I found great delicacy as a stranger in making my observations upon these resolutions, and yet I thought I ought not to pass them over wholly in silence, but particularly the last.  I therefore rose up, and stated that there was one resolution, of which I did not quite see the propriety; but this might arise from my ignorance of the customs, as well as of the genius and spirit of the French people.  It struck me that an application from a little committee in England to the National Assembly of France was not a dignified measure, nor was it likely to have weight with such a body.  It was, besides, contrary to all the habits of propriety in which I had been educated.  The British Parliament did not usually receive petitions from the subjects of other nations.  It was this feeling which had induced me thus to speak.

To these observations it was replied, that the National Assembly of France would glory in going contrary to the example of other nations in a case of generosity and justice, and that the petition in question, if it could be obtained, would have an influence there, which the people of England, unacquainted with the sentiments of the French nation, would hardly credit.

To this I had only to reply, that I would communicate the measure to the committee in London, but that I could not be answerable for the part they would take in it.

By an answer received from Mr. Necker, relative to the first of these resolutions, it appeared that the desired interview had been obtained; but he granted it only for a few minutes, and this principally to show his good-will to the cause:  for he was then so oppressed with business in his own department, that he had but little time for any other.  He wrote to me, however, the next day, and desired my company to dinner.  He then expressed a wish to me, that any business relative to the Slave Trade might be managed by ourselves as individuals, and that I would take the opportunity of dining with him occasionally for this purpose.  By this plan, he said, both of us would save time.  Madame Necker, also, promised to represent her husband, if I should call in his absence, and to receive me, and converse with me on all occasions in which this great cause of humanity and religion might be concerned.

With respect to the other resolutions, nothing ever came of them; for we waited daily for an answer from the president during the whole of his presidency, but we never received any; and the committee in London, when they had read my letter, desired me unequivocally to say, that they did not see the propriety of the petition which it had been recommended to them to obtain.