arsenal could supply. Of course this led to many an imputation of inconsistency from those who loved him not, which those who knew him not received; but the real difference was between the manly decision of his conduct, and his unfeigned distrust and diffidence of his own powers.

We now come to the description of his habits of private and public life :

His house was continually open to an influx of men of all conditions. Mr. James Grenville said, "you must always expect to be scrambled for; the landowner, the manufacturer, the canal man, the turnpike man, and the iron man, will each have a pull in his turn." Pitt and his other parliamentary friends might be found there at dinner before the House. So constant was their resort that it was asserted-not a little to his disadvantage, in Yorkshire, that he received a pension for entertaining the partizans of the Minister. Once every week the Slave Committee dined with him, Messrs. Clarkson, Dickson, &c., jocularly named by Mr. Pitt, his "White Negroes," were his constant inmates, and were employed in classing, revising, and abridging under his own eye. I cannot invite you here," he writes to a friend who was about to visit London, for advice, "for, during the sitting of parliament, my house is a mere hotel." His breakfast-table was thronged by those who came to him on business-or with whom, for any of his many plans of usefulness he wished to be personally acquainted.

The following is a brief summary of the leading incidents of his public life:-1780-Canvassed the freemen of Hull, with a view to some future election; repaired to London to secure the non-resident freemen; elected for Hull. 1781-Made his first speech in the House of Commons. 1782-Opposed Lord North's administration; associated with Mr. Pitt, then a young man; seconded the Address at the opening of the Session. 1783-Went on a foreign tour. 1784-Elected for Yorkshire; travelled to Italy. 1785-Returned to England to support Mr. Pitt's measure of Parliamentary Reform. - Believed himself and was believed, by others, to have become a new man-a man of a new spiritual life. Studied the Scriptures; withdrew his name from all the Clubs. 1786Proposed a plan for purifying county elections; introduced his Surgeon's Subjects' Bill. 1787-Speeches in favour of the celebrated Free Trade policy of Mr. Pitt; obtained Royal Proclamation against Vice; devoted himself to the abolition of the Slave Trade. 1788-His Parliamentary motion on the Slave Trade postponed in consequence of il! health. 1789-Brought the question before the House, and

projected a visit to Paris to further the cause. 1790-Moved for a Committee on the Slave Trade; re-elected for Yorkshire, various employment-close study of the slavery question.1791-Moved for the abolition of the Slave Trade. 1792— Appealed to the moral sense of the country through public meetings; brought his motion for abolition before the House; French Citizenship conferred on him by the French Convention; exerted himself in and out of Parliament to prevent

war.

1793-Differed with Mr. Pitt; prevented from speaking against war with France; brought his motion for the abolition of the Slave Trade before the Commons and lost it as usual; brought in his Foreign Slave Trade Bill; also a plan of National Religious Instruction forIndia; fresh exertion on the Slave Trade question. 1794-Carried his Foreign Slave Trade Bill through the Commons; resolved to move for peace in the next Session. 1795-Opposed the Address to the King by an amendment in favour of peace; was "cut" by the King at next Levee; supported the motion of Mr. Grey (afterwards Earl Grey) for peace; his motion for the abolition of the Slave Trade rejected by an increased majority; his constituents displeased at his peace advocacy; resisted the additional allowance to the Princes; brought forward another motion for peace; supported Treason and Sedition Bills. 1796-Obtained leave to bring in his Abolition Bill; supported Quakers' Relief Bill; brought in Slave Trade Carrying Bill; was re-elected for Yorkshire; established Missionary Societies; projected a General Convention of Abolitionists. 1797Summoned to town by Pitt; Motion of Abolition of Slave Trade lost. 1798-Engaged in these and many other good works. 1799-The same; supported the Irish Union.

1800-Once more at abolition; much engaged on the question of scarcity, and the relief of the poorer classes during that period; inconsistently as an advocate of peace joined in rejecting Buonaparte's overtures to treat for peace. 1801-Supported Addington's Administration for peace, 1802-Once more employed on abolition, and opposing the extension of slavery in the new colonies of the West Indies ; re-elected for Yorkshire a fourth time. 1803 - Opposed the renewal of war; engaged in forming the Bible Society. 1804-Endeavouring to keep Pitt and Addington in amity; Motion against Sunday Drilling; carried his Abolition Motion through the Commons; wrote Articles for Christian Observer and Edinburgh Review; drew up propositions to be proved by African travellers. 1805-Supported the charges against Lord Melville; advocated Catholic Emancipation;

་

new Abolition Bill brought in. 1806-Pitt's death; promoted a subscription to pay Pitt's debts; engaged on Abolition plans; defeated the proposed Iron Tax; drew up the Report on the Woollen Trade inquiry; was highly popular in Yorkshire, and returned the fifth time without a contest. 1807-Published his "Letter to the Freeholders of Yorkshire," on the Slave Trade; engaged in carrying his Bill through both Houses; Bill passed; was greatly congratulated; returned for the sixth time for Yorkshire, on the accession of a new Ministry. 1808-Variously, but always busily and usefully employed. 1809-Engaged in the inquiry against the Duke of York; opposed the Motion against Lord Castlereagh for Seat Selling; much engaged with the Bible Society; supported Parliamentary Reform. 1810-Similarly employed; opposed the Motion for sending Sir Francis Burdett to the Tower. 1811-Employed on various plans for the benefit of the Negroes, and in many other schemes generally meritorious. 1812-Exerted himself to prevent war with America; resolved to withdraw from the representation of Yorkshire, the labour being too great; returned for Bramber. 1813Supported Catholic Emancipation; engaged in inquiries about the Slave Trade; unsuccessfully employed on plans to Christianize India. 1814-Employed on all the foregoing and many other works of charity and public use; not the least of which were his efforts to reconcile his mutual friends parted by political enmities.

