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1808.
Continuation from June 1788 to July 1789—Author travels to collectfurther evidence—great difficulties in obtaining it—forms committees onhis tour—Privy council resume the examinations—inspect cabinet of Africanproductions—obliged to leave many of the witnesses in behalf of theabolition unexamined—prepare their report—Labours of the committee in theinterim—Proceedings of the planters and others—Report laid on the tableof the House of Commons—Introduction of the question, and debatethere—twelve propositions deduced from the report and reserved for futurediscussion—day of discussion arrives—opponents refuse to argue from thereport—require new evidence—this granted and introduced—furtherconsideration of the subject deferred to the next session—Renewal of SirWilliam Dolben's bill—Death and character of Ramsay.
Matters had now become serious. The gauntlet had been thrown down andaccepted. The combatants had taken their stations, and the contest was tobe renewed, which was to be decided soon on the great theatre of thenation. The committee by the very act of their institution had pronouncedthe Slave-trade to be criminal. They, on the other hand, who were concernedin it, had denied the charge. It became the one to prove, and the other torefute it, or to fall in the ensuing session.
The committee, in this perilous situation, were anxious to find out suchother persons, as might become proper evidences before the privy council.They had hitherto sent there only nine or ten, and they had then onlyanother, whom they could count upon for this purpose, in their view. Theproposal of sending persons to Africa, and the West Indies, who might comeback and report what they had witnessed, had been already negatived. Thequestion then was, what they were to do. Upon this they deliberated, andthe result was an application to me to undertake a journey to differentparts of the kingdom for this purpose.
When this determination was made I was at Teston, writing a long letter tothe privy council on the ill usage and mortality of the seamen employed inthe Slave-trade, which it had been previously agreed should be received asevidence there. I thought it proper, however, before I took my departure,to form a system of questions upon the general subject. These I dividedinto six tables. The first related to the productions of Africa, and thedisposition and manners of the natives. The second, to the methods ofreducing them to slavery. The third, to the manner of bringing them to theships, their value, the medium of exchange, and other circumstances. Thefourth, to their transportation. The fifth, to their treatment in theColonies. The sixth, to the seamen employed in the trade. These tablescontained together one hundred and forty-five questions. My idea was thatthey should be printed on a small sheet of paper, which should be folded upin seven or eight leaves, of the length and breadth of a small almanac, andthen be sent in franks to our different correspondents. These, when theyhad them, might examine persons capable of giving evidence, who might livein their neighbourhoods or fall in their way, and return us theirexaminations by letter.
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