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 publick, it was held as the settled law of the land, that a slave, neither by baptism, nor arrival in Great Britain or Ireland, acquires freedom; but may be legally forced back to the plantations. Discouraged 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 unanswerable arguments, and neutralized their authority by the counter opinion 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 recog nised 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 ascer tained 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

Receive our air, that moment they are free.

They touch our country, and their shackles fall.
Oh! this is noble!"

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 emotions becomes highly interesting, when we recollect to what noble exertions and heroick sacrifices Ff

VOL. I.

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:

Furnished then, in this manner, I began my work; but no person can tell the severe 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 contest for literary honour. But all my pleasure was damped by the facts which were now continually before me. It was but one gloomy subject from morning till night. In the day time I was uneasy. In the night I had little rest. I sometimes never closed my eyelids for grief. It became now not so much a trial for academical reputation, as for the production of a work which might be useful to injured Africa; and keeping this idea in my mind, even after the perusal of Benezet, I always slept with a candle in my room, that I might rise out of bed, and put down such thoughts as might occur to me in the night, if I judged them valuable, conceiving that no arguments of any moment should be lost in so great a cause. Having at length finished this painful task, I sent my essay to the vice-chancellor, and soon afterwards found myself honoured, as before, with the first 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 Wadesmill, 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 publick 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 publick, 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 must our author have congratulated himself, that such men as Wilberforce, Fox, and Pitt, were his countrymen and contemporaries, admired and reverenced by the nation, and in the full enjoyment of their natural and acquired powers,-of that robust, yet agile and fervid logick, by which they rendered irresistible the weight and mass of evidence dug up, as it were, and brought to light by his indefatigable toils. Independent, too, of that genius which they possessed in common, there was a felicity in the nature and separate department of the influence of each of the three, which, on such an occasion, we may venture to call providential The example and authority of Mr. Fox, which could not be powerless, even on the minds of his political opponents, acted with especial strength on that class which had distinguished themselves as the less timid friends of freedom and general illumination. Now, though this class contained its full share of disinterested, enlightened, and patriotick individuals, yet it cannot be denied, that their characteristick zeal for constitutional liberty had been assumed as a mask by many of lax and unconstitutional principles. The wishes and supposed designs of these men seen magnified through the mist occasioned by the panick of property, and (what was worse) attributed to thousands who held in abhorrence the whole Gallican code, as far as it was contradistinguished from our own, threatened every measure proposed by Mr. Fox with unpopularity, if not active opposition. We have too many analogous facts on record to render it probable that this, if Mr. Fox had stood single in the contest, would have scared away many truly good and pious persons (especially the more religious females in the higher ranks of society) and given a dangerous pretext to the adherents and patrons of the trade. To this danger, the fervent loyalty and known piety of Mr. Wilberforce and his particular friends presented a powerful antidote; while to the manufacturers and merchants, who were willing enough to impute their zeal to a fanatical enthusiasm, the name of Mr. Pitt seemed to hold out a still higher sanction.

We admit, therefore, that the countenance which Mr. Pitt gave to the cause of the abolition, was of the utmost consequence to its success. It discountenanced the opposition which it did not prevent; it confirmed the opinion of many who were too indolent not to prefer authority to evidence; and gave a license to many to express and to act upon a conviction which they might otherwise have been induced to suppress. By his eloquence, and by his authority, he gave confidence to the cause of justice, and curren. cy to the dictates of reason. When we consider the solemnity of his pro

testations, and the great political interest of those whom he disobliged by his exertions, it is painful, and almost impossible to admit any doubt of his sincerity. Yet, if he was sincere, he certainly was not zealous in the cause; and neglected so many opportunities of promoting it, that it was not without wonder that we found Mr. Clarkson's book inscribed to his Memory, in a dedication in which the name of Mr. Wilberforce is omitted. That he was not altogether so zealous in the cause as his professions would lead us to believe, appears from a variety of circumstances. In the first place, from the uniform and strenuous opposition of Mr. Dundas, who had, in this instance, no immediate interest to serve, and was never known to differ from his patron on speculative grounds. In the second place, from the uniform failure of the cause in parliament, during his long and strong administra tion. For the long space of twenty years, Mr. Pitt could persuade about three fourths of the members of parliament to adopt any scheme of finance, or of external policy, which he chose to countenance,-but could never once prevail with a bare majority to support him against the slave traders and consignees of sugar in Bristol and Liverpool. Even in 1805, he was in a minority upon a decision on that question;—and yet, no sooner did the late ministry come into power, than they contrived, some how or other, so effectually to remove those deep rooted scruples, that the bill for the instant abolition passed almost unanimously;-there being, if we rightly remember, no more than 16 dissentient voices out of a very full attendance in the lower house. The most suspicious thing, however, in all Mr. Pitt's conduct was his proceedings in 1797, and in 1805, with regard to the Dutch colonies of Guiana, Demarary, Berbice, &c. Those possessions fell into our hands in 1797; and having been prevented from supplying themselves with negroes during the war, were ready to take off a greater number than usual. It was in the power of the ministry, without a vote of parliament, to prohibit or restrain the slave trade of those colonies, by a mere order in council. Mr. Pitt, however, took no such step; and such was the vast addition that was consequently made to the British slave trade, that the annual importation was immediately increased from 25,000 to 57,000,being an addition of no less than 32,000. This tremendous traffick went on under Mr. Pitt's eye for eight years; and then, when the extended cultivation of those new colonies had begun to sink the value of West India produce, and of the old plantations, the clamours of the sugar dealers produced that interference which humanity and justice had formerly solicited in vain. In August 1805, Mr. Pitt annihilated the whole slave trade of the Dutch colonies, by a single order in council. This he did avowedly to appease the jealousies, and allay the clamours of the planters in the old islands; and this he did not do in 1797, or any of the intervening years, though he had it all that time in his power, and though he was all that time making eloquent professions of the horrour and detestation with which he regarded this inhuman traffick.

