THE LIFE OF WILBERFORCE, BY HIS SONS.

IF any busy, influential, and decidedly pious Member of Parlia- ment, who has an extensive correspondence, and keeps (like Mr,. WILBERFORCE) two diaries, " one sacred, the other profane," will bequeath us his manuscripts, and an adequate legacy, we will en- gage to embalm his memory in five thick volumes, which shall, biographically, be as valuable as the ones before us—shall be warranted to contain more matter, and perhaps to exhibit a better. arranged narrative of his career; for the life before us less reflects. a light upon the times in which its subject lived, than requires a knowledge of the times to reflect a light upon its pages. We can- not, of course, answer for the sale ; or for the work excithig so much attention in the literary world, or being so favoured by lite- rary reviews ; neither can we be responsible for the reader feeling less interest about an infetior person, than for a man who was looked up to as the Parliamentary leader of the religious world, and the achiever of the abolition of the Slave-trade. But all other points we will assure. Let not any embryo BRI DGEw ATER, balancing on a legacy of thousands to tho Spectator, say to himself—" Why, WILBER- FORCE was the college acquaintance of PITT, his early friend, frequent adviser, and almost constant supporter; the Parlia- mentary compeer of Fox, BURKE, SHERIDAN, and many others of note ; an observer of the dawn of TIERNEY, CANNING, BROUGHAM, as well as of some living little stars, who twinkle in the Parliamentary horizon since the greater lumi- naries are withdrawn. If such a man kept a secular diary of observations on life and character, how can I hope to compete with him ?"—We answer, that should be have mingled in the Senatorial world during the great events of late years, watched the actors narrowly, and described them freely and fully, we waive his objection ; for the striking memoranda of Mr. WIL- BERFORCE are few, the rest disjointed and bald, and often the mere loose expressions of a passing opinion, rather than the descriptions of the manners and the mind. For example- " Feb. eeth, (1763.) Ministry still undecided. 2i4th. Ministers still unm.• pointed. T. Townshend called, and in vain persuaded Pitt to take it. 211th. Morning frosty, but extremely fine. Church—Lindsey's—the chariot to Wim. bledon. Pitt, &c. to dinner and sleep. Nothing settled. March 3d. This even. tog, or on Sunday evening, the King sent for Lord North, having previously seen Lord Guildford, and they parted on bad terms ; Rex refusing to take Charles Pox, and North to give him up. 5th. Dined Independents. King saw North a second time. Both continue stout. 12th. House. Lord Abingdon's concert. Supped at Goostree's, and bed about two. This day Lord North was commis- sioned, being sent for by the King, to desire the Duke of Portland to form a Illinistry. 20th. Dined up.stairs, Bankes, Pepper Arden. &c. ; then home. Read. My eyes bad. Bed early. The matter said by Lord G. Cavendish and Lord Duncannon to be completely off, by Fox and North not being able to agree about Stormont. 21st. Dined Pitt',. Fox's friends gave up the point of Lord Stormont; and Coke did not make his motion, understanding arrangement likely. Staid at Pitt's till late. Sunday, 23d. All day at Wimbledon. Eyes indifferent. Sent for Mr. Seymour (afterwards his amanuensis.) 24th, Dined Pitts, All off between the Coalition and the King, owing to the one demand- ing a complete list, the other refusing it. 81st. Pitt resigned toslay. Dined Pitt',; then Goostree's, where supped. lied almost three o'clock. April 3d. Wimbledon, where Pitt, &c. dined and slept. Evening walk—bed a little past two. 4th. Delicious day ; lounged morning at Wimbledon with friends, foist. my at night, and run about the garden for an hour or two."

