About his opinion that it would be useless to press for the abolition of the apprenticeship system in 1838, giving at length his reasons for this and his belief that there were many other matters that demanded their attention and on which they would have a far better chance of succeeding, such as ensuring the emancipation of the non-praedial apprentices in 1838, improving their education facilities, and preventing vagrancy laws and police regulations that would interfere with Black people's freedom of labour. If these were linked to a demand for abolition of apprenticeship in 1838, and that demand failed, the whole thing would also fail. Therefore, he urges an attempt to obtain the more practical measures rather than the one Forster advocated. He also mentions his fear of the effect on the Black population if they should attempt this unlikely course and fail. He gives this as his reason for not attending the meeting at Exeter Hall that Forster was convening.