But it is important to notice, that although declining strength compelled him to relinquish to others the chief conduct of the warfare against slavery itself, his efforts for its extinction were continued in every form, until the introduction into Parliament, of the law which declared, that from the 1st of August, 1834, "slavery should be utterly, and for ever abolished, and unlawful throughout the British colonies, possessions, and plantations abroad." The measure had already been received with acclamation in the House of Commons, ere he was summoned to his final reward; and it was one of the subjects of the last conversation in which he ever engaged. merited that condemnation which the language | less watchfulness over the interests of the of Mr. Talfourd must be supposed to convey. African race. Our space forbids us to pursue He was indeed associated with those whose in any detail the history of those exertions, aid would have insured the triumph of energies incomparably inferior to his. To mention no humbler names, he was aided by the genius and philanthropy of Henry Brougham, and by the affection and self-denial and unexampled energy of his brother-in-law Mr. Stephen, and of Mr. Zachary Macaulay. It may farther be admitted, that systematic and very continuous labours were not consonant with his intellectual character or with the habits of his life. But to the office which he had undertaken, he brought qualifications still more rare, and of far higher importance. It was within the reach of ordinary talents to collect, to examine, and to digest evidence, and to prepare and distribute popular publications. But it required a It would have not been compatible with the mind as versatile and active, and powers as character of Mr. Wilberforce, nor a fulfilment varied as were those of Mr. Wilberforce, to of the mission with which he believed himself harmonize all minds, to quicken the zeal of to be invested, if he had concentrated his efforts some, and to repress the intemperance of for the good of mankind on any single object, others; to negotiate with statesmen of all however arduous. "God has set before me political parties, and, above all, to maintain the reformation of my country's manners," is for twenty successive years the lofty princi- the solemn persuasion which he recorded in ples of the contest unsullied even by the seem- his twenty-seventh year, and from which, to ing admixture of any lower aims. The politi- the last hour of his life, he never swerved. cal position assigned to him by his constituency During that period Great Britain underwent in Yorkshire, the multitude and intimacy of internal changes more important than had ochis personal friendships, the animal spirits curred during any two preceding centuries. which knew no ebb, the insinuating graces of Agriculture, commerce, manufactures, revehis conversation, the graceful flow of his natu- nue, and population expanded with unexamral eloquence, and an address at once the pled elasticity. Never before had the physical gayest, the most winning, and the most affec- powers of nature been so largely subjugated tionate, marked him out as the single man of to the physical wants of mankind, and never his age, to whom it would have been possible was the necessity more urgent for some corto conduct such a struggle through all its responding increase of the moral powers of ceaseless difficulties and disappointments.— the conqueror. The steam-engine would have These volumes abound in proofs the most con- been a curse rather than a blessing, if the age clusive that, not merely in the House of Com- which it has enriched had continued stationary mons, but in every other society, he lived for in religious and intellectual improvement. this great object that he was the centre of a Watt and Arkwright would have been but vast correspondence, employing and directing equivocal benefactors of their fellow-countryinnumerable agents-enlisting in his service men without the co-operation of Bell and Lanthe whole circle of his connexions, surrounded caster. England would have used like a giant by a body of secretaries (called by Mr. Pitt the giant's strength which she was acquiring. his "white negroes,") preparing or revising Wealth and sensuality, hard-heartedness, on publications of every form, from folios of re- the one side, must have been brought into a ports and evidence to newspaper paragraphs fearful conflict with poverty, ignorance, and -engaged in every collateral project by which discontent, on the other. But the result has his main end could be promoted-now super- been otherwise, and these islands have beintending the deliberations of the Voluntary come not merely the hive of productive inSociety for the Abolition of the Slave Trade,-dustry, but the centre of efforts of unequalled and then labouring from session to session in . parliamentary committees, and occasionally passing (in opposition to his natural temper) weeks of the most laborious seclusion, to prepare himself for his most public labours. A life of more devoted diligence has scarcely been recorded of any man; unless, indeed, we are to understand all mental industry as confined to those exertions which chain the labourer to his