But the ambitious rich man may still be cautious. He may say—"! hear there were circumstances which must render the secular diaries of WILLIAM WILBERFORCE much more taking than mine. Was he not one of the worldly in his youth ? Did not sinners entice him, and he Consent? nay, is it not possible that he sat in the seat of the scorner ? Did not his mother re- move him from his pious aunts, with whom lie had been placed on the death of his father, lest he should turn Methodist, and be cut off by his grandfather, an old rich Hull merchant, without a six- pence of his ? ' Did he not, when a mere boy, mix in all the gay- eties of Hull ? neglect his studies at college, and associate, as lie says himself, with licentious men; whose language was ' worse than their lives,' and sit up whole nights playing at cards? Did he not, as soon as lie attained his majority, spend 0000/. in bribery and heating to become Member for Hull? Was he not, on the strength of his wealth, his college education, his seat, and the spirit with which he got it, floated at once into fashionable life ? Was he not balloted into all the Clubs ? and at soine of them did lie not shake his elbows ? Did he not mix with the gay and the great, visiting Devonshire House, the Dutchess of Goanosi, the old Duke of QUEENSBERRY, and sing to the Prince of %Vases?' — These things the Spectator admits are true ; and further, that some of his social reminisceuces are interesting, though not so much for their slight and characteristic touches, as for the as- sociations which the names suggest to those who have gleaned some knowledge of the society of that day. Often, however, his diaries ure dry in the extreme ; for they are mere catchwords to refresh his own memory, and quite unsuggestive to others. Neither are the extracts from his religious journals much better than from his profane. The conversion of Mr. IVILBEas FORCE Was very gradual ; not arising from slow convictions, not flowing from grace, but a joint mixture of both. His earliest

ts of his spiritual feelings want the strength, the depth, the aceoun more than tragic iiiterest, of Cow eart's narrative. They have none of the uection which flavours those of 1VHITEFIELD and others.

The later extracts from his diaries are tedious and twaddling. If a lady tells him that in her youth " she prayed to be directed right,' he sets it down ; which might be well in him as a memo- rial, hut bad in his sons to publish it. He passes his time in a round of visiting-calls, and constantly laments a practice which he wanted strength of mind to break; but he laments it in phrase- ology imitative and weak. Even his reflections on the death of friends are stale and trite ; and fail to impress, like the moral forced out from the worldly or the thoughtless, or from anybody with whom moralizing does not seem a business.

His letters, with some few exceptions, are commonplace—the subjects passed ; the religious feelings they inculcate of an every- day kind, such as we would undertake to match in the desk of any Evaugelical divine who corresponds with ladies, amiable, • sensible, and devout. Those on politics have this interest—they

lay open to us the feelings of an actor as to what is passing behind the scenes : but any confidential letters to any influential politician would do the same. Those of a family or autobiogra- phical kind are perhaps the best : but the best of any kind are good only in passages or sentences. He was too diluted ; he dif- fused his matter over a flat of words. Any hard-headed gentle- man with average critical abilities and good common sense, if mixing in the world of politics and society, would beat WILLIAM WILBERFORCE as a writer of letters and diaries,—if he wrote them intending them to be read by any one but himself; and if be did not, we would not publish them, but return them to his executors as raw materials, very useful in the composition of one or two volumes, but not for stuffing five.

But although these volumes are tedious to a high degree, and bare no claim to the character of a biography, it must not be inferred that there is nothing in them interesting : though a lot of chaff, they have some grains. There are several good anecdotes of the great and grand of other days ; some passing glimpses of political excitement when Pirr was struggling for power with the Whig aristocracy, headed by Fox, BIYItKE, SHERIDAN, and NORTH. In WILBERFORCE'S slight memorials, we occasionally receive an addition to our means of estimating the real cha- racter of some leading politicians. The narrative of the Slave- trade and Slavery questions shows how indifferent, time-serving, or treacherous Ministers, may keep the word of promise to the ear and break it to the hope; making speeches, and crack speeches too, in favour of a measure, yet taking no steps to forward, but many ways of injuting it; all the while professing much anxiety,

but pleading many obstacles in the state of politics, the feelings of the Royal Family, practical difficulties, and something "most secret and confidential"—conclusive, but to go no further : all which things, though seen through by those beyond the charmed circle of Ministerial magic, make dupes, or furnish an excuse for confidence in intentions to those who are willing to be seduced. Besides these points, there are some contemporary letters of a certain political value, though not a very high one ; occasional sentences from WILBERFORCE, of a moral or critical nature—

judicious, and expressed with vivacity, but never indicating pene- tration or deep thought; and some interesting sketches of the man and his habits, from the pens or tongues of his surviving friends.

