An inquiry there was better than an inquiry in any other place, however respectable the persons before and by whom it was carried on.

There, all that could be said for the abolition or against it might be said.

In that house every relative fact would have been produced, no information would have been withheld, no circumstance would have been omitted, which was necessary for elucidation; nothing would have been kept back.

He was sorry, therefore, that the consideration of the question, but more particularly where so much human suffering was concerned, should be put off to another session, when it was obvious that no advantage could be gained by the delay.
He then adverted to the secrecy which the Chancellor of the Exchequer had observed relative to his own opinion on this important subject.

Why did he refuse to give it?
Had Mr.Wilberforce been present, the house would have had a great advantage in this respect, because doubtless he would have stated in what view he saw the subject, and in a general way described the nature of the project he meant to propose.