This indeed may be said to have been no
mighty thing; but it was a frank confession of the injustice of the
Slave-trade, and the beginning of the change which followed, both with
respect to themselves and others.
With respect to the old friends of the cause, it is with regret I mention,
that it lost the support of Mr. Windham within this period; and this regret
is increased by the consideration, that he went off on the avowed plea of
expediency against moral rectitude; a doctrine, which, at least upon this
subject, he had reprobated for ten years. It was, however, some
consolation, as far as talents were concerned, (for there can be none for
the loss of virtuous feeling,) that Mr. Canning, a new member, should have
so ably supplied his place.
Of the gradual abolitionists, whom we have always considered as the most
dangerous enemies of the cause, Mr. Jenkinson (now Lord Hawkesbury), Mr.
Addington (now Lord Sidmouth), and Mr. Dundas (now Lord Melville),
continued their opposition during all this time. Of the first two I shall
say nothing at present; but I cannot pass over the conduct of the latter.
He was the first person, as we have seen, to propose the gradual abolition
of the Slave-trade; and he fixed the time for its cessation on the first of
January 1800.
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