In the year 1774, John Wesley, the celebrated divine, to whose pious
labours the religious world will long be indebted, undertook the cause
of the poor Africans. He had been in America, and had seen and pitied
their hard condition. The work which he gave to the world in
consequence, was entitled _Thoughts on Slavery_. Mr. Wesley had this
great cause much at heart, and frequently recommended it to the support
of those who attended his useful ministry.

In the year 1776, the Abbé Proyart brought out, at Paris, his _History
of Loango_, and other kingdoms in Africa, in which he did ample justice
to the moral and intellectual character of the natives there.

The same year produced two new friends in England, in the same cause,
but in a line in which no one had yet moved. David Hartley, then a
member of parliament for Hull, and the son of Dr. Hartley who wrote the
_Essay on Man_, found it impossible any longer to pass over without
notice the case of the oppressed Africans. He had long felt for their
wretched condition, and, availing himself of his legislative situation,
he made a motion in the House of Commons, "That the Slave Trade was
contrary to the laws of God, and the rights of men." In order that he
might interest the members as much as possible in his motion, he had
previously obtained some of the chains in use in this cruel traffic, and
had laid them upon the table of the House of Commons. His motion was
seconded by that great patriot and philanthropist, Sir George Saville.
But though I am now to state that it failed, I cannot but consider it as
a matter of pleasing reflection, that this great subject was first
introduced into parliament by those who were worthy of it; by those who
had clean hands and an irreproachable character, and to whom no motive
of party or faction could be imputed, but only such as must have arisen