CHAPTER VIII.
_Continuation from July 1799 to July 1805--Various motions within this period._ The question had now been brought forward in almost every possible way, and yet had been eventually lost.

The total and immediate abolition had been attempted; and then the gradual.

The gradual again had been tried for the year 1793, then for 1795, and then for 1796, at which period it was decreed, but never allowed to be executed.

An abolition of a part of the trade, as it related to the supply of foreigners with slaves, was the next measure proposed; and when this failed, the abolition of another part of it, as it related to the making of a certain portion of the coast of Africa sacred to liberty, was attempted; but this failed also.

Mr.Wilberforce therefore thought it prudent, not to press the abolition as a mere annual measure, but to allow members time to digest the eloquence, which had been bestowed upon it for the last five years, and to wait till some new circumstances should favour its introduction.