Others threw out, with the same view,
that men were going about to abolish it, who would have done much better if
they had staid at home. Others said they had heard of a person turned mad,
who had conceived the thought of destroying Liverpool, and all its glory.
Some gave as a toast, Success to the Trade, and then laughed immoderately,
and watched me when I took my glass to see if I would drink it. I saw the
way in which things were now going, and I believed it would be proper that
I should come to some fixed resolutions; such as, whether I should change
my lodgings, and whether I should dine in private; and if not, what line of
conduct it would become me to pursue on such occasions. With respect to
changing my lodgings and dining in private, I conceived, if I were to do
either of these things, that I should be showing an unmanly fear of my
visitors, which they would turn to their own advantage. I conceived too,
that, if I chose to go on as before, and to enter into conversation with
them on the subject of the abolition of the Slave-trade, I might be able,
by having such an assemblage of persons daily, to gather all the arguments
which they could collect on the other side of our question, an advantage
which I should one day feel in the future management of the cause.
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