desk. magnitude to advance the highest interests of the human race. If in elevating the moral and religious character of our people during the last century, the first place be due to the illustrious founder of methodism, the second may be justly claimed for Mr. Wilberforce. No two men can be named who in their respective generations exercised an influence so extensive, permanent, and beneficial over public opinion. In walks of life the most Though Mr. Wilberforce survived the aboli- dissimilar, and by means widely different, they tion of the slave trade for more than twenty- concurred in proposing to themselves the same five years, he did not retain his seat in the great end, and pursued it in the same spirit. House of Commons for much more than half Their views of Christian doctrine scarcely of that period. The interval between the differed. They inculcated the same severe, enactment of this law, and the close of his though affectionate, morality; and were aniparliamentary labours, was devoted to a cease-mated by the same holy principles, fervent B eal, and constitutional hilarity of temper. No one who believes that the courses of the world are guided by a supreme and benevolent intelligence, will hesitate to admit, that each of these men was appointed by Providence to execute a high and sacred trust, and prepared for its discharge by those gifts of nature and fortune which the circumstances of their times peculiarly demanded. The career of Wesley has been celebrated by the generous enthusiasm of his disciples, and the colder, though more discriminating admiration of Southey. In these volumes is to be found a record not less impressive of the labours of Mr. Wilberforce to exalt and purify the national character. Amongst the innumerable schemes of benevolence which were projected during the last half century, there is scarcely one of the more considerable in which he does not appear to have largely participated. Now establishing schools for pupils of every age, and Christians of all denominations, and then engaged in plans for the circulation of the Scriptures, and the diffusion of Christian knowledge. The half-civilized inhabitants of the recesses of London, the prisoners in her jails, the sick and destitute in their crowded lodgings, the poor of Ireland, the heathen nations refined or barbarous, the convicts in New Holland, and the Indians on the Red river, all in their turn, or rather all at once, were occupying his mind, exhausting his purse, and engaging his time and influence for schemes for their relief or improvement. The mere enumeration of the plans in which he was immersed, and of the societies formed for their accomplishment, presents such a mass and multitude of complicated affairs, as inevitably to suggest the conclusion that no one man, nor indeed any hundred men, could conduct or understand, or remember, them all. There is, however, no miracle to explain. Living in the centre of political action, and surrounded by innumerable friends, agents, and supporters, Mr. Wilberforce was relieved from all the more toilsome duties of these countless undertakings. He may be said to have constituted himself, and to have been acknowledged, by others, as a voluntary minister of public instruction and public charities. No department in Downing street was ever administered with equal success; none certainly by agents equally zealous, persevering, and effective. His authority was maintained by the reverence and affection of his fellow-labourers, and by the wisdom of his counsels, his unfailing bounty, and his ever ready and affectionate sympathy. No man was less liable to the imputation of withdrawing from costly personal sacrifices to promote those schemes of philanthropy which the world, or at least his own world, would admire and celebrate. During a large part of his life, Mr. Wilberforce appears to have devoted to acts of munificence and charity, from a fourth to a third of his annual income; nor did he shrink from the humblest and most repulsive offices of kindness to the sick and the wretched with whom he was brought into contact. Yet we believe that no more genuine proof was ever given of his anxiety for the Bighest interests of mankind than in the publi cation of his "Practical View of the Prevailing Religious System of Professed Christians in the Higher and Middle Classes of this Country, contrasted with real Christianity." This book appeared in 1797. The interest with which it was originally received might be readily explained by the singularity of a very conspicuous member of Parliament undertaking to handle such a theme. But there must be some deeper cause for the continued popularity of an octavo volume, of which, within half a century, fifty large editions, at the least, have been published in England and in the United States. The applauses of ecclesiastics of every class, from old John Newton to the then bishop of London, might be yielded with liberal indulgence to so powerful and unexpected an auxiliary. But that could be no common production which moved the author of the “Pursuits of Literature" for once to quit his stilts, and to pour out a heartfelt tribute of praise in his unadulterated mother tongue; and which drew from Edmund