. Watson, of Middleton
Tyas, Yorkshire; John Murlin, esq., of High Wycomb; Charles Collins, esq.,
of Swansea; Henry Tudor, esq., of Sheffield; the reverend John Hare, of
Lincoln; Samuel Tooker, esq., of Moorgate, near Rotherham; the reverend G.
Walker, and Francis Wakefield, esq., of Nottingham; the reverend Mr.
Hepworth, of Burton-upon-Trent; the reverend H. Dannett, of St. John's,
Liverpool; the reverend Dr. Oglander, of New College, Oxford; the reverend
H. Coulthurst, of Sidney College, Cambridge; R. Selfe, esq., of
Cirencester; Morris Birkbeck, of Hanford, Dorsetshire; William Jepson, of
Lancaster; B. Kaye, of Leeds; John Patison, esq., of Paisley; J.E. Dolben,
esq., of Northamptonshire; the reverend Mr. Smith, of Wendover; John
Wilkinson, esquire, of Woodford; Samuel Milford, esquire, of Exeter; Peter
Lunel, esquire, treasurer of the commitee at Bristol; James Pemberton, of
Philadelphia; and the President of the Society at New York.
The letters from new correspondents during the latter part of this period were the following:
One from Alexander Alison, esquire, of Edinburgh, in which he expressed it to be his duty to attempt to awaken the inhabitants of Scotland to a knowledge of the monstrous evil of the Slave-trade, and to form a commitee there to act in union with that of London, in carrying the great object of their institution into effect.
Another from Elhanan Winchester, offering the commitee one hundred of his sermons, which he had preached against the Slave-trade, in Fairfax county in Virginia, so early as in the year 1774.
Another from Dr. Frossard, of Lyons, in which he offered his services for the South of France, and desired different publications to be sent him, that he might be better qualified to take a part in the promotion of the cause.
Another from professor Bruns, of Helmstadt in Germany, in which he desired to know the particulars relative to the institution of the commitee, as many thousands upon the continent were then beginning to feel for the sufferings of the oppressed African race.
Another from the reverend James Manning, of Exeter, in which he stated himself to be authorised by the dissenting ministers of Devon and Cornwall, to express their high approbation of the conduct of the commitee, and to offer their services in the promotion of this great work of humanity and religion.
Another from William Senhouse, esquire, of the island of Barbadoes. In this he gave the particulars of two estates, one of them his own and the other belonging to a nobleman, upon each of which the slaves, in consequence of humane treatment, had increased by natural population only. Another effect of this humane treatment had been, that these slaves were among the most orderly and tractable in that island. From these and other instances he argued, that if the planters would, all of them, take proper care of their slaves, their humanity would be repaid in a few years by a valuable increase in their property, and they would never want supplies from a traffic, which had been so justly condemned.