And, as such an one offered in the year 1785, when he was vice-chancellor of the University, he embraced it.

In consequence of his office, it devolved upon him to give out two subjects for Latin dissertations, one to the middle bachelors, and the other to the senior bachelors of arts.

They who produced the best were to obtain the prizes.
To the latter he proposed the following: _Anne liceat Invitos in Servitutem dare ?_ or, _Is it right to make slaves of others against their will ?_ This circumstance of giving out subjects for the prizes, though only an ordinary measure, became the occasion of my own labours, or of the real honour which I feel in being able to consider myself as the next coadjutor of this class in the cause of the injured Africans.

For it happened in this year that, being of the order of senior bachelors, I became qualified to write.

I had gained a prize for the best Latin dissertation in the former year, and, therefore, it was expected that I should obtain one in the present, or I should be considered as having lost my reputation both in the eyes of the University and of my own College.