His sincerity on this occasion was doubted by Mr. Fox at the
very outset; for he immediately rose and said, that "something so
mischievous had come out, something so like a foundation had been laid for
preserving, not only for years to come, but for any thing he knew for ever,
this detestable traffic, that he felt it his duty immediately to deprecate
all such delusions upon the country." Mr. Pitt, who spoke soon afterwards,
in reply to an argument advanced by Mr. Dundas, maintained, that "at
whatever period the House should say that the Slave-trade should actually
cease, this defence would equally be set up; for it would be just as good
an argument in seventy years hence, as it was against the abolition then."
And these remarks Mr. Dundas verified in a singular manner within this
period: for in the year 1796, when his own bill, as amended in the Commons,
was to take place, he was one of the most strenuous opposers of it; and in
the year 1799, when in point of consistency it devolved upon him to propose
it to the House, in order that the trade might cease on the first of
January 1800, (which was the time of his own original choice, or a time
unfettered by parliamentary amendment,) he was the chief instrument of
throwing out Mr.
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