I may observe also, in justice to the memories of Mr.
Pitt and Mr. Fox, that there was no debate within this period, in which
they did not take a part; and in which they did not irradiate others from
the profusion of their own light: and, thirdly, that in consequence of the
efforts of the three, conjoined with those of others, the great cause of
the abolition was secretly gaining ground. Many members who were not
connected with the trade, but who had yet hitherto supported it, were on
the point of conversion. Though the question had oscillated backwards and
forwards, so that an ordinary spectator could have discovered no gleam of
hope at these times, nothing is more certain, than that the powerful
eloquence then displayed had smoothed the resistance to it; had shortened
its vibrations; and had prepared it for a state of rest.
With respect to the West Indians themselves, some of them began to see
through the mists of prejudice, which had covered them. In the year 1794,
when the bill for the abolition of the foreign Slave-trade was introduced,
Mr. Vaughan and Mr. Barham supported it. They called upon the planters in
the House to give way to humanity, where their own interests could not be
affected by their submission.
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