Burke his grateful acknowledgments to the author for the comfort which he had diffused over the two last days of his eventful life. Yet they who shall search this book for deep theology, or profound investigation, will be disappointed. "Philosophy," says Abraham Tucker, " may yet be styled the art of marshalling the ideas in the understanding, and religion that of disciplining the imagination." In the first of these arts Mr. Wilberforce did not excel; in the second he has scarcely ever been surpassed. The first three chapters of this work appear to us decidedly inferior to the rest. He is there upon a debatable land,contrasting the inspired text with the prevalent opinions of his age on some parts of Christian doctrine. The accuracy of his own interpretations, or rather of those which are received by that part of the church of England usually designated as evangelical, being assumed throughout these discussions, they will scarcely convince such as read the New Testament in a different sense. But when he emerges from these defiles, and enters upon broader grounds, comparing the precepts of revelation with the conventional morality of the world's favoured children, he speaks (for it is throughout a spoken rather than a written style) with a persuasive energy which breathes the very spirit of the inspired volume. Here all is the mature result of profound meditation; and his thoughts, if not always methodical and compact, are at least always poured out in language so earnest and affectionate, that philanthropy never yet assumed a more appropriate, or a more eloquent style. It is the expostulation of a brother. Unwelcome truth is delivered with scrupulous fidelity, and yet with a tenderness which demonstrates that the monitor feels the pain which he reluctantly inflicts. It is this tone of human sympathy breathing in every page which constitutes the essential charm of this book; and it is to the honour of our common nature that we are all disposed to love best that teacher, who, with the deepest compassion for our sorrows, has the least indulgence for the errors or the faults by which they have been occasioned. Whatever objections may have been raised to Mr. Wilberforce's His exquisite perception of the ridiculous kept theological opinions, there is but one which him in the exercise of habitual self-denial, and, can be stated to the exegetical part of his trea- the satire which played upon his countenance tise. It is, that he has erected a standard too was suppressed by his universal charity, bepure and too sublime for this world's use, and fore it could form itself into language. With proposes a scheme of Utopian perfection which these disadvantages he was still a great paris calculated, by discouraging hope, to repress liamentary speaker; and there were occasions exertion. The obvious answer is, that the de- when, borne by some sudden impulse, or carsign of every rule which can be given for the ried by diligent preparation over the diffuseconduct of life is to afford an accurate measure ness which usually encumbered him, he deof our deflection from the path of duty, and a lighted and subdued his hearers. His reputatrustworthy guide for our return. Any system tion in the House of Commons rested, however, of religion or ethics which tolerated the slight- chiefly upon other grounds. In that assembly, est compromise with moral evil, would be so any one speaks with immense advantage whose far subversive of its own purpose; although it character, station, or presumed knowledge is is from the general prevalence of moral evil such as to give importance to his opinions. that such systems derive their existence and The dogmas of some men are of incomparably their value. To mark distinctly the departure more value than the logic of others; and no of the luxurious, busy, care-worn, and ambi- member except the leaders of the great contious age to which we belong, from the theory tending parties, addressed the house with an and practice of Christian morality, was the authority equal to that of Mr. Wilberforce. task which Mr. Wilberforce proposed to him- The homage rendered to his personal character, self. Never were the sensuality, the gloom, his command over a small compact party, his and the selfishness which fester below the representation of the county of York, the conpolished surface of society, brought into more fidence of the great religious bodies in every vivid contrast with the faith, and hope, and part of England, and, above all, his indepencharity, which in their combination form the dent neutrality, gave to his suffrage, an almost Christian character; and never was that con- unexampled value. It was usually delivered trast drawn with a firmer hand, with a more with a demeanour of conscious dignity, unaltender spirit, or with a purer inspiration for the loyed by the slighest tinge of arrogance, and happiness of mankind. contrasting oddly enough with the insignifiTo all these philanthropic labours were cance of his slight and shapeless person. added others, addressed, though less directly, Yet the spell he exercised was partly drawn to the same ends, and undertaken and pursued from still another source. Parliamentary eloin a similar spirit. In his