I went round accordingly and took leave of my friends.  The last of these was William Rathbone, and I have to regret, that it was also the last time I ever saw him.  Independently of the gratitude I owed him for assisting me in this great cause, I respected him highly as a man:  he possessed a fine understanding with a solid judgment:  he was a person of extraordinary simplicity of manners.  Though he lived in a state of pecuniary independence, he gave an example of great temperance, as well as of great humility of mind:  but however humble he appeared, he had always the courage to dare to do that which was right, however it might resist the customs or the prejudices of men.  In his own line of trade, which was that of a timber-merchant on an extensive scale, he would not allow any article to be sold for the use of a slave-ship, and he always refused those, who applied to him for materials for such purposes.  But it is evident that it was his intention, if he had lived, to bear his testimony still more publicly upon this subject; for an advertisement, stating the ground of his refusal to furnish anything for this traffic upon Christian principles, with a memorandum for two advertisements in the Liverpool papers, was found among his papers at his decease.

CHAPTER XIX

[Sidenote:  Author proceeds to Manchester; finds a spirit rising among the people there for the abolition of the Slave Trade; is requested to deliver a discourse on the subject of the Slave Trade; heads of it, and extracts.—­Proceeds to Keddleston, and Birmingham; finds a similar spirit at the latter place.—­Revisits Bristol; new and difficult situation there.—­Author crosses the Severn at night; unsuccessful termination of his journey; returns to London.]

I now took my departure from Liverpool, and proceeded to Manchester, where I arrived on the Friday evening.  On the Saturday morning, Mr. Thomas Walker, attended by Mr. Cooper and Mr. Bayley of Hope, called upon me.  They were then strangers to me.  They came, they said, having heard of my arrival, to congratulate me on the spirit which was then beginning to show itself among the people of Manchester, and of other places, on the subject of the Slave Trade, and which would unquestionably manifest itself further by breaking out into petitions to parliament for its abolition.  I was much surprised at this information.  I had devoted myself so entirely to my object, that I had never had time to read a newspaper since I left London.  I never knew, therefore, till now, that the attention of the public had been drawn to the subject in such a manner.  And as to petitions, though I myself had suggested the idea at Bridgewater, Bristol, Gloucester, and two, or three other places, I had only done it provisionally, and this without either the knowledge or the consent of the committee.  The news, however, as it astonished, so it almost overpowered me with joy.  I rejoiced in it, because it was a proof of the general good disposition of my countrymen; because it showed me that the cause was such as needed only to be known, to be patronized; and because the manifestation of this spirit seemed to me to be an earnest, that success would ultimately follow.