I doubted, however, if he would come to
London for this purpose, even if I wrote to him; for he was intimate with
almost all the owners of slave-vessels in Liverpool, and living among these
he would not like to incur their resentment, by taking a prominent part
against them. I therefore entreated Mr. Pitt to send him a summons of
council to attend, hoping that Mr. Norris would then be pleased to come up,
as he would be enabled to reply to his friends, that his appearance had not
been voluntary. Mr. Pitt, however, informed me, that a summons from a
commitee of privy council sitting as a board of trade was not binding upon
the subject, and therefore that I had no other means left but of writing to
him, and he desired me to do this by the first post.
[Footnote A: See his evidence Chap. xvii.]
This letter I accordingly wrote, and sent it to my friend William Rathbone,
who was to deliver it in person, and to use his own influence at the same
time; but I received for answer, that Mr. Norris was then in London. Upon
this I tried to find him out, to entreat him to consent to an examination
before the council.
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