]
A report having gone abroad, that the commitee of privy council would only
examine those who were interested in the continuance of the trade, I found
it necessary to call upon Mr. Pitt again, and to inform him of it, when I
received an assurance that every person, whom I chose to send to the
council in behalf of the commitee, should be heard. This gave rise to a
conversation relative to those witnesses whom we had to produce on the side
of the abolition. And here I was obliged to disclose our weakness in this
respect. I owned with sorrow that, though I had obtained specimens and
official documents in abundance to prove many important points, yet I had
found it difficult to prevail upon persons to be publicly examined on this
subject. The only persons, we could then count upon, were Mr. Ramsay, Mr.
H. Gandy, Mr. Falconbridge, Mr. Newton, and the Dean of Middleham. There
was one, however, who would be a host of himself, if we could but gain him.
I then mentioned Mr. Norris. I told Mr. Pitt the nature[A] and value of the
testimony which he had given me at Liverpool, and the great zeal he had
discovered to serve the cause.
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