The most interesting part of this book, after all, perhaps, is the account of the author's incredible perseverance in procuring evidence. And here it is indeed a most observable fact, and one which conveys the keenest satire on the cause of his opponents, that though, of the few witnesses which toil, danger, and the voice of conscience, had with difficulty obtained from distant parts of the kingdom, not above a third were heard in evidence; and though, even of these, a great and important part were men in humble situations in life; while, on the other hand, every individual of the numerous witnesses in favour of this traffick (and these men of the highest rank and fortune,-admirals, governours, and wealthy proprietors) were heard,

and four fifths of the time allotted to the examinations, liberally devoted to them; yet, such was the force of truth, that, with the exception of the members of the interested cities, and of one or two individuals closely connected with the trade, no one of the opponents of the abolition ever pretended to doubt the attestations of the humble and despised few, or to believe the truth of the testimony, however they might respect the veracity, of the great and powerful body of counter witnesses. The conduct and fate of the individual, against whom, in his own presence, our author was reluctantly cross-examined, and which is related Vol. II, p. 181, with a delicacy most honourable to Mr. Clarkson's feelings, will furnish an awful warning to those who can be bold in defence of evil, and shrink away from their own prior testimony in support of truth and justice.

With a deep interest, and the warmest sympathy, we have followed our author in his journeys to Bristol, during his hazardous detection of the horrours of those publick houses employed to allure unhappy mariners into the pitfall of guilt and perdition; the dread which-after he had brought a murderer to trial-his presence spread among the whole party concerned in this immemorial opprobrium of that city* [Vol. I. from p. 292 to 368.] and during his yet more toilsome and hazardous adventures at Liverpool, in which his life was more than once in imminent jeopardy; and all his ceaseless pursuit of facts and individuals, which enabled him, in the year 1788, to arrange and publish that great body of evidence comprized in his work of "The Impolicy of the Slave Trade," to which nothing was, or could indeed be added; with one exception, viz. that of the important documents procured by the authority, and enforced by the eloquence of Mr. Pitt, concerning the black population of the colonies, its gradual increase, and undoubted capability of supporting itself, unaided by fresh importations. This was, indeed, a most important accession; for although the fact, so established, had been absolutely demonstrated a priori, from the congeniality of the West Indian climate with the African constitutions, and the known prolificity of the blacks under very unfavourable circumstances; yet the quarter from which these documents were furnished added prodigiously to their strength, and furnished the abolitionists with a weapon against which the most unabashed impudence, and the blindest prejudice, could present no defensive armour. And in fact, after the publication of the "Impolicy," and the appearance of these documents, the whole ground of argument was in a manner abandoned, and the agents of the slave merchants and planters recurred wholly to secret intrigues, and the lowest tricks of delay. Blessed as the final event has been, we cannot, without the most painful shame, remember, that, even thus baffled, confuted, and put to silence, they remained dangerously powerful; and that blind and unfeeling avarice ran a race of perseverance with humanity and the sense of national honour, in which the latter, more than once, appeared to lag behind, and to rest, as if desirous of sleeping.

Directly opposite the Irish coast, there is a seaport town called Bristol, the inhabitants of which frequently sail into Ireland, to sell, there, people whom they had bought up throughout all England. They exposed to sale maidens in a state of pregnancy, with whom they made a sort of mock marriages. There you might see with grief, fastened together by ropes, whole rows of wretched beings, of both sexes, of elegant forms, and in the very bloom of youth, a sight sufficient to excite pity even in barbarians, daily offered for sale to the first purchaser. Accursed deed! Infamous disgrace! that men, acting in a manner which brutal instinct alone would have forbidden, should sell into slavery their relations, nay, even their own offspring." Wil ham of Malmsbury, Book ii. ch. 20.-Life of St. Wolstan, Bishop of Worcester.