In making extracts, we shall confine ourselves to points of in-

terest. Short specimens would not convict of tediousness ; for as WILBERFORCE never seems to have been dry or dull, the defects we have spoken of spring less from faults than wants—want of matter and spirit. One of these routine commonplace-book pas- sages, however, we will take ; for it will convince the critical reader that the constant repetition of such bare memoranda must of necessity get tiresome ; though this contains a valuable point— the envy with which the aristocrats regarded the novas homo CANNING, and the spiteful manner in which they displayed it,—an envy which GREY entertained to the last.

January 1st 1799. "1 meant to.day to be devoted to religious offices, but the House's meeting prevented more than receiving the sacs ament this morning, and a little reading tonight. I am now going to private prayer. What cause have I for humiliation, what room for improvement !"

The beginning of this year was almost engrossed by the question of the Irish

Union. January 7th. " Supped at Pitt's., about Irish Union—he candid and open, but I did not like it. 11th. I have great doubts about the Union, and Bashes still more. French successes against Neapolitans. No mails arrive. Etnperor of Russia behaving well. Pitt thioking things not so bad in Italy, anal that the Emperor [of Austria] will be drawn in by the Queen of Naples. leth. To town to discuss about Union with Bankes anal Henry Thornton. 23d. Dined Bankes's before House, which on Address for King's message abut Union—Sheridan—Canning ; what envy of him I saw uuiversally—Grey, Tierney, and others going out when be got up. 25th. Pitt sanguine that after Union Roman Catholics would soon acquire political rights; resolved to give up plan rather than exclude them. If Irish House did not pass something vio- lent on Tuesday last, he thinks it will go down. Accuses F. of breach of faith in stirring up instead of waiting. Pitt fair and honourable, as always, more than any other political man. Poor Burgh wild. Bankes clear and strong against it. Auckland evidently so secretly. Lord Clare fur. Speaker now for, and satisfied. I hear the Roman Catholics more against it than they were.

The Bishops all against Pitt's tithe plan. The King said, 'I ant fel it if it is for the good of the Church, and against it if contra.'"

WILBEItroncE AT COLLEGE.

With the self-indulgent habits formed by such a life, he entered St. Jobn's College, Cambridge, October 1776, at the age of seventeen years. And here be was at once exposed to new temptations. Left, by the death of his grand- father 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 amongst them for some time, though 1 nevea relished their society,--often indeed, I was horror-struck at their conduct; and after the first year I shook off in great

measure my connexion with them." • • •

He lived much at this time amongst the Fellows of the College. " But those," he says, " with 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. If ever I appeared studious, they would say tome, ' Why in the world should a man of your fortune trouble himself with fagging?' I was a good classic, and acquitted myself well in the college examinations; but mathe- matical, which my mind greatly needed, I almost entirely neglected, and was told that I was too clever to require them. Whilst my companions were read- ing hard and attending lectures, card-patties and idle amusements consumed my time. The tutors would often say within nay hearing, that ' they were mere saps, but that I did all by talent.' This was poison to a mind constituted like mine." This life of idleness at college was only exchanged in vacation time for the ordinary. gayeties of Hull, now increased by the presence of the Militia, or for journies In search of pleasure with his mother anal sister. It was surely of God's especial goodness that in such a course he was preserved from profli- gate excess.

AVILHERFORCE IN TOWN.

His great success (in the hull election) threw no small lustre on his entry into public life ; anal he was welcomed upon his return to Lon. don into every. (aide. He was at once elected a member of all the lead-

ing Clubs. " When I went up to Cambridge," he has said, speaking of the risks to which he was than exposed, " I was scarcely acquainted with

a single person above the rank of a country gentleman; and even when I

left the University, so little did I know of general society, that I came up to London stored with arguments to prove the authenticity of Row-

ley's Poesns ; and now I was at once immersed in politics and fashion. The very first time I went to Boodle's, I won twenty-five guineas of the Duke of Notfolk. I belongea at this time to five clubs,—Miles and Evans's, Brookes's, Boodle's, White's, Goostace's. The first time I was at Brookes's, scarcely knowing any one, I joined front mere shyness in play at the faro-table, where George Selwyn kept bank. A friend who knew my inexperience, and regarded me as a victim decked out for sacrifice, called to me, ' What, Wilber force ! is that you ?' Selwyn (pate resented the interference ; and turning to bim said, in his most expressive tone, ' 0, Sir, don't interrupt Mr. Wilber- force ; he could not he better employed.' Nothing could be more luxurious than the style of these clubs. Fox, Sheridan, Fitzpatrick, and all your leading men frequented them, and associated upon the easiest terms : you chatted, played at cards, or gambled, as you pleased. ' Though he visited occasionally these earl- oua clubs, his usual resort was with a choicer and more intimate society, who assembled first in the house since occupied by Scrope and Morland's bank, in Pall Mall ; and afterwards on the premises of a man named Guostree, now the Shakspeare Gallery.

