deemed most likely to influence the minds of unprejudiced readers in favour of the object of their institution. In 1787, Mr Clarkson, whose attention had been turned to the subject, as he ingenuously relates, in the first instance, wholly by academic ambition, there having been given out, as the theme of the Bachelor's Prize, in the University of Cambridge, Anne liceat invitos in servitutem dare?' discovered the existence of this small but benevolent institution, and, joining himself with it, raised upon it the superstructure of the great public committee, which appeared afterwards. The public efforts of Mr Wilberforce, the sincere zeal and splendid eloquence of Mr Fox, and of other Senators in both. Houses, are so universally known and so properly estimated, that we shall content ourselves with observing, that the specimens of eloquence which are here given, were taken down with uncom mon care, and will surprize and delight such readers as have taken. their ideas of Pitt, Fox, and Wilberforce, as orators, exclusively from newspaper reports. We refer, with especial admiration, to the second speech of Mr Wilberforce, on the 18th of April 1791, after the accumulation of evidence had rendered him perfectly master of the subject, vol. II. p. 212 to 255; to Mr William Smith's, 281 to 299; to Mr Pitt's, 304 to 317; to Mr Fox's, 318 to 333; but, above all, to the admirable reply of this truly great man to the speeches of the then Messrs Addington and Dundas in favour of moderate measures, 407 to 415. It is among the happiest productions of a rapid and vigorous intellect, called into action suddenly by the warmth of an honest and noble heart. The feeling seems all intellect,--the intellect all feeling. Never surely was the project of a medium between truth and falsehood, justice and injustice, rendered more completely ridiculous; nor the paltry wisdom of a narrow self-interest so withered and blasted by the lightnings of genius and virtue. Without confining ourselves to our author's more complex classification, we have alluded to three of the four classes into which the abolitionists of the slave trade may be divided. The first, that of the individuals who, by writings or public declarations, had prepared the minds of their countrymen for the abolition: the second, that of associate bodies, namely, the Quakers in their collective capacity, and the committee who, during so many years, pursued this great object with such indefatigable energy: the third, that of the illustrious members of the Legislature, who arranged themselves under Mr Wilberforce, and preeminently that great and good man, among whose deathbed conpolations the certainty of the complete abolition of the trade, as the result of his own short ministry, was (of all external events) the the chief and most soothing. The merits of the last class, indeed, are already well known to the public; and the details, both of it and of the two former, are ably and perspicuously given in their several places in these interesting volumes. We shall pay, therefore, a more minute attention to the fourth class, namely, that of the individuals, whose personal toils and unwearied efforts, were not only highly conducive to the ultimate event, but were an indispensable condition of it. And this we feel especially a duty, because, from motives of delicacy, one of the most meritorious has been prevented from stating his own services as clearly and prominently as for the benefit of mankind they ought to have been stated. The gratitude which we feel to the illus trious benefactors of our race, ennobles our own hearts: it is a debt, the payment of which enriches the mind which discharges it. We participate of the goodness and greatness which we learn habitually to love and admire. At the head of this list unquestionably stands the name of Mr Wilberforce-a name already sanctified and immortalized in the memories of all good men, and to which, in any quarter of the world, it would be impertinent to annex any eulogium. He it was who first brought the evil to light, and ceased not until he pursued it to justice. He it was, who, for twenty long years, watched day and night over the sacred flame which his eloquence had kindled, and cherished and kept it alive when, chilled by an atmosphere of false policy, and blown upon by the breath of corruption, it sickened, and almost ceased to glow; nay, when the broader glare of other fires drew away from it the eyes of all men, he kept it steadily in view, and sent it forth at last to consume the scourges and fetters of oppression, and to purify and enlighten a benighted world. Mr Wilberforce indubitably has been the great captain of the abolitionists; and without his courage, and skill, and unwearied perseverance, their cause must long since have been lost and abandoned. Next to him, we think it a duty to mention the name of Mr Granville Sharp, the cause and occasion of whose exertions in this great work, are related with much feeling and simplicity, vol. I. pp. 63 to 79. Regardless of the dangers to which he exposed himself, both in his person and his fortune, Mr Sharp stood forward in every case as the courageous friend of the poor Africans in England, in direct opposition to an opinion of York and Talbot, the Attorney and Solicitor-General for the time being. This opinion had been acted upon; and so-high was its authority, that, after it had been made public, it was held as the settled law of the land, that a slave, neither by baptism, or arrival in Great Britain or Ireland, acquires free dom, dom, but may be legally forced back to the plantations. Discour aged by Judge Blackstone, and several other eminent lawyers, Mr Sharp devoted three years of his life to the study of the English law, that he might render himself the more effectual advocate of these friendless strangers. In his work, entitled, A Representation of the Injustice and dangerous Tendency of tolerating Slavery in England,' published in the year 1769, and afterwards, in his learned and laborious Inquiry into the Principles of Villenage,' he refuted the opinion of York and Talbot by unanswer able arguments, and neutralized their authority by the counteropinion of the great Lord Chief-Justice Holt, who many years before had decided, that as force could be used against no man in England without a legal process, every slave coming into England became free, inasmuch as the laws of England recognized the distinction between person and property as perpetual and sacred. Finally, in the great case of Somerset, which was argued at three different sittings in January, in February, and in May of the year 1772, (the opinion of the Judges having been taken upon the pleadings), it was at last ascertained and declared to be the law of the land, that as soon as ever any slave set his foot upon English territory, he became free. Among the heroes and sages of British story, we can think of few whom we should feel a greater glow of honest pride in claiming as an ancestor, than the man to