CHAPTER XXXII Continuation from July, 1805, to July, 1806.--Author, restored, joins the Committee again.--Death of Mr. Pitt.--Foreign Slave Trade abolished.--Resolution to take measures for the total abolition of the trade.--Address to the King to negotiate with foreign powers for their concurrence in it.--Motion to prevent new vessels going into the trade.--All these carried through both Houses of Parliament CHAPTER XXXIII Continuation from July, 1806, to July, 1807.--Death of Mr. Fox.--Bill for the total abolition carried in the Lords; sent from thence to the Commons; amended, and passed there, and sent back to the Lords; receives the royal assent.--Reflections on this great event Map Plan and Sections of a Slave Ship * * * * * PREFATORY REMARKS TO THE PRESENT EDITION. * * * * * The invaluable services rendered by Thomas Clarkson to the great question of the Slave Trade in all its branches, have been universally acknowledged both at home and abroad, and have gained him a high place among the greatest benefactors of mankind. The History of the Abolition which this volume contains, affords some means of appreciating the extent of his sacrifices and his labours in this cause. But after these, with the unwearied exertions of William Wilberforce, had conducted its friends to their final triumph, in 1807, they did not then rest from their labours. There remained four most important objects, to which the anxious attention of all Abolitionists was now directed. _First_,--The law had been passed, forced upon the Planters, the Traders, and the Parliament, by the voice of the people; and there was a necessity for keeping a watchful eye over its execution. _Secondly_,--The statute, however rigorously it might be enforced, left, of course, the whole amount of the Foreign Slave traffic untouched, and it was infinitely to be desired that means should be adopted for extending our Abolition to other nations. _Thirdly_,--Some compensation was due to Africa, for the countless miseries which our criminal conduct had for ages inflicted upon her, and strict justice, to say nothing of common humanity and Christian charity, demanded that every means should be used for aiding in the progress of her civilization, and effacing as far as possible the dreadful marks which had been left upon her by our crimes.