They were about twenty-five in number ; and for the most part were young men who had passed together through the University, and whom the general election of 1780 had brought at the same time into public life. Pitt was an habitual frequenter of the club at Goostiee's, supping there every night duriug the winter of 1760-81. Here their intimacy increased every day. Though less formed for general popularity than Fox, Pitt, when free lions shyness and amongst his intimate companions, was the very soul of merriment and conver- sation. " He was the wittiest man I ever knew ; and, what Was quite peculiar to himself, had at all times his wit under entire control. Others appeared struck by the unwonted association of brilliant images; but every possible com- bination of ideas teemed always present to his mind, and be could at once pro- duce whatever he desired. I was one of those who met to spend an evening in memory of Shakspeare, at the Boai's Head, Eastcheap. Many professed wits were present ; but Pitt was the afloat amusing of the party, and the readiest and most apt in the required allusions. Ile entered with the same energy into all our different amusements: we played a good deal at Goostree's ; and I well remember the intense earnestness which he displayed when joining in those games of chance. Ile perceived their increasing fascination, and soon after suddenly abandoned them for easel." It was by this vice that he was himself most nearly ensnared. A brief diary of this period records more than once the loss of 100/. at the faro-table. He was weaned from it in a most characteristic manner. 'a We can have no play to-night," complained some of the party at the Club, " for St. Andrew is not here to keep batik." " Wilberforce, ' said Mn, Bankes, (who never joined hint. self,) "if you will keep it, I will give you a guinea." The pla)ful challenge was accepted ; but as the game grew deep, he rose the winner of Goo/. Much of this was lost by those who were only heirs to future fostunes, and could not therefore meet such a call without inconvenience. The pain lie felt at their an- noyance cured him of a taste which scented but too likely to become predomi- nant.

PITT'S POLITICAL PROPHECY.

As he (Pitt) expressed in the strongest terms his admiration for the system which prevailed at home, the Abba 1/e Lageard was led to ask him, since all human things were periallable, in what part the British Constitution might be first expected to decay. Pitt, a Parliamentary Reformer, and speaking within three years of the time when the House (if Commons had sigma' to Mr. Dun-

ning's motion, that the influence of the C an had increased, was increasing, and ought to be diminished, after musing for a moment answered—" That part of our constitution which will first perish, is the prerogative of the King and the authority of the House of Peers."

ISC ELLA N EOUS ANECDOTES.

" Franklin signed the peaec of Paris in his old spotted velvet coat (it being the time of a court mourning, which rendered it more particular). What, said my friend the negotiator, is the meaning of that harlequin coat: It is that in • • which he was abused lay %Adel borne. • " There are two ways, said Eliot, of telling a story. Cahill was charged

with having said, a fortilight befisre he took a place under Lord North, that the nation's affairs would never go on well till the Minister's head was on the table of the House of Commons. Gibbon himself total the story, that he had said, till both North's and Fox's heads were on the table. [The two were then the

• • • • •

respective political leaders.] • " I final that business will not prevent my leaving town for Bath. Pitt awake.I by Woolwich artillery riot, and went out to Cabinet. Pitt met US next mort id Ihrrington (a nobleman of the vicille caw then comma ding the forces in Londoo) is, after all, the greatest man in England. When I SW him in the hurry and alum last night, be was just as slow, and made as many bows, as if he hall been loitering at the levee.'" " Saw Lord Eldon, and long talk with him on the best mode of study and discipline—for the youtig Grants—to be lawyers." The Chancellor's reply was not encouraging—" I know no rule to give them, but that they must make up their minds to live like a hermit and work like a horse." "Eldon had just received the great seal ; and I expressed my fears that they were bringing the King into public too soon after his late indisposition. • You shall judge for yourself,' he answered, 'from what passed between us when I kissed hands on my appointment. The King had been conversing with me, and when I was about to retire, he said, a Give my remembrances to Lady Eldon.' I acknow- ledged his condescension, and intimated that I was ignorant of Lady Eldun'a claim to such a notire. Yes, yes,' he answered, er know how much I owe ta

