Earl Stanhope, therefore, pressed this circumstance peculiarly upon the lords who were present.

He observed that the king was to dismiss the parliament next day, and therefore they must adopt the bill as it stood, or reject it altogether.
There was no alternative, and no time was to be lost: accordingly, he moved for an immediate division on the first of the amendments proposed by Lord Thurlow.

This having taken place, it was negatived.

The other amendments shared the same fate; and thus, at length, passed through the Upper House, as through an ordeal as it were of fire, the first bill that ever put fetters upon that barbarous and destructive monster, the Slave Trade.
The next day, or on Friday, July the 11th, the king gave his assent to it, and, as Lord Stanhope had previously asserted in the House of Lords, concluded the session.
While the legislature was occupied in the consideration of this bill, the lords of the council continued their examinations, that they might collect as much light as possible previously to the general agitation of the question in the next session of parliament.

Among others I underwent an examination: I gave my testimony first, relative to many of the natural productions of Africa, of which I produced the specimens.