The introduction of this subject into Parliament, during the administration of Pitt, was by no means the fruit of a sudden impulse, but was rather the matured expression of a series of preliminary efforts.  In private circles, the Slave-Trade had been already denounced and protested against, as unworthy of a civilized, not to say a Christian people.  In certain quarters, too, the press had become the exponent of these sentiments.  Possibly, in their beginnings, no person did more in the exertion of those means which have wrought into the heart of the English people such undying hatred to Negro Slavery than the amiable recluse whose writings can never die so long as lovers of poetry continue to live.  Who has not at times turned away from the best-loved of the living poets, to regale himself with the compact, polished, sweetly ringing numbers of Cowper?  On the subject of Slavery he had already given expression to his thoughts in language which at the present day, in certain portions of the United States, must subject his works to a strict expurgatorial process.  He had exposed to the world the injustice of the system, and had thrown around his words the magic of song.

It would not, of course, be possible to proceed in these reminiscences without coming at once upon the names of Granville Sharp and Thomas Clarkson.  The clerk who became a law-student, that he might be qualified to substantiate the truth that a slave could not exist on British soil, the Cambridge graduate, awakened by the preparation of his own prize-essay to a sympathy with the slave, which never, during a long life, flagged for an hour, need not be eulogized to-day.  The latter of these gentlemen repeatedly visited Mr. Wilberforce and conferred with him upon this subject, imparting to him the fruit of his own careful and minute investigations.  These consisted of certain well-authenticated items of information and documentary evidence concerning the trade and the cruelties growing out of it.  The public efforts which followed, though hardly originated by these conferences, were probably hastened by them.  Nor should it be forgotten that a small knot of individuals, mostly Quakers, had associated themselves under the name of “The London Committee.”  This, if not an anti-slavery society, was the nucleus of what afterwards became one.  These hitherto unrecognized efforts were about to receive fresh encouragement and acquire new efficiency.  The influences which had worked in silence and among a few were about to be brought out to the light.

It was on the 5th of May, 1788, that a motion was introduced into the House of Commons having for its object the abolition of the Slave-Trade.  It was brought forward by Mr. Pitt.  He intended to secure its discussion early in the next session.  Mr. Wilberforce, he hoped, would then be present, whose seat was now vacant by reason of severe illness.  He had been, indeed, at one time, given over by his physicians, but had been assured by Mr. Pitt, that, even in case of a fatal result of his disease, the cause of African freedom should not die.