The committee having dispersed five hundred circular letters, giving an account of their institution in London and its neighbourhood, the Quakers were the first to notice it.  This they did in their yearly epistle, of which the following is an extract:—­“We have also thankfully to believe there is a growing attention in many, not of our religious society, to the subject of negro slavery; and that the minds of the people are more and more enlarged to consider it as an aggregate of every species of evil, and to see the utter inconsistency of upholding it by the authority of any nation whatever, especially of such as punish, with loss of life, crimes whose magnitude bears scarce any proportion to this complicated iniquity.”

The General Baptists were the next; for on the 22nd of June, Stephen Lowdell and Dan Taylor attended as a deputation from the annual meeting of that religious body, to inform the committee, that those whom they represented approved their proceedings, and that they would countenance the object of their institution.

The first individual who addressed the committee was Mr. William Smith, the late member for Norwich.  In his letter, he expressed the pleasure he had received in finding persons associated in the support of a cause in which he himself had taken a deep interest.  He gave them advice as to their future plans.  He promised them all the co-operation in his power:  and he exhorted them not to despair, even if their first attempt should be unsuccessful; “for consolation,” says he, “will not be wanting.  You may rest satisfied that the attempt will be productive of some good; that the fervent wishes of the righteous will be on your side, and that the blessing of those who are ready to perish will fall upon you.”  And as Mr. Smith was the first person to address the committee as an individual after its formation, so, next to Mr. Wilberforce and the members of it, he gave the most time and attention to the promotion of the cause.

On the 5th of July, the committee opened a correspondence, by means of William Dillwyn, with the societies of Philadelphia and New York, of whose institution an account has been given.  At this sitting a due sense was signified of the services of Mr. Ramsay, and a desire of his friendly communications when convenient.

The two next meetings were principally occupied in making out lists of the names of persons in the country, to whom the committee should send their publications for distribution.  For this purpose, every member was to bring in an account of those whom he knew personally, and whom he believed not only to be willing, but qualified on account of their judgment and the weight of their character, to take an useful part in the work which was to be assigned to them.  It is a remarkable circumstance, that when the lists were arranged, the committee, few as they were, found they had friends in no less than thirty-nine counties[A], in each of which there were several, so that a knowledge of their institution could now be soon diffusively spread.