This motion was
seconded by Mr. Barham. It was opposed, however, by Mr. Wilberforce, Mr.
Pitt, and others; but was at length carried by a majority of ninety-nine to
sixty-three.
In the year 1798 Mr. Wilberforce asked leave to renew his former bill, to
abolish the Slave-trade within a limited time. He was supported by Mr.
Canning, Mr. Hobhouse, Sir Robert Buxton, Mr. Bouverie, and others. Mr.
Sewell, Bryan Edwards, Henniker, and C. Ellis, took the opposite side of
the question. Mr. Ellis, however, observed, that he had no objection to
restricting the Slave-trade to plantations already begun in the colonies;
and Mr. Barham professed himself a friend to the abolition, if it could be
accomplished in a reasonable way. On a division, there appeared to be for
Mr. Wilberforce's motion eighty-three, but against it eighty-seven.
In the year 1799 Mr. Wilberforce, undismayed by these different
disappointments, renewed his motion. Colonel M. Wood, Mr. Petrie, and
others, among whom were Mr. Windham and Mr. Dundas, opposed it. Mr. Pitt,
Fox, W. Smith, Sir William Dolben, Sir R. Milbank, Mr. Hobhouse, and Mr.
Canning, supported it. Sir R. Milbank contended, that modifications of a
system fundamentally wrong ought not to be tolerated by the legislature of
a free nation.
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