while the rapidity of her movement, and her carefully furled sails, bespeak the power of the impulse by which she is governed. Occasionally, but very rarely, these two are united, so as to form a class distinguished from the rest by this very union. The developement of individual character is distinctly shown; and the influence of individual character upon external events, as well as the reaction of the events upon the character, are not less clearly exhibited. In one point of view, the conduct (to use a wellknown and sufficiently precise expression) is seen in connexion with public occurrences; and the individual, chiefly regarded in his social relations, appears to belong rather to history than to biography: but under another aspect, the conduct is only considered as the visible result of principle; effects are traced to their causes, and it is by a careful consideration of both, that the complicated and difficult problem of personal character is solved. The eminent man whose life is now before us furnishes a most instructive and interesting specimen of the rarely occurring, but very valuable, class of biographical writing to which we have just referred. For half a century Mr. Wilberforce, in a greater or less degree, was mixed up with the leading public events of one of the most important periods of either ancient or modern history. Even as a private English gentleman, his associates were among the principal Statesmen of the day, and his communications with them related to the transactions in which they were variously concerned while as an English Senator, of unimpeachable integrity, of high and diversified talent, of powerful and extensive influence, and of acknowledged and genuine independence, his conduct is but the expression of his opinion on those numerous events which make the pages of modern history so transcendently important, and shows the constant anxiety with which he laboured to give them a right direction and character. With one of the most splendid occurrences that ever adorned the annals of the human race,-an occurrence the more important for the exhibition which it afforded both of the nature and strength of Christian influence,his name is now permanently associated; nor was it small praise, even for the liberator of Africa, that he largely contributed, in conjunction with his personal friend Hannah More, the ornament and instructress of British ladies, to the moral improvement in certain classes of society, which he was happily permitted to witness. He was eminently a public man, and never was place in national sepulchre more appropriately accorded than when his honoured remains were deposited among the illustrious dead in Westminster Abbey. But his public virtues were not the effect of public circumstances: they resulted from the high and holy principles which he had individually embraced. With too many, public life is only stage performance. Their public conduct is no more to be identified with their individual character, and their public declarations with their private opinions, than the trappings in which the actor treads the stage, and the declamations which he utters there, are to be confounded with the man when he appears in propriá persona, and at his own proper resi dence. Mr. Wilberforce was not one of these deluding and deluded performers. The man at home and the man abroad were one and the same. And thus, in the records of his life now presented to us, not only have we his private and his public character accurately delineated, but we are shown those principles by which he really was what he appeared to be, and by which, what he was at all, he was uniformly and throughout. The secret of his consistency is found in his Christianity; and his Christianity was the simple, but entire and practical, acknowledgment of the Christian religion in its supernatural character, and therefore unquestionable and paramount obligation. By one class of persons with whom he frequently associated, Christianity was regarded as the religion of the country, as a portion of the constitution; and a profession of faith in its divine origin, and an occasional participation in its worship, as essentially belonging to that political loyalty of which they were accustomed to boast. With very little of the fear and love of God, with an extremely obscure and circumscribed knowledge of Christian doctrine, with, it is to be feared, a deeply-rooted aversion to that state of mind which Christianity enjoins, and was intended to produce,-they were nevertheless Christians, very good Christians, simply because the laws of the land had made Christianity the established religion. And there was another class, from which, it is only common justice to say, that in the most important measure of his life, he received constant, efficient, unequivocal support, but whose views of religion, though erroneous in another direction, were equally erroneous as those enter tained by their opponents. These men appear to have bewildered themselves in philosophical specu lations. They respected the Christian religion because they respected all religions; and having, by a sort of political accident, been thrown into the society of men, opposition to whose principles was one portion of their own political creed, they endeavoured to hide the change which they had agreed to make, but which they were reluctant to acknowledge, by descanting on a few common-places about the insignificancy of modes of faith, and the innocency of mental errors. The one respected Christianity, because it was the Church as by law established;" the other, because it was a religion." On one side he found a formal, and often a very intolerant high-churchism; on the other, the extreme Socinianism of Priestley, fraternizing with the scepticism which David Hume and Adam Smith had mainly contributed to establish in the northern metropolis. The one seemed to be chiefly attached to the Christian religion as an important engine of state policy; the other, as an ingenious contrivance of philosophical invention. Mr. 66 Wilberforce differed from them both. With him Christianity was certainly and exclusively true, because proceeding directly from God. He regarded it not as one among many methods of worshipping God which men had invented or discovered, preferable to the rest by the simplicity of its ritual, and the purity of its morals, but as a direct, and sufficiently authenticated, revelation from God, to which he was bound to submit. He therefore received Christianity not merely as prescribing a certain mode of faith, or of worship, but an entire rule of life, extending