To annihilate the trade, he said, and to make no
compensation on account of it, was an act of swindling. Mr. Macnamara
called the measure hypocritical, fanatic, and methodistical. Mr. Pitt was
so irritated at the insidious attempt to set aside the privy council
report, when no complaint had been alleged against it before, that he was
quite off his guard, and he thought it right afterwards to apologize for
the warmth into he had been betrayed. The Speaker too was obliged
frequently to interfere. On this occasion no less than thirty members
spoke. And there had probably been few seasons, when so much disorder had
been discoverable in that house.
The result of the debate was, a permission to those interested in the
continuance of the Slave-trade to bring counsel to the bar on the
twenty-sixth of May, and then to introduce such witnesses, as might throw
further light on the propositions in the shortest time: for Mr. Pitt only
acquiesced in this new measure on a supposition, "that there would be no
unnecessary delay, as he could, by no means submit to the ultimate
procrastination of so important a business." He even hoped (and in this
hope he was joined by Mr.
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