At the next meeting, which was on the sixth of May, and at which major Cartwright and the Manchester delegates assisted, Mr. Morton Pitt attended as a member of the commitee, and said that the minister had fixed his motion for the ninth.  It was then resolved, that deputations should be sent to some of the leading members of parliament, to request their support of the approaching motion.  I was included in one of these, and in that which was to wait upon Mr. Fox.  We were received by him in a friendly manner.  On putting the question to him, which related to the object of our mission, Mr. Fox paused for a little while, as if in the act of deliberation; when he assured us unequivocally, and in language which could not be misunderstood, that he would support the object of the commitee to its fullest extent, being convinced that there was no remedy for the evil, but in the total abolition of the trade.

At length, the ninth, or the day fixed upon, arrived, when this important subject was to be mentioned in the House of Commons for the first time[A], with a view to the public discussion of it.  It is impossible for me to give within the narrow limits of this work all that was then said upon it; and yet as the debate, which ensued, was the first which took place upon it, I should feel inexcusable if I were not to take some notice of it.

[Footnote A:  David Hartley made a motion some years before in the same house, as has been shown in a former part of this work, but this was only to establish a proposition, That the Slave-trade was contrary to the Laws of God and the Rights of Man.]

Mr. Pitt rose.  He said he intended to move a resolution relative to a subject, which was of more importance than any which had ever been agitated in that house.  This honour he should not have had, but for a circumstance, which he could not but deeply regret, the severe indisposition of his friend Mr. Wilberforce, in whose hands every measure, which belonged to justice, humanity, and the national interest, was peculiarly well placed.  The subject in question was no less than that of the Slave-trade.  It was obvious from the great number of petitions, which had been presented concerning it, how much it had engaged the public attention, and consequently how much it deserved the serious notice of that house, and how much it became their duty to take some measure concerning it.  But whatever was done on such a subject, every one would agree, ought to be done with the maturest deliberation.  Two opinions had prevailed without doors, as appeared from the language of the different petitions.  It had been pretty generally thought that the African Slave-trade ought to be abolished.  There were others, however, who thought that it only stood in need of regulations.  But all had agreed that it ought not to remain as it stood at present.  But that measure, which it might be the most proper to take, could only be discovered by a cool, patient, and diligent examination of the subject in all its