1815-Supported Corn Law Bill; his house endangered by the rioters; prepared the Abolition question. 1816Multifarious employment about slavery and Bible Societies. 1817 The same; aided the Suppression of Lotteries. 1818-The same; avowed his abhorrence of the employment of Spies and Informers by Government. 1819-Moved for Abolition of Slavery; voted for relaxation of Criminal Code. 1820-Much the same. 1821-Supported the Motion for Restoring the Queen's name to the Liturgy; supported Catholic Emancipation; moved Address for the Abolition of Slavery. 1822-The same kind of employment, with the addition of Parliamentary Reform. 1823-Through increasing infirmities intrusted the Slave Question to Mr. Fowell Buxton. 1824-Made his last speech in Parliament. From this period to 1833 he was active in mind though infirm in health; was much employed on Works for the advancement of religion and humanity-foremost of which was the abolition of slavery.

His health gradually declined, and, on the 29th of July, he died, aged 73 years and 11 months. His last words are thus recorded "I am in a very distressed state," he said, al

luding apparently to his bodily condition. "Yes," it was answered; "but you have your feet on the "Rock." "I do not venture," he replied, "to speak so positively; but I HOPE I have." And after this expression of his humble trust he spoke no more, but passed to judgment.

His will directed that he should be buried with some members of his family at Stoke Newington. Public opinion, however, led by Lord Chancellor Brougham and the leading men of all parties, decided on depositing his honoured body in Westminster Abbey. The funeral took place on Saturday, 5th August, attended by all the Members of Parliament and Peers then in London.

SECTION II.-THOMAS CLARKSON AND THE SLAVE TRADE.

4

Thomas Clarkson was the son of W. Clarkson, a Clergyman, and formerly Master of the Grammar School, at Wisbeach, in Cambridgeshire, at which place he was born, on the 26th of 3rd month, 1769. He received the rudiments of education under the care of his father.

At twelve years of age he was removed to London; and subsequently graduated at Cambridge.

He was designed for the Church, and had taken deacon's orders in it; but gave up his intention, and devoted his life to the great cause of the Abolition of the Slave Trade, a cause with which, to the latest posterity, his name will ever be honourably identified.

In the year 1785, when Thomas Clarkson was in his twenty-fifth year, his attention was first especially engaged by the Slave Trade. Dr. Pickard, at that time the ViceChancellor of Cambridge, proposed the following question to the senior Bachelors of Arts, as the subject of a Latin prize dissertation," Is it right to make slaves of others against their will?"

Thomas Clarkson being a senior Bachelor in the University, and having gained a prize the previous year, he resolved to enter the lists again as a competitor.

Whilst studying the general question of Slavery for the purpose of the prize essay, the whole iniquity of the Negro Slave Trade burst upon his view.

66

It is impossible," he remarked in his History of Slavery, "to imagine the severe anguish which the composition of this essay cost me. All the pleasure I had promised myself from the literary contest was exchanged for pain, by the astounding

It was

one

facts that were now continually before me. gloomy subject from morning till night. In the day I was agitated and uneasy, in the night I had little or no rest.

I was so overwhelmed with grief that I sometimes never closed my eyes during the whole night, and I no longer regarded my essay as a mere trial for literary distinction. My great desire was now to produce a work, that should call forth a vigorous public effort to redress the wrongs of injured Africa."

He came to London to make inquiries, and to collect materials. He shortly produced his celebrated essay "On the Slavery and Commerce of the Human Species."

He obtained the prize; but the inferior motives of the collegian were annihilated by the nobler purposes of philanthropy. This aim now became the deliverance of the African race. He made a vow of eternal enmity to the Slave Trade, and to Slavery in every form; and he resolved to consecrate himself to this gigantic, and then apparently hopeless, task.

From this time Thomas Clarkson entered on his work with renewed zeal; and he found that, the further he inquired into the evil of slavery and its traffic, the more diabolical and revolting did the system appear. That eminent statesman, William Wilberforce, who was one of the principal leaders in this great work, and who devoted all the energies of his powerful mind to the subject, did not, however, enter the field in the cause of the Negro, until two years after Thomas Clarkson had taken a lively interest in the abolition cause. Between them no rivalship existed. The question was not, "Who should have the most honour?" but," Who should do the most good?" On the 22nd of 5th month, 1787, a committee was formed, consisting of twelve individuals, of which our author was a member. Their desire was, that the subject of slavery should be brought before Parliament; and in order to do that, the fullest information of the evils connected with Slavery was sought to be obtained, in addition to the mass of evidence already in their possession.

To obtain this, Thomas Clarkson proceeded to the ports of Bristol and Liverpool, where he met with many friends who were favourable to the cause in which he had embarked, and obtained much valuable information; but his labours there were so indefatigable and incessant, as to endanger his life.

He successively visited Bridgewater, Monmouth, Gloucester, Liverpool, Worcester, and Chester, at which places he found many friends; but the planters and African traders exerted themselves in every possible way to accomplish their ends; they even calumniated his character, impugned his