'The word _immediate_ may no doubt be considered as a strong word; but you will observe that it is used as contrasted with the word _gradual_. And were I to criticise the term _gradual_ as certain opponents have treated the term _immediate_, I could easily, by the help of a little quibbling, bring you to the conclusion, that as hitherto employed it means that the abolition is never to take place, and that, by putting it into their petition, they are to be understood as deprecating rather than asking the emancipation of the slaves. "_Immediate_," they argue, "evanishes as soon as you utter it; it is gone before your petition reaches parliament." How absurd! If I should say to my servant while engaged in work, "You must go to the south side of the town with a message for me _immediately_," is it indeed implied in the order I have given him, that he could not fulfil it, unless he set off without his hat, without his coat, without his shoes, without those habiliments which are requisite for his appearing decently in the streets of Edinburgh, and executing the task that I had assigned him? The meaning of the word as used by us is perfectly clear, and cannot be misapprehended by any one: it is not to be made a subject of metaphysical animadversion: it is to be considered and understood under the direction of common sense, and especially as modified and expounded by those statements with which it is associated both in our resolutions and in the petition; and viewed in that light, _immediate abolition_ is not merely an intelligible phrase, but one that does not warrant a particle of the alarm which some have affected to take at it, and is not liable to any one of those objections which some have been pleased to make to it.