Lady Eldon ; I know that von would hive in ale yeast-la rummy curate, and that she ham made you my Lord Chancellor.' '' • • • •

'1' I hope the desire of recovering Hanover has hod no 'indite share in biassing thejudgment of Government ; but who that remembers how courtly Fox became on that subj et, can cast away all suspicions? I vet y wed remember old Loid Csnoten's telling ow, that when the King took him it., his closet, aud fairly gave himself to talking him over, he was almost i. 112.1,10)1e."

One good and valuable paint in Ow bouk is t he view it gives of AVILBERFORCE'S readings of political characters, and the traits which it :Sods to contradict his conclusions. CASTLEREAGH he con- sidered a good man of business, end so earnest in the Slave-trade that he was not on any account to be offended. WiLimeroece hud an interview with the Emperor of Russia, when he catne over sight-seeing, and iegretted how little good came of the treaty of Paris : " What could be done," said ALOCANDER, (who was fa- vourably disposed, for it cost him nothing,) " when your own Am- bassador gave way ?" Of DUNDAS as a politician lie speaks very ill, but well as a man. For Fox he makes 1101 rind fair allowance individually, but was ltOrrItiel RI his Jacobinisin in politics. PITT conies out playful, friendly, boy ishly delightful, in the early part of his career, but petrified by power and its arts to a contemptible degree. Our hero seems to think Peucev al. a foul as regarded the management of the British empire and Europe, but pious, and therefore to he Sopported. His opinion of CANNING is ad- verse on the whole; yet CANNING comes out the best of any one —fair, straightforward, candid, and reasonable. We cannot take all the capital letters of this able man, but as many may not know the powers of Lord JOHN RUSSELL to bind the Cabinet and the Government, here is CANNING'S account of what the leader of the House of Commons is. It sprung out of a correspond- ence between him and WILBERFORCE in reference to the ne- gotiations of 1812, when CANNING refused to serve under CASTLEREAGH.

" Many people say, and sou seem ineiled to adopt their reasoning. ' The lead, after all, is merely a featlitr ; what signifies it in whose hands it is?' Others say,' Why not let Lord C. have it nominally? It will in effect devolve upon yourself.' Such has been the language of the Regent, and such that of many other well-meaning common friends. Now, to the first of these argutnents, I answer, that it is founded in a mistake. To the second, that it is (uninten- tionally, no doubt) a suggestion of dishonesty.

" I. Is the lead a feather? What is the definition of it ? it is that station in the House of Commons which points out him who holds it as the representa- tive of the Government in that Ilonte, the possessor of the chief confidence of the Crown and of the Minister. Its prerogative is, that in all doubtful ques- tions, in all questions which have not been previously settled in Cabinet, and which may require instant decision, he is to decitle,—upon communication with his colleagues sitting by him, undoubtedly, if he be courteously inclineth—but he is to decide, with or without communication with them, and with or against their content.

"bow, is this a feather? or is it substantial authority? But pethaps this is mere theory, and the case never occurs. Look back a few weeks only to the debate on the Orders in Council. Recollect that it might have happened that I should have been sitting by Lord C. 'a side on that night. And I entreat you to figure me to yourself in that situation, while he was giving up to Mr. Brougham's honour and glory, (not to peace with America.) by three or four successive gradations of concession, a Inmate which bad been for five years the standing policy of the Administration.

" He tnight be right and I wrong in the view of the measure itself. It might be right to give it up. It could not be right to give it up in such a manner ; SO Spiritless, so profitless, anal so senseless. But right or wrong, the giving up such a measure in such a way was surely a pretty substantial exer- cise of a pretty substantial authority. And it was Mut authority that I should have confirmed to Lord C. if I had agreed to serve under him as leader or Minister of the House of Commons.

"2. 111 had so agreed, it is not a mistake merely, it is a suggestion of dig- honesty, to say that the station in which I so bound myself to maintain him would hate devolved upon me. I must not have suffered it to do so. 1 must have rejected and repudiated it. 11 the troops bad wished to salute me Impe-

rator in the field of debate, I must have said, ' Nay, my good friends, there is your commander. I have sworn to maintain hint such, like him as you may.'

