subject.  I obtained a more accurate and satisfactory knowledge of the manners and customs of the Africans from these, than from all the persons put together whom I had yet seen.  I was anxious, therefore, to take them before the committee of council, to which they were pleased to consent; and as Dr. Spaarman was to leave London in a few days, I procured him an introduction first.  His evidence went to show, that the natives of Africa lived in a fruitful and luxuriant country, which supplied all their wants, and that they would be a happy people, if it were not for the existence of the Slave Trade.  He instanced wars which he knew to have been made by the Moors upon the Negroes, (for they were entered upon wholly at the instigation of the White traders,) for the purpose of getting slaves, and he had the pain of seeing the unhappy captives brought in on such occasions, and some of them in a wounded state.  Among them, were many women and children, and the women were in great affliction.  He saw also the king of Barbesin send out his parties on expeditions of a similar kind, and he saw them return with slaves.  The king had been made intoxicated on purpose, by the French agents, or he would never have consented to the measure.  He stated also, that in consequence of the temptations held out by slave-vessels coming upon the coast, the natives seized one another in the night, when they found opportunity; and even invited others to their houses, whom they treacherously detained, and sold at these times; so that every enormity was practised in Africa, in consequence of the existence of the trade.  These specific instances made a proper impression upon the lords of the council in their turn; for Dr. Spaarman was a man of high character; he possessed the confidence of his sovereign; he had no interest whatever in giving his evidence on this subject, either on one or the other side; his means of information too had been large; he had also recorded the facts which had come before him, and he had his journal, written in the French language, to produce.  The tide, therefore, which had run so strongly against us, began now to turn a little in our favour.

While these examinations were going on, petitions continued to be sent to the House of Commons, from various parts of the kingdom.  No less than one hundred and three were presented in this session.  The city of London, though she was drawn the other way by the cries of commercial interest, made a sacrifice to humanity and justice:  the two universities applauded her conduct by their own example.  Large manufacturing towns, and whole counties, expressed their sentiments and wishes in a similar manner.  The Established Church in separate dioceses, and the Quakers and other dissenters, as separate religious bodies, joined in one voice upon this occasion.