xxii 
ADDENDA. 
literary obligations to Mr. Edwards ; a question whicli the editor has not 
attempted to determine, and which probably is incapable of being ascertained 
with any tolerable exactness. 
But if the virtual admission of the fact by Park, and the internal evidence 
afforded by the work itself should be tliought to leave the question of Mr. 
Edwards's literary assistance in any respect doubtful, the deficiency of proof 
will be amply supplied by the direct testimony of a most intelligent and re- 
spectable individual, who in a publication (which has very lately been pointed 
out to the editor by a friend to whom he has many similar obligations) has 
given a distinct account of this transaction, as he received it from l*ark himself. 
The publication alluded to, is entitled, " The Substance of Three Speeches in 
Parliament, on the Bill for the Jbolition of the Slave Trade, in February aiid 
March, 1807, by George Hibbert, Esq. M. P. for Seaford" In one of these 
Speeches Mr. Hibbert particularly adverts to the opinions given by the persons 
best acquainted with Africa, relative to the probable effects of the Abolition ; 
and in speaking of Park's Travels, expresses himself in the following terms. — 
" Whatever use may be made of some pathetic incidents which Park has 
related^ I will venture to say that the whole tenor of what he tells us of the 
Negro nations does not lead to a conviction that we shall belter their condi- 
tion by abandoning this trade. We know that, after all he has seen, he has 
expressed his doubts upon this subject in the plainest terms — doubts, which 
he would not have expressed, had they not been strongly prevalent in his 
mind. 1 have read and heard that we are to look to Park's facts, and not to 
his opinions ; and it has been insinuated that his editor, Mr. Edwards, has 
foisted those opinions into the book. It happened to me once to converse 
•with Mr. Park, at a meeting of the Linnaean Society, when this very topic was 
started ; and he assured me that, not being in the habits of literary composi- 
tion, he was obliged to employ some one to put his manuscript into a form fit 
for the public eye; but that every sheet of the publication had undergone 
his strict revision ; and that not only every fact, but every sentiment of it was 
his own." — Substance of Three Speeches in Parliament, S^c. London, 1807, 
page 24. 
The foregoing extract from Mr. Hibbert's publication may be useful for 
another purpose connected with the present observations. It affords decisive 
evidence of the stress laid upon Park's opinion and authority by the Advocates 
of the Slave Trade ; which appears also from many other publications relating 
to the same subject : and it is well known to tnose acquainted with the history 
