2 A LETTER ΤΟ WILLIAM WILBERFORCE, ESQ. M.P. VICE PRESIDENT OF THE AFRICAN INSTITUTION, &c. &c. &c. CONTAINING REMARKS ON THE REPORTS OF THE SIERRA LEONE COMPANY, AND AFRICAN INSTITUTION: WITH HINTS respecting the MEANS BY WHICH AN UNIVERSAL ABOLITION OF THE SLAVE TRADE BIBLIO BY ROBERT THORPE, ESQ. L.L. D. CHIEF JUSTICE of Sierra Leone, AND JUDGE OF THE VICE THE THIRD EDITION, WITH A PREFACE. LONDON: PRINTED FOR F. C. AND J. RIVINGTON. No. 62, ST. PAUL'S CHURCH YARD; 1815. PREFACE TO THE THIRD EDITION. THE third edition of my public Letter to Mr. Wilberforce being called for, I embrace this opportunity to repel at attack on my Statement, made by a Director of the African Institution (Mr. Horner) in the House of Com mons, on the 23d ultimo, as reported in the Times News Paper. The learned Director commences his speech thus" He had seen a Pamphlet that at"tracted his attention, in which it was stated, "that three persons, named Cook, Brodie, " and Dunbar, who had been convicted at "Sierra Leone of Slave Trading, and sentenced to be transported, had been confined a on board the Hulks, at Portsmouth, but "that the Secretary of State, ever alive to "the calls of humanity, had relieved them from the miseries of their situation." « He "had no reason to attach any particular "credit to this statement, more especially as " he had cause to know that it was accom panied by other Statements, positively erro" neous." The information alluded to and contained in the Postscript of my Letter, I received from a Member of Parliament, of great integrity and independance, who had obtained it from the Home Department, in consequence of having presented the Prisoners Petition; I afterwards enquired particularly at Portsmouth, and was assured these unfortunate men had been releaved from heavy irons, from every species of work, from associating with the convicts, and had an apartment allotted to themselves. I now leave it to the nation to determine if this was not "re"lief from the miseries of their situation?” and if the Secretary of State had not been actively alive to the calls of justice and humanity, (as I stated) could they have been so instantaneously relieved? therefore this State ment is true in every part, and the justice will appear as evident as the humanity, when |