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-------------------- INSCRIBED TO Sir RALPH MILBANKE, Bart. M. P. --------------------
_TO WHICH ARE ADDED_, OBSERVATIONS ON A VOYAGE TO THE _COAST OF AFRICA_, IN A SERIES OF LETTERS TO THOMAS CLARKSON, A. M.
------------------------------------------ BY JAMES FIELD STANFIELD, _FORMERLY A MARINER IN THE AFRICAN TRADE_. ------------------------------------------
*Edinburgh,* ---------- PRINTED BY J. ROBERTSON, FOR THE AUTHOR, AND SOLD BY VERNOR HOOD & SHARP, BOOKSELLERS, LONDON; AND THE PRINCIPAL BOOKSELLERS IN ENGLAND AND SCOTLAND. ---------- 1807.
MEMBER OF PARLIAMENT FOR THE COUNTY OF DURHAM.
From personal respect and attachment, as well as from a long and perfect knowledge of your sentiments with regard to the subject of these Verses and Observations, I should, naturally, have been led to the gratification of inscribing them with your name.--Yet, when I consider, that you had the happiness to second that Motion, which, like the impression of an oracle, has given the death-stroke to the disgraceful and nefarious Traffic, I have the satisfaction to find, that propriety, in this instance, is linked with estimation; and, that the convictions of the understanding have, sometimes, the felicity of being associated with the sensibilities of the heart.
It may not be improper to observe, that this Poem was originally offered, as an humble mite from the author, towards the contributions, then collecting, for the purpose of effecting the Abolition of the Slave-Trade. It was, however, thought, that, as a witness of the enormities of that Traffic, his personal evidence might be of more use to the cause than could be produced by any work of imagination: he, therefore, twice attended in that capacity.
The substance of the "Observations" was intended to be attached to the Poem, as a set of proofs and explanations. But it was decided by those who had given their time and talents to the subject, that the prose account, substantiated by an affidavit, should precede the verses. When, therefore, at a subsequent period, the Poem was about to be published, wanting the aid of the explanatory prose, it was thought proper by the friends, whose kindness in the absence of the author, looked over the publication and its corrections, to bring the work down, in some measure to the level of plain, prosaic comprehension. In the present edition, something has been done to bring the verses nearer to the first intention.