political career, Mr. quence is essentially colloquial; and, when Wilberforce never ceased to act and to speak most embellished or sustained, is rather proas one to whom Providence had confided the longed discourse than oratory properly so sacred trust of advancing the moral character, called. It was by a constant, perhaps unand promoting the welfare of the age and avoidable observance of his tone, that Mr. nation to which he belonged. As a public Wilberforce exercised the charm which none speaker, he enjoyed great and well-merited could resist, but which many were unable to celebrity. But it was not in the House of explain. His speeches in the House of ComCommons that his powers in this kind were mons bore the closest resemblance to his famiexhibited to the greatest advantage. In all the liar conversation. There was the same eardeliberations of Parliament may be discerned nest sincerity of manner, the same natural a tacit reference to the nature of royal citation and varied cadences, the same animation and which has brought together the two houses ease, and the same tone of polished society; "for the despatch of divers weighty and urgent and while his affectionate, lively, and graceful affairs." The knights and burgesses are em- talk flowed on without the slightest appearance phatically men of business, and have but little of effort or study, criticism itself scarcely perindulgence for any thing which tasks the un-ceived, or at least excused the redundancy of derstanding, addresses itself to the heart, or elevates the imagination;-least of all for ostentatious display of the resources of the speaker's mind. He who can contribute a pertinent fact, or a weighty argument, need not raise his style above the region of the pathos. The aspirant for fame must excel in perspicuity of statement, in promptitude in the exposure or invention of sophistry, and in a ready though abstemious use of wit, ridicule, and sarcasm. In these requisites for success, Mr. Wilberforce was deficient. He had not much statistical knowledge, nor was he familiar with any branch of political economy. His argumentation was not usually perspicuous, and was seldom energetic. The habit of digression, the parenthetical structure of his periods, and the minute qualifications suggested by his reverence for truth, impeded the flow of his discourse, and frequently obscured its design. his language. But, as we have said, it was not in the House of Commons, that his powers as a public speaker had their highest exercise. His habitual trains of thought, and the feelings which he most deeply cherished, could rarely find utterance in that scene of strife and turmoil.. At the hustings, where the occasion justified the use of a more didactic style, there was much simple majesty in the uncompromising avowal of his principles, and in the admonitions suggested by them. It was the grave eloquence of the pulpit applied to secular uses. But it was in the great assemblages held for religious and charitable objects that the current of his eloquence moved with the greatest impetus and volume. Here he at once felt his way to the hearts of the dense mass of eager and delighted listeners. In the fulness of the charity which believeth all things, giving credit to the multitude for feelings as pure and bene- | the strength of his sympathies, and his strong volent as his own, he posssessed the power of personal attachment to Mr. Pitt, all seemed to gracefully and decorously laying aside the give the promise of a ductile, vacillating, unreserve which habitually shrouded from the certain course. Yet in reality no man ever irreverent and profane the more secret and pursued in Parliament a career more entirely cherished feelings of his heart. Nothing was guided by fixed principles, or more frequently ever more singular, or less framed upon any at variance with his habitual inclinations. previous model of eloquence, than were some His connexions, both public and private, not of those addresses in which the chastened less than his natural temper, disposed him to style of the House of Commons (of all assem- that line of policy which, in our days, assumes blies the most fastidious) was employed to the title of "conservative;" yet his conduct give utterance to thoughts which, though best was almost invariably such as is now distinbecoming the deepest solitude, retained, even guished by the epithets "liberal and reformin these crowded scenes, their delicacy not less ing." A Tory by predilection, he was in than their beauty. The most ardent of his ex- action a Whig. His heart was with Mr. Pitt; pressions bore the impress of indubitable sin- but on all the cardinal questions of the times, cerity, and of calm and sober conviction; his vote was given to Mr. Fox. instantly distinguishing them from the less genuine enthusiasm of others who dissolved their meaning in ecstasy, and soared beyond the reach of human comprehension into the third heavens of artificial rapture. It was an example perhaps as full of danger as of interest; and not a few are the offensive imitations which have been attempted of a model which could be followed successfully, or even innocently, by none whose bosoms did not really burn with the same heavenly