He went about to many of his friends in the House of Commons, and this from day to day, to procure their favour towards it.

Lord Newhaven was applied to, and distributed some.

Lord Balgonie (now Leven) took a similar charge.

The late Lord Hawke, who told me that he had long felt for the sufferings of the injured Africans, desired to be permitted to take his share of the distribution among members of the House of Lords, and Dr.Porteus, now bishop of London, became another coadjutor in the same work.
This distribution of my books having been consigned to proper hands, I began to qualify myself, by obtaining further knowledge, for the management of this great cause.

As I had obtained the principal part of it from reading, I thought I ought now to see what could be seen, and to know from living persons what could be known, on the subject.