alike to the thoughts and affections, the words and the actions, and requiring the whole life, whether before God or before man, to be conformed to its precepts. Such, if it be any thing more than a cunningly-devised fable, is Christianity. Be its pretensions true or false, such its pretensions are; and as such they were acknowledged by Mr. Wilberforce. To describe his character, therefore, it was necessary that the entire man should be seen. Had he been a mere Statesman, or a mere actor, it might have been sufficient to describe him as he appeared in the Senate, or on the stage; but he was a Christian, and therefore not only the private and the public history must be given, (some history, of course, being required,) but the principles on which both rested, and by which both so delightfully harmonized, must be clearly exhibited. In the volumes before us all this is done. We have Mr. Wilberforce in public life; Mr. Wilberforce in his family, and among his friends; and (without which, in his case, all the rest would have been comparatively valueless) Mr. Wilberforce, whether alone, or in domestic or public life, walking with God. And to us, this appears the chief excellence of the work. Character is only exemplary when it is thus presented in connexion with the principles of which it is the developement, and by the adoption of which it may be successfully imitated. Hence, the value we acknowledge we attach to the copious extracts from private memorandums, descriptive of the state of his feelings, and especially of his religious feelings. It has been intimated that this publication of extracts from diaries, &c., is calculated to increase the number of hypocrites in religion;-we suppose, by furnishing them with expressions by which truly religious men describe their feelings. If the objection be worth any thing, it proves a little too much. It must be equally dangerous to publish the manner in which religious men have acted; for thus, they who seek to obtain public favour by wearing the mask of religion, will themselves be instructed how to act. According to this mode of reasoning, these volumes must be especially injurious to Senators wishing to acquire popularity by professions of philanthropy, describing, as they do, those mighty and persevering efforts by which the death-blow has been given to Negro slavery; and as there may be hypocrites in philanthropy and patriotism, as well as in religion, the published history of these efforts will be as likely to produce hypocrisy of the one class, as the published records of the private religious feel. ings of Mr. Wilberforce will be to produce hypocrisy of the other. The argument, if valid at all, is valid against all those personal descriptions which distinguish biography from general history. Our own very decided opinion is, that any memoir of Mr. Wilberforce which should have omitted to bring his religious feelings before the public, would have been essentially imperfect. In the first place, because it would have been incomplete. The biographer, as well as the historian, should keep in view the suggestion of Tacitus,-Ut non modò casus eventusque rerum, qui plerumque fortuiti sunt, sed ratio etiam causaque noscantur, and so write as that not only facts, and occurrences, (which are so far fortuitous as that the reader may refer them to different principles,) but the reasons and causes of them, may be known. Now, what Mr. Wilberforce was, he was as a Christian, and because he was a Christian. With him religion was not one thing out of many,-a good thing in its place, according to the often-repeated language of those who thus show that they know not what religion is; in his heart religion reigned supreme, and of his whole conduct it was the source and spring: his conduct, therefore, cannot possibly be understood, unless prominency be given both to his religious opinions and feelings. And thus only could a memoir have been made properly exemplary. If Mr. Wilberforce in public be admired, and admiration excite the desire to imitate the example of genuine philanthropy, patriotism, and integrity, which his character furnishes, it is to Mr. Wilberforce in his closet that the admirer must be conducted,-to Mr. Wilberforce seeking wisdom in the holy Scriptures, and grace and strength in earnest prayer to God,to Mr. Wilberforce, carefully examining his own heart, searching into his own motives, and deciding every question by inquiring, "What is right?" And thus do his memoirs become instructive far beyond the limits of the circle in which he himself was called to move. All are not required to perform the same actions; but all are required to adopt the same principles, and walk by the same rules. All are not placed conspicuously as in the sight of the world; but all are placed in the presence of God, the Maker and Judge of all. In fact, the lesson which these volumes very clearly and impressively teach is, that we should "learn and labour truly to get our own living, and to do our duty in that state of life unto which it shall please God to call us." William Wilberforce was descended from an ancient and respectable family in Yorkshire. He himself was the only son of Robert Wilber. force and his wife Elizabeth, daughter of Thomas Bird, Esq., of Barton, Oxon, and was born on the 24th of August, 1759. He was the third of four children, but of his three sisters the second only arrived at maturity. berforce, little is recorded. "Of the early years of William WilHis frame from infancy was feeble, his stature small, his eyes weak, a failing which, together with many rich mental endowments, he inherited from his mother. But with these bodily infirmities were united a vigorous mind, and a temper eminently affectionate. An unusual thoughtfulness for others marked his youngest childhood. At seven years old he was sent to the grammar-school of Hull, of which Joseph Milner was soon afterwards master. Thus he spent two years, going daily from his father's house to school with his satchel on his shoulder, and occasionally visiting Ferriby, a pleasant village seven miles distant, on the Humber. The death of his father in 1768 transferred him to the care of his uncle William Wilberforce; and after a week's residence at Nottingham, (at the house of A. Smith, Esq., father to the present Lord Carrington, who had married his mother's sister,) he was sent to live with him at Wimbledon and in St. James'splace. Such was then the standard measure of private education, that the school at which he was soon afterwards placed was of the meanest character. He remained two years at this