Already there had been formed the nucleus of the most disinterested, and perhaps the most successful, popular movement which history records.

The question of the slave trade was well before Parliament and the country.
Ten years had passed since the freedom of all whose feet touched the soil of our island had been vindicated before the courts at Westminster, and not a few negroes had become their own masters as a consequence of that memorable decision.

The patrons of the race were somewhat embarrassed by having these expatriated freedmen on their hands; an opinion prevailed that the traffic in human lives could never be efficiently checked until Africa had obtained the rudiments of civilisation; and, after long discussion, a scheme was matured for the colonisation of Sierra Leone by liberated slaves.

A company was organised, with a charter from the Crown, and a board which included the names of Granville Sharpe and Wilberforce.

A large capital was speedily subscribed, and the Chair was accepted by Mr.Henry Thornton, a leading City banker and a member of Parliament, whose determined opposition to cruelty and oppression in every form was such as might be expected in one who had inherited from his father the friendship of the poet Cowper.
Mr.Thornton heard Macaulay's story from Thomas Babington, with whom he lived on terms of close intimacy and political alliance.