THE HISTORY OF THE RISE, PROGRESS, AND ACCOMPLISHMENT OF THE ABOLITION OF THE AFRICAN SLAVE-TRADE BY THE BRITISH PARLIAMENT. BY THOMAS CLARKSON, M.A. IN TWO VOLUMES. VOL. I. LONDON: 1808. TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE WILLIAM, LORD GRENVILLE, THE RIGHT HONOURABLE CHARLES, EARL GREY, (LATE VISCOUNT HOWICK), THE RIGHT HONOURABLE FRANCIS, EARL MOIRA, THE RIGHT HONOURABLE GEORGE JOHN, EARL SPENCER, THE RIGHT HONOURABLE HENRY RICHARD, LORD HOLLAND, THE RIGHT HONOURABLE THOMAS, LORD ERSKINE, THE RIGHT HONOURABLE EDWARD, LORD ELLENBOROUGH, THE RIGHT HONOURABLE LORD HENRY PETTY, THE RIGHT HONOURABLE, THOMAS GRENVILLE, NINE OUT OF TWELVE OF HIS MAJESTY'S LATE CABINET MINISTERS, TO WHOSE WISE AND VIRTUOUS ADMINISTRATION BELONGS THE UNPARALLELED AND ETERNAL GLORY OF THE ANNIHILATION (AS FAR AS THEIR POWER EXTENDED) OF ONE OF THE GREATEST SOURCES OF CRIMES AND SUFFERINGS, EVER RECORDED IN THE ANNALS OF MANKIND; AND TO THE MEMORIES OF THE RIGHT HONOURABLE WILLIAM PITT, AND OF THE RIGHT HONOURABLE CHARLES JAMES FOX, UNDER WHOSE FOSTERING INFLUENCE THE GREAT WORK WAS BEGUN AND PROMOTED, THIS HISTORY OF THE RISE, PROGRESS, AND ACCOMPLISHMENT OF THE ABOLITION OF THE SLAVE TRADE IS RESPECTFULLY AND GRATEFULLY INSCRIBED. CHAPTER I. _No subject more pleasing than that of the removal of evils--Evils have existed almost from the beginning of the world--but there is a power in our nature to counteract them--this power increased by Christianity--of the evils removed by Christianity one of the greatest is the Slave-trade--The joy we ought to feel on its abolition from a contemplation of the nature of it--and of the extent of it--and of the difficulty of subduing it--Usefulness also of the contemplation of this subject_. I scarcely know of any subject, the contemplation of which, is more pleasing than that of the correction or of the removal of any of the acknowledged evils of life; for while we rejoice to think that the sufferings of our fellow-creatures have been thus, in any instance, relieved, we must rejoice equally to think that our own moral condition must have been necessarily improved by the change.