He believed that both Houses were then disposed to do it away.

He wished the golden opportunity might not be lost.
Lord Castlereagh thought it a proposition, on which no one could entertain a doubt, that the Slave-trade was a great evil in itself; and that it was the duty and policy of Parliament to extirpate it; but he did not think the means offered were adequate to the end proposed.

The abolition, as a political question, was a difficult one.

The year 1796 had been once fixed upon by the House, as the period when the trade was to cease; but, when the time arrived, the resolution was not executed.

This was a proof, either that the House did not wish for the event, or that they judged it impracticable.