school, spending his holidays at his uncle's house, with occasional visits to Nottingham and Hull. He is described at this time as a fine sharp lad, whose activity and spirit made up in boyish sports for some deficiency of strength. One incident of these years deserves special notice, from its assisting, as he thought, to form what was undoubtedly a striking feature in his later character. He received from the late John Thornton, the brother of his aunt, with whom he was travelling, a present much exceeding the usual amount of a boy's possessions, intended to enforce the precept with which it was accompanied, that some should be given to the poor." (Vol. i., pp. 1-5.) "When he quitted Hull no great pains had been taken to form his religious principles. His mother, indeed, was a woman of real excellence, as well as of great and highly cultivated talents, but not possessed at this time of those views of the spiritual nature of religion which she adopted in later life. She was what I should call,' said her son subsequently, an Archbishop Tillotson Christian.' But in his uncle's house he was subjected to a new and powerful influence. His aunt was a great admirer of Whitefield's preaching, and kept up a friendly connexion with the early Methodists. The lively affections of his heart, warmed by the kindness of his friends, readily assumed their tone. A stranger has noticed the rare and pleasing character of piety which marked his twelfth year; and there can be little doubt that the acquaintance with holy Scripture, and the habits of devotion which he then acquired, fostered that baptismal seed which, though long dormant, was destined to produce at last a glorious harvest. He has himself recorded his deliberate judgment of this early promise. • Under these influences my mind was interested by religious subjects. How far these impressions were genuine I can hardly determine, but at least I may venture to say that I was sincere. There are letters of mine, written at that period, still in existence, which accord much with my present sentiments, as I cannot doubt my having expressed the sentiments and feelings of my heart.' He says in 1831, I am deeply impressed with a sense of the dreadful effects of the efforts afterwards used but too successfully to wean me from all religion, and to cherish the love of pleasure and the love of glory in the opening bud of youth."" (Vol. i., p. 6.) He was becoming, it should seem, too Methodistical for his Yorkshire friends. His grandfather said, 'Billy shall travel with Milner as soon as he is of age; but if he turns Methodist, he shall not have a sixpence of mine." The anecdote reminds us of the oriental fable, in which the father is represented as concealing his son, to avoid some calamitous event foretold by the astrologers, which very event the concealment becomes the means of producing. Little did the grandfather anticipate the result of the travelling with Milner : "The symptoms of his changing character were perceived with great alarm at Hull, and it was at once determined that his mother should repair to London, and remove him from the dangerous influence. He returned with her to Yorkshire, quitting his uncle's family with deep regret. His presence had kindled their parental feelings, and he had soon returned them the affection of a son. At twelve years old he returned to his mother's house, where it became the object of his friends by the seductions of gaiety and self-indulgence to charm away that serious spirit which had taken possession of his youthful bosom. habits of society at Hull assisted their design. It was then as gay a place as could be found out of London. The The "The strength of principle they had to overcome was indeed remarkable. When first taken to a play, it was almost, he says, by force. At length, however, they succeeded; and the allurements of worldly pleasure led his youth away from all serious thought. At home there was nothing but gaiety and amusement; at school there was little diligence or restraint." (Vol. i., p. 9.) His youth was thus spent, chiefly in the cultivation of elegant literature, and in what would be termed the enjoyments of fashionable life. At the age of fourteen, however, he wrote a letter to the editor of the York paper "in condemnation of the odious traffic in human flesh : a remarkable anticipation of future life, which it would be interesting to trace to its source; but as the biographers only state the fact, no means, we suppose, exist by which the subject could be carried any further. "With the self-indulgent habits formed by such a life, he entered St. John's College, Cambridge, October, 1776, at the age of seventeen years. And here he was at once exposed to new temptations. Left, by the death of his grandfather and uncle, the master of an independent fortune, under his mother's sole guardianship, I was introduced,' says he, on the very first night of my arrival, to as licentious a set of men as can well be conceived. They drank hard, and their conversation was even worse than their lives. I lived among them for some time, though I never relished their society; indeed I was often horror-struck at their conduct, and after the first year I shook off in great measure my connexion with them."" (Vol. i., p. 10.) He was now, indeed, placed in circumstances of imminent hazard, but he was mercifully preserved. "Amiable, animated, and hospitable, he was a universal favourite. 'There was no one,' says the Rev. T. Gisborne, 'at all like him for power of entertainment. Always fond of repartee and discussion, he seemed entirely free from conceit and vanity.' He lived much at this time among the Fellows of the college. 'But those,' he says, among whom I was intimate, did not act towards me the part of Christians, or even of honest men. Their object seemed to be, to make and keep me idle. Whilst my companions were reading hard and attending lectures, card-parties and idle amusements consumed my time.' It was surely of God's especial goodness that in such a course he was preserved from profligate excess. For, though he could say in after-life, that upon the habits then formed by evil influence and unbounded licence, he could not look back without unfeigned remorse,' yet he had rather to deplore neglected opportunities of moral and intellectual profit, than vicious practice or abandoned principles. 'I certainly did not then think and act as I do now,' he declared long afterward; but I was so far from being what the world calls licentious, that I was rather complimented on being better than young men in general.'" (Vol. i., p. 12.) |