These different statements, appearing now in the public papers from day to day, began, in this early stage of the question, when the subject in all its bearings was known but to few, to make a considerable impression upon those, who were soon to be called to the decision of it.  But that which had the greatest effect upon them, was the enormous amount of the compensation, which, it was said, must be made.  This statement against the abolition was making its way so powerfully, that Archdeacon Paley thought it his duty to write, and to send to the committee, a little treatise called Arguments against the unjust Pretensions of Slave Dealers and Holders, to be indemnified by pecuniary Allowances at the public expense, in case the Slave Trade should be abolished.  This treatise, when the substance of it was detailed in the public papers, had its influence upon several members of the House of Commons; but there were others who had been, as it were, panic-struck by the statement.  These in their fright seemed to have lost the right use of their eyes, or to have looked through a magnifying glass.  With these the argument of emancipation, which they would have rejected at another time as ridiculous, obtained now easy credit.  The massacres too, and the ruin, though only conjectural, they admitted also.  Hence some of them deserted our cause wholly, while others, wishing to do justice as far as they could to the slaves on the one hand, and to their own countrymen on the other, adopted a middle line of conduct, and would go no further than the regulation of the trade.

While these preparations were making by our opponents to prejudice the minds of those who were to be the judges in this contest, Mr. Pitt presented the privy council report at the bar of the House of Commons; and as it was a large folio volume, and contained the evidence upon which the question was to be decided, it was necessary that time should be given to the members to peruse it.  Accordingly, the 12th of May was appointed, instead of the 23rd of April, for the discussion of the question.

This postponement of the discussion of the question gave time to all parties to prepare themselves further.  The merchants and planters availed themselves of it to collect petitions to parliament from interested persons, against the abolition of the trade, to wait upon members of parliament by deputation, in order to solicit their attendance in their favour, and to renew their injurious paragraphs in the public papers.  The committee for the abolition availed themselves of it to reply to these; and here Dr. Dickson, who had been secretary to Governor Hey, in Barbados, and who had offered the committee his Letters on Slavery before mentioned, and his services also, was of singular use.  Many members of parliament availed themselves of it to retire into the country to read the report.  Among the latter were Mr. Wilberforce and Mr. Pitt.  In this retirement they discovered, notwithstanding