And yet I will venture to affirm, that no tear' on toy part to reject for myself, and to preserve to Lord C. the station of command, would have prevented him from saying in three weeks that I was studiously labouring to deprive hint of it. Pray therefore be not led astray (nor let others, where you can help it,) by the notion that I have been squabbling about a tulle. " Nothing indeed is a trifle which by common consent men think otherwise. But exercise of discretion upon great occasions in the House of Commons, is certainly no trifle at any time; much less in times whets great occasions occur daily, and when the govetnment of the country is (too much, perhaps, but is) essentially in the House of Commons.

" If I could have placed ibis power fairly in media, I would have conquered, or endeavoured to conquer, all my other kelings of reluctance. But to place

it, and to engage to maintain it, in his hands in whose it now is, and then to place myself order it, would have been not only a sacrifice of pride but an extinction of utility.

Leaving the literary merit of the work, does it contain sufficient elate to pass a full judgment upon the character of its hero and the causes of his success in life?—Scarcely. But it yields hints from which they may be jumped to; and to these topics we will now address ourselves.

WILLIAM WILBERFORCE was partly indebted for his position to the natural "gifts and graces" lie possessed,—not forgetting that he was born to an ample fortune. One, and not the least important of his natural advantages, was a tine voice. By his singing, lie not only made himself, in his youth, a social star at Hull, but

afterwards charmed the fashionables of London, and even the fas- tidious GEORGE the Fourth, as well as "took the prisoned souls" of the electors of Yorkshire, during his first canvass, "and lapped

them in Elysium." His speaking voice was clear, well and vari- ously modulated, and powerful enough to be distinctly heard in

the large open-air assemblies of freeholders at York. But it was in the fascination of his manners, we suspect, that his real power lay; for all parties agree in this particular. He must have had from nature those qualities which are termed in childhood winning owl affectionate—a combiaat on of the oily smooth,,,of the, " charming preacher " h the willies, of a nun, animated by a play NI vivacity entirely his own. He had also a constant flow of spirits, great powers of adapting himself to the present company with much pleasantry of manner and some of matter. His sone his friends talk of his wit, but we have not met with any thing strictly answering to the term. The nearest appreack to it is a private sarcasm nu Ric ARO° for speaking in Parliament egainst the Society for the Suppression of Vice : " I hoped that --- had become a Christian ; I see now that lie has only ceased to be a Jew."

These qualities, set off by an elocution so naturally good that his schoolmaster used to make him read aloud as a model for the other boys, contributed chiefly to his celebrity as a speaker. He was assisted by a diffuse and flowing style, that called for no close attention on the part of his audience ; and, after his conver- sion, the application, with suavity and good taste, of the common- place truths of religion and morals to an audience not much con- versant with either, gave variety, solemnity, and the appearance of novelty to his speeches, and made them acceptable.* But he was no orator: he wanted matter, strength, and that individual character which ranks next to originality. Hence, his speeches were much more effective to hear than to read ; and, save in a few happy passages, their interest has altogether perished with the occasion. Of this effect he was conscious, but not of its cause; and his diaries are full of complaints of " the reporters."

These circumstances would have given WILBERFORCE weight in Parliament and soc:ety : they would not have enabled him to acquire, what he unquestionably had, "a greater power in the country than any man ever possessed who was not con- nected with a great party." But this point, which seems to have puzzled many persons, admits of an easy resolution. The public dread of the " bloody-minded Papists," which had commenced with the reign of Mary, was greatly diminished when the cause of the STUARTS became hopeless; and, as an absolute mania, died away when the French Revolutionists had taken R um: and commenced an attack upon all religions. No profligate politician could any longer gain religious support by mere denunciations of the Scarlet Lady, whilst religion itself had become more vital, and therefore more exacting than heretofore. This fruitful harvest ripened for Womeaeoecx. At the close of the eighteenth cen- tury, the Meth, tbsts had grace abounding and teachers in plenty. In the mutter of wealth, or doctors of divinity, they were not defi- cient ; but they wanted a Parliament man, to give them a stand- ing and an organ in the Senate: and they found it in the newly- ret urned Member for Yorkshire. He thus became the leader of a more zealous, a better-organized, and, so far as intellect goes, a more easily satisfied body, than any mere political party ; and his connexion with the abolition of the Slave-trade rendered him famous as a friend or a foe all over the Colonial world.