affections, who did not practise the same severe observ-"At Pitt's all day-it goes on well-sat up late ance of truth, or whose taste had not been refined to the same degree of sensibility. This conflict of sentiment with principle did not, however, commence in the earlier days of Mr. Pitt's administration; for the mortal foe of Jacobinism entered the House of Commons as a parliamentary reformer; and Mr. Wilberforce executed a rapid journey from Nice to London in the winter of 1784 to support, by his eloquence and his vote, the Reform Bill which his friend introduced in the session of that year. The following broken sentences from his diary record the result: chatting with Pitt-his hopes of the country and noble patriotic heart to town-Pitt'sNo part of Mr. Wilberforce's biography will house-parliamentary reform-terribly disapbe read with greater interest than that which pointed and beat-extremely fatigued-spoke describes his political career. Holding for extremely ill, but commended-called at Pitt's forty-three years a conspicuous place in the-met poor Wyvill." Of this "ill-spoken but House of Commons, the current of public affairs as it flowed past him, reflected his character in a thousand different forms; and exhibited on the most tumultuous theatre of action, the influence of those sacred principles, with the workings of which we are for the most part conversant only in more quiet and secluded scenes. "From any one truth all truth may be inferred," a Baconian text, from which certain commentators of the last century concluded, that he who possessed a Bible might dispense with Grotius and with Locke; and that at the approach of the Scriptures all other writings should disappear, as they had once vanished at the presence of the Koran. The opinion which precisely reverses this doctrine is recommended by less ingenuity, and by no better logic. Mr. Wilberforce was far too wise a man to imagine that any revelation from God could be designed to supersede the duty of patient research into all other sources of knowledge. But neither did he ever reject the vast body of ethical precepts delivered by divine inspiration, as irrelevant to the political questions with which he was daily conversant. He invariably brought every conclusion drawn from other studies to the test of their consistency with the sacred oracles. They supplied him with an ordinate by which to measure every curve. They gave him what most public men egregiously want, the firm hold of a body of unchanging opinions. In his case this advantage was peculiarly momentous. His neglected education, his inaptitude for severe and continuous mental labour, commended speech," the following sentence is preserved: "The consequence of this measure," he said, "will be that the freedom of opinion will be restored, and party connexions in a great measure vanish, for party on one side begets party on the other;"a prophecy which, rightly understood, is perceptibly advancing towards its fulfilment. The ill success of Mr. Pitt's proposal did not damp the zeal of Mr. Wilberforce. He introduced into the House of Commons, and even succeeded in carrying there two of the most important enactments of the Reform Bill, in which, at the distance of nearly half a century, Lord Grey obtained the reluctant concurrence of the peers. One of these measures provided for a general registration of voters; the others for holding the poll, at the same time, in several different parts of the same county. From the commencement of the war with France is to be dated the dissolution of the political alliance which had, till then, been maintained with little interruption between Mr. Wilberforce and Mr. Pitt. Partaking more deeply than most men of the prevalent abhorrence of the revolutionary doctrines of that day, Mr. Wilberforce's resistance to the war was decided and persevering. A written message from Mr. Pitt, delivered on the first debate on that question, "assuring him that his speaking then might do irreparable mischief, and promising that he should have another opportunity before war should be declared," defeated his purpose of protesting publicly against the approaching hostilities. Accident prevented the redemption of the pledge, but Mr. Wilber Steele, &c. I felt queer, and all day out of spirits-wrong! but hurt by the idea of Pitt's alienation-12th, party of the old firm at the Speaker's! I not there." force's purposes remained unshaken. "Our | formed. Wednesday, February 4, dined at government," he says in a letter on this sub- Lord Camden's. Pepper, and Lady Arden, ject, "had been, for some months before the breaking out of the war, negotiating with the principal European powers, for the purpose of obtaining a joint representation to France, assuring her that if she would formally engage Mr. Pitt's alienation was not the only, nor to keep within her limits, and not molest her the most severe penalty which Mr. Wilberforce neighbours, she should be suffered to settle had to pay on this occasion. The sarcasms her own internal government and constitution of Windham,-the ironical compliments of without interference. I never was so earnest Burke,-a cold reception from the king,-and with Mr. Pitt on any occasion as I was in