This letter of the Dean of Middleham, which was a little Essay of itself, was deemed of so much importance by the committee, but particularly as it was the result of local knowledge, that they not only passed a resolution of thanks to him for it, but desired his permission to print it.

The committee sat again on the 13th and 22nd of November.  At the first of these sittings, a letter was read from Henry Grimston, Esq., of Whitwell Hall, near York, offering his services for the promotion of the cause in his own county.  At the second, the Dean of Middleham’s answer was received.  He acquiesced in the request of the committee; when five thousand of his letters were ordered immediately to be printed.

On the 22nd a letter was read from Mr. James Mackenzie, of the town of Cambridge, desiring to forward the object of the institution there.  Two letters were read also, one from the late Mr. Jones, tutor of Trinity College, and the other from Mr. William Frend, fellow of Jesus College.  It appeared from these, that the gentlemen of the University of Cambridge were beginning to take a lively interest in the abolition of the Slave Trade, among whom Dr. Watson, the bishop of Llandaff, was particularly conspicuous.  At this committee two thousand new Summary View were ordered to be printed, and the circular letter to be prefixed to each.

CHAPTER XXI.

[Sidenote:  Labours of the committee continued to February, 1788.—­Committee elect new members; vote thanks to Falconbridge and others; receive letters from Grove and others; circulate numerous publications; make a report; send circular letters to corporate bodies; release negroes unjustly detained; find new correspondents in Archdeacon Paley, the Marquis de la Fayette, Bishop of Cloyne, Bishop of Peterborough, and in many others.]

The labours of the committee, during my absence, were as I have now explained them; but as I was obliged, almost immediately, on joining them, to retire into the country to begin my new work, I must give an account of their further services till I joined them again, or till the middle of February, 1788.

During sittings which were held from the middle of December, 1787, to the 18th of January, 1788, the business of the committee had so increased, that it was found proper to make an addition to their number.  Accordingly James Martin and William Morton Pitt, Esquires, members of parliament, and Robert Hunter, and Joseph Smith, Esquires, were chosen members of it.

The knowledge also of the institution of the society had spread to such an extent, and the eagerness among individuals to see the publications of the committee had been so great, that the press was kept almost constantly going during the time now mentioned.  No fewer than three thousand lists of the subscribers, with a circular letter prefixed to them, explaining the object of the institution, were ordered to be printed within this period, to which are to be added fifteen hundred of BENEZET’S Account of Guinea, three thousand of the DEAN of MIDDLEHAM’S Letters, five thousand Summary View, and two thousand of a new edition of the Slavery and Commerce of the Human Species, which I had enlarged before the last of these sittings from materials collected in my late tour.