CHAPTER X.

[Sidenote:  Continuation of the fourth class of forerunners and coadjutors up to 1787.—­Author goes on to enlarge his knowledge in the different departments of the subject; communicates more frequently with Mr. Wilberforce.—­Meetings now appointed at the house of the latter.—­Dinner at Mr. Langton’s.—­Mr. Wilberforce pledges himself there to take up the subject in Parliament; remarkable junction, in consequence, of all the four classes of forerunners and coadjutors before-mentioned.—­Committee formed out of these on the 22nd of May, 1787, for the abolition of the Slave Trade.]

The manner in which Mr. Wilberforce had received me, and the pains which he had taken, and was still taking, to satisfy himself of the truth of those enormities which had been charged upon the Slave Trade, tended much to enlarge my hope, that they might become at length the subject of a parliamentary inquiry.  Richard Phillips, also, to whom I made a report at his chambers almost every evening of the proceedings of the day, had begun to entertain a similar expectation.  Of course we unfolded our thoughts to one another; from hence a desire naturally sprung up in each of us to inquire whether any alteration in consequence of this new prospect should be made in my pursuits.  On deliberating upon this point, it seemed proper to both of us that the distribution of the books should be continued; that I should still proceed in enlarging my own knowledge; and that I should still wait upon members of the legislature, but with this difference, that I should never lose sight of Mr. Wilberforce, but, on the other hand, that I should rather omit visiting some others than paying a proper attention to him.

One thing however appeared now to be necessary, which had not yet been done.  This was to inform our friends in the city, upon whom I had all along occasionally called, that we believed the time was approaching when it would be desirable that we should unite our labours, if they saw no objection to such a measure; for, if the Slave Trade were to become a subject of parliamentary inquiry with a view to the annihilation of it, no individual could perform the work which would be necessary for such a purpose.  This work must be a work of many; and who so proper to assist in it as they, who had before so honourably laboured in it?  In the case of such an event large funds also would be wanted, and who so proper to procure and manage them as these?  A meeting was accordingly called at the house of James Phillips, when these our views were laid open.  When I stated that from the very time of my hopes beginning to rise I had always had those present in my eye as one day to be fellow-labourers, William Dillwyn replied, that from the time they had first heard of the Prize Essay, they also had had their eyes upon me, and, from the time they had first seen me, had conceived:  a desire of making the same use of me as I had now