Having now given a general account of my own proceedings, I shall state those of the committee; or show how they contributed, by fulfilling the duties of their several departments, to promote the cause in the interim.

In the first place they completed the rules, or code of laws, for their own government.

They continued to adopt and circulate books, that they might still enlighten the public mind on the subject, and preserve it interested in favour of their institution.  They kept the press indeed almost constantly going for this purpose.  They printed, within the period mentioned, RAMSAY’S, Address on the proposed Bill for the Abolition; The Speech of Henry Beaufoy, Esq., on Sir William Dolben’s Bill, of which an extract is given in Chap. xxiii.; Notes by a Planter on the two Reports from the Committee of the Honourable House of Assembly of Jamaica; Observations on the Slave Trade by Mr. Wadstrom; and DICKSON’S Letters on Slavery. These were all new publications.  To those they added others of less note, with new editions of the old.

They voted their thanks to the Rev. Mr. Clifford, for his excellent Sermon on the Slave Trade; to the pastor and congregation of the Baptist church at Maze Pond, Southwark, for their liberal subscription; and to John Barton, one of their own members, for the services he had rendered them.  The latter, having left his residence in town for one in the country, solicited permission to resign, and hence this mark of approbation was given to him.  He was continued also as an honorary and corresponding member.

They elected David Hartley and Richard Sharpe, Esqs., into their own body, and Alexander Jaffray, Esq., the Rev. Charles Symmons, of Haverfordwest, and the Rev. T. Burgess (afterwards bishop of Salisbury), as honorary and corresponding members.  The latter had written Considerations on the Abolition of Slavery and the Slave Trade, upon grounds of natural, religious, and political Duty, which had been of great service to the cause.

Of the new correspondents of the committee within this period I may first mention Henry Taylor, of North Shields; William Proud, of Hull; the Rev. T. Gisborne, of Yoxall Lodge; and William Ellford, Esq., of Plymouth.  The latter as chairman of the Plymouth committee, sent up for inspection an engraving of a plan and section of a slave-ship, in which the bodies of the slaves were seen stowed in the proportion of rather less than one to a ton.  This happy invention gave all those who saw it a much better idea, than they could otherwise have had, of the horrors of their transportation, and contributed greatly, as will appear, afterwards, to impress the public in favour of our cause.