He declared his hearty approbation
of their application, and said he hoped he should see the day when not a
slave would remain within the dominions of this realm. Lord North seconded
the motion, saying he could have no objection to the petition, and that its
object ought to recommend it to every humane breast; that it did credit to
the most benevolent society in the world; but that, the session being so
far advanced, the subject could not then be taken into consideration; and
he regretted that the Slave-trade, against which the petition was so justly
directed, was in a commercial view become necessary to almost every nation
of Europe. The petition was then brought up and read, after which it was
ordered to lie on the table. This was the first petition (being two years
earlier than that from the inhabitants of Bridgewater), which was ever
presented to parliament for the abolition of the Slave-trade.
But the Society did not stop here; for having at the yearly meeting of 1783
particularly recommended the cause to a standing commitee appointed to act
at intervals, called the Meeting for Sufferings, the latter in this same
year resolved upon an address to the public, entitled, The Case of our
Fellow-creatures, the oppressed Africans, respectfully recommended to the
serious Consideration of the Legislature of Great Britain, by the People
called Quakers: in which they endeavoured in the most pathetic manner to
make the reader acquainted with the cruel nature of this trade; and they
ordered two thousand copies of it to be printed.
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