whom we owe our power of repeating with truth Slaves cannot breathe in England; if their lungs Solicitous, even to anxiety, as our author shows himself in developing and holding forth the merits of all his individual coadjutors, he appears, with the exception of Mr Wilberforce, to dwell with peculiar pleasure and warmth of sympathy on the character and labours of Mr Sharp. The last person, on whose merits we think it necessary to dwell individually, is the author of the volumes before us. The account which he gives of the rise and progress of his enthusiasm in this cause, is very curious and interesting. To some it may appear to be tinctured with superstition, or to trespass beyond the limits of sober philanthropy; but to those who know the magnitude of the evil, and who think of the greatness of the redress which has at last been obtained, the simplicity and sensibility of heart which Mr Clarkson here displays, must be objects of veneration and of envy. The details of his progress have raised our opinion of human nature; and the account even of his inward feelings and and emotions becomes highly interesting, when we recollect to what noble exertions and heroic sacrifices they afterwards conducted him. After stating, with the most ingenuous simplicity, that he was led to consider the subject, in the first instance, solely by the desire of university-reputation, and having particularized his first sources of information, chiefly consisting of manuscript papers of a deceased friend, who had been in the trade, and of a work, known to him by the accident of a newspaper advertisement, Anthony Benezet's Historical Account of Guinea,' proceeds thus ، Furnifhed, then, in this manner, I began my work ; but no perfon can tell the fevere trial which the writing of it proved to me. I had expected pleasure from the invention of the arguments, from the arrangement of them, from the putting of them together, and from the thought in the interim that I was engaged in an innocent conteft for literary honour. But all my pleafure was damped by the facts which were now continually before me. It was but one gloomy fubject from morning till night. In the day-time I was uneafy: In the night I had little reft: I fometimes never clofed my eyelids for grief. It became now not fo much a trial for academical reputation, as for the production of a work which might be ufeful to injured Africa ; and keeping this idea in my mind, even after the perufal of Benezet, I always flept with a candle in my room, that I might rife out of bed, and put down fuch thoughts as might occur to me in the night, if I judged them valuable, conceiving that no arguments of any moment fhould be loft in fo great a caufe. Having at length finished this painful tafk, I fent my effay to the Vice-Chancellor, and foon afterwards found myfelf honoured, as before, with the tirft prize. As it is usual to read these essays in the Senate-house soon after the prize is adjudged, I was called to Cambridge for this purpose. I went and performed my office. On returning, however, to London, the subject of it almost wholly engrossed my thoughts." I became at times very seriously affected while upon the road. I stopped my horse occasionally, and dismounted and walked. I frequently tried to persuade myself, in these intervals, that the contents of my essay could not be true. The more, however, I reflected upon them, or rather upon the authorities on which they were founded, the more I gave them credit. Coming in sight of Wades. mill, in Hertfordshire, I sat down disconsolate on the turf, by the road-side, and held my horse. Here a thought came into my mind, that, if the contents of the essay were true, it was time some person should see these calamities to their end. Agitated in this manner, I reached home. This was in the summer of 1785. In the course of the autumn of the same year, I experienced similar impressions. I walked frequently into the woods, that I might think on the subject in solitude, and find relief to my mind there. But there the question still recurred, Are these things true?' Still the answer followed as instantaneously, They are. -Still the result accompanied it, Then surely some person should interfere.' I then began to envy those who had seats in Parliament, and who had great riches, and widely extended connexions, which would enable them to take up this cause. Finding scarcely any one at that time who thought of it, I was turned frequently to myself. But here many difficulties arose. It struck me, among others, that a young man of only twenty-four years of age could not have that solid judgment, that knowledge of men, manners and things, which were requisite to qualify him to undertake a task of such magnitude and importance.-And with whom was I to unite? I believed also, that it looked so much like one of the feigned labours of Hercules, that my understanding would be suspected if I proposed it. On ruminating, however, on the subject, I found one thing at least practicable, and that this also was in my power. I could translate my Latin dissertation ;-I could enlarge it usefully ;-I could see how the public received it, or how far they were likely to favour any serious measures, which should have a tendency to produce the abolition of the slave-trade. Upon this then I determined; and in the middle of the month of November 1785, I began my work.' In consequence of the obligation in conscience which our author felt to publish this essay, he became accidentally acquainted with the six Quakers, who, unknown to the public, had devoted themselves to the same cause. Through these he was first introduced to the labours of Mr Granville Sharp, and the controversial writings of Ramsay. Soon after, having received distinct encouragement from Bennet Langton, Dr Baker, Lord and Lady Scarsdale, and Lady and Sir Charles Middleton (now Lord Barham), all of whom are introduced to our acquaintance in the most pleasing manner, and with many interesting anecdotes, the author, at the house of the latter, declared himself ready to devote himself entirely to the cause. After serious consideration, and many struggles of reason and of feeling, he persisted in the resolution; he followed it out; and sacrificed to it his youth, his manhood, his health, and his worldly prosperity. The reader will henceforward follow him with unintermitting interest. The account of his introduction to Mr Wilberforce, Mr Pitt, and Mr Fox, could not fail to interest, in the perusal, even on a less important object. It is not, indeed, the least delightful impression left on our mind by these volumes, that we rise with a faith in the goodness of many of those whom we have been accustomed to contemplate chiefly as great and powerful; and feel the asperity of party prejudices die away when we find, that, where the cause of justice, and the liberation of the oppressed, call forth their efforts, so many political opponents. felt no rivalry but that of zealous exertion in the same good cause. Greatly |