Some people seem inclined to lend an ear to tales of human woe, and feel a certain gratification in beholding the exhibitions of tragedy, or in the perusal of pathetic poetry, and the like. Even the case of the oppressed Africans, when represented by their favourite bards, or appearing in the form of the “_Dying Slave_,” or the “_Negro’s Complaint_,” seem to possess, if not charms to please, at least powers forcibly to attract their willing attention, and to win their sympathetic regard. Yet the evidence delivered before the House of Commons, containing a true and faithful account of the miseries and wickedness attendant upon the traffic in their fellow-creatures, unembellished by flourishes of rhetoric, undecorated with the splendid habiliments of poetry, is almost in vain recommended to their notice. Should they be prevailed upon to cast their eye over a few pages of the shocking history, they presently shut up the book--it makes them shudder--they have read enough--such horrid barbarities, such complicated sufferings, are not to be endured even in imagination! But let such remember--“that humanity consists not in a squeamish ear--it consists not in a starting or shrinking at such tales as these, but in a disposition of heart to relieve misery, and to prevent the repetition of cruelty:--Humanity appertains rather to the mind than to the nerves, and prompts men to real, disinterested endeavours to give happiness to their fellow-creatures[15].” It is therefore to be wished that no affection of extreme sensibility, or real effeminacy of manners, may disincline, or disqualify, for the service of humanity. That extreme DELICACY which deprives us, if not of the disposition, yet of the ability to encounter suffering for the sake of, and in order to help our brethren in affliction, and under the severest oppression, is detrimental to its possessor, and injurious to the community; it renders compassion a painful, useless thing, and makes beneficence fruitless. To the busy and the gay “_a great book is a great evil_.” TWO THOUSAND PAGES IN FOLIO, written (like Ezekiel’s roll) within and without,--lamentations, mourning and woe, stand but little chance of obtaining _their_ notice--even THE ABSTRACT OF THE EVIDENCE, would detain some of them too long from their eager pursuits of business, or their favourite schemes of pleasure. This HASTY SKETCH will not, however, it may be presumed, encroach too much upon their time; and well rewarded will the compiler of it be, if it should prove a stimulus to further investigation of the Evidence. No one knows what opportunities he may have, or how far his influence may extend, to assist the endeavours now using for the abolition of a trade, the continued carrying on of which, after being so fully apprized of its dreadful enormity, may be expected (without the smallest tincture of superstitious fear) to expose this nation to the just punishment of PROVIDENCE.