my even Fox's congratulation upon his approachentreaties before the war broke out, that he ing alliance with the opposition, might have would openly declare in the House of Com- been endured. But it was more hard to bear mons that he had been, and then was negotiat- the rebukes, however tenderly conveyed, of ing this treaty. I urged on him that the decla- his friend and early guide, the dean of Carration might possibly produce an immediate lisle; the reproaches of the whole body of his effect in France, where it was manifest there clerical allies for the countenance which they prevailed an opinion that we were meditating conceived him to have given to the enemies some interference with their internal affairs, of religion and of order; and the earnest reand the restoration of Louis to his throne. At monstrances of many of his most powerful all events, I hoped that in the first lucid inter- supporters in Yorkshire. The temper so accesval, France would see how little reason there sible to all kindly influences, was, however, was for continuing the war with Great Britain; sustained by the invigorating voice of an apand, at least, the declaration must silence all proving conscience. He resumed his pacific but the most determined oppositionists in this proposals in the spring of 1795, and though country. How far this expectation would have still defeated, it was by a decreasing majority. been realized you may estimate by Mr. Fox's Before the close of that year, Mr. Pitt himself language when Mr. Pitt, at my instance, did had become a convert to the opinions of his make the declaration last winter (1799.) If,' friend. The war had ceased to be popular, he said, 'the right honourable gentleman had and Lord Malmesbury's negotiation followed. made the declaration now delivered, to France, The failure of that attempt at length convinced as well as to Russia, Austria, and Prussia, I Mr. Wilberforce that the war was inevitable; should have nothing more to say or to de- and thenceforward his opposition to it ceased. sire."" The same independent spirit raised him, on Experience and reflection confirmed these less momentous occasions, above the influoriginal impressions. After the war had con-ence of the admiration and strong personal tinued for a year, Mr. Wilberforce was en- attachment which he never withheld from Mr. gaged in making up his mind cautiously and Pitt at any period of their lives. Though the maturely, and, therefore, slowly as to the best minister was "furious" on the occasion, he conduct to be observed by Great Britain in voted and spoke against the motion for augthe present critical emergency. With what a menting the income of the Prince of Wales. severe self-examination he was accustomed to Though fully anticipating the ridicule which conduct these inquiries, may be learnt from was the immediate consequence of the attempt, an entry made at that period in his private he moved the House of Commons to interfere journal. "It is a proof to me of my secret for the liberation of Lafayette, when confined ambition, that though I foresee how much I in the jail of Olmuky. Though, at the sugshall suffer in my feelings throughout from gestion of Bishop Prettyman, Mr. Pitt pledged differing from Pitt, and how indifferent a figure himself to introduce a bill which would have I shall most likely make, yet that motives of silenced every dissenting minister to whom ambition will insinuate themselves. Give me, the magistrates might have thought proper to O Lord, a true sense of the comparative value refuse a license, Mr. Wilberforce resisted, and of earthly and of heavenly things; this will with eventful success, this encroachment on render me sober-minded, and fix my affections the principles of toleration. Though the whole on things above." belligerent policy of Mr. Pitt, on the resumpSuch was the solemn preparation with tion of the war, rested on continental alliances, which he approached this momentous ques- cemented by subsidies from the British treation, and moved in the session of 1794 an sury, that system found in Mr. Wilberforce amendment to the address recommending a the most strenuous and uncompromising opmore pacific policy. The failure of that at-ponent. On the revival of hostilities in 1803, tempt did not shake his purpose; for after the he supported Mr. Fox not merely with his interval of a few days he voted with Mr. Grey vote, but with a speech which he subsequently on a direct motion for the re-establishment of published. The impeachment of Lord Mel peace. The genuine self-denial with which ville brought him into a direct and painful this submission to a clear sense of duty was hostility to those with whom he had lived in attended, Mr. Wilberforce has thus touchingly youthful intimacy, and who still retained their described: "No one who has not seen a good hold on his heart. Mr. Pitt was his chosen deal of public life, and felt how difficult and friend-Lord Melville his early companion painful it is to differ widely from those with But even on this occasion, though compelled whom you wish to agree, can judge at what to watch the movements of the "fascinating an expense of feeling such duties are per-eye" and "the agitated countenance" turned |