Itinerant clergymen, mendicant physicians, and others, had extorted signatures from the sick, the indigent, and the traveller.

School-boys were invited to sign them, under the promise of a holiday.

He had letters to produce, which would prove all these things, though he was not authorized to give up the names of those who had written them.
Mr.Montagu said, that, in the last session, he had simply entered his protest against the trade; but now he could be no longer silent; and as there were many, who had conceived regulation to be more desirable than abolition, he would confine himself to that subject.
Regulation, as it related to the manner of procuring slaves, was utterly impossible: for how could we know the case of each individual, whom we forced away into bondage?
Could we establish tribunals all along the coast, and in every ship, to find it out?
What judges could we get for such an office?
But, if this could not be done upon the coast, how could we ascertain the justness of the captivity of by far the greatest number, who were brought from immense distances inland?
He would not dwell upon the proof of the inefficiency of regulations, as to the Middle Passage.

His honourable friend Mr.Wilberforce had shown, that, however the mortality might have been lessened in some ships by the regulations of Sir William Dolben, yet, wherever a contagious disorder broke out, the greatest part of the cargo was swept away.

But what regulations by the British Parliament could prevent these contagions, or remove them suddenly, when they appeared?
Neither would regulations be effectual, as they related to the protection of the slaves in the West Indies.