The session was now near its close; and we had the sorrow to find, though
we had defeated our opponents in the three instances which have been
mentioned, that the tide ran decidedly against us, upon the general
question, in the House of Commons. The same statements, which had struck so
many members with panic in the former sessions, such as that of
emancipation, of the ruin and massacre of the planters, and of
indemnification to the amount of seventy millions, had been industriously
kept up, and this by a personal canvass among them. But this hostile
disposition was still unfortunately increased by considerations of another
sort. For the witnesses of our opponents had taken their ground first. No
less than eleven of them had been examined in the last sessions. In the
present, two-thirds of the time had been occupied by others on the same
side. Hence the impression upon this ground also was against us; and we had
yet had no adequate opportunity of doing it away. A clamour was also
raised, where we thought it least likely to have originated. They (the
planters) it was said, had produced persons in elevated life and of the
highest character as witnesses; whereas we had been obliged to take up with
those of the lowest condition.
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