The influence of Mr. WILBERFORCE was augmented by his Parliamentary tactics. He was of no party "—an independent man ; and as his vote, with the votes he could command, was always doubtful when most wanted, his opinion was watched with anxiety and received with attention. His conduct upon many oc-

casions, perhaps upon all great crises, exposed him to double sus- picion: the Opposition thought he was playing the Minister's game, and the Ministry thought him self-seeking or equivocal. There is no doubt, as a writer in Tait remarks, that his conscience and his convenience very often marvellously coincided ; but a close examination of his character not only explains these anoma- lies, but gives a general key to his life and opinions. WILBERFORCE does not seem to have been gifted by nature with much power of analysis; and this defect had not been remedied by education. The neglect of his tutors at the University—his early introduction into life, and his constant engagements of plea- sure and business, fostered a dissipated habit of mind, which BROUGHAM speaks of in a very able paper in the Edinburgh Re- view ; of which he himself complains, and which peeps out in his diaries in the list of incongruous books he must have dipped into, one after the other, without the possibility of reading them through, much less of studying them. Hence resulted an incapa- city to comprehend the complicated or obscure. Upon questions of novelty he had no opinion of his own; when he seemed most original, he was in reality resting upon authority; and in despite of the prayers or fastings which he was wont to engage in upon votes of daculty, it was not the promptings of tevelation, but of his own disposition, which finally decided him. Standing, per- haps, upon the celebrated Thirteenth Chapter of St. Paul to the

Romans, he held it to be his duty to give a general support to Government; and this he gave unflinchingly upon all mixed

questions, or upon questions whose avowed object was to main- tain order. He voted with PITT upon his acts for suspending the Habeas Corpus and the right of meeting and discussion: be sup- ported CASTLEREAGH in his Gagging Bills, and through all the proceedings consequent upon the Manchester Massacre; and, like a modern "Liberal," privately

"Weeping, murmuring, and complaining"

on the conduct and inefficiency of the Governments of his day, he still supported them publicly. But he opposed Perr's hopeless continuance of the Revolutionary war—upon Christian principles; he voted against lalio.vo.LE for appropriating the public moneyt- as a point of honesty; and expressed disapprobation of St MOUTH employment of spies and informers—as very immoral.

• "I spoke with acceptance."—Lahr parts of the Diaries.

His conduct upon the Slave-trade is resolvable in the same way. The countless but complicated abuses under his nose, he passed over, for he knew not how to remedy them ; perhaps, from cus- tom, he could not see them. He voted for the Corn-laws, (he was a!andowner himself,) without caring for their effects.

a See, left but life enough and breathing-room, The hunger and the hope of life to feel, Yon pale mechanic bending o'er his loom, And childhood's self as at lxion's wheel, From morn till midnight tarik'd to earn its little meal,"

was hardly a sight that shecked him, for he was " native mid to the manner born." But the Blacks were a long way off; the dis- tant wisely filled his mind, for he saw it exaggerated by haze, and without the countervailing circumstances of custom, nature, and obtuseness, which act as drawbacks : he had also a strong party to back him in his advocacy,* :sod at first no opposition to encounter amongst his friends and compeers; for PITT, Fox, and BURKE all spoke and voted with him ; from the very beginning. The same mental defect is visible in his management of the question. ue He did not comprehend the e nature or see to the but- torn of Negro Slasery ; so fe prescribed for symptoms. First of all, the abolition of the British trade was the grand panacea ; that made matters no better as regarded the treatment of the slaves in the Colonies, and he became an Abolitionist; the middle passage it made worse, and he then tried to wheedle Govere- ment to wheedle Foreign Governments to put an end to it, without much effect. Allowing for the growing humanity c.f the age, it may be questioned whether the Negro race has benefited much by the efforts of WILBERFORCE. He has turned an open trade, capable of regulation, into an illicit intercourse, which cannot admit of it, and aggravated the horrors of the voyage; whilst, whatever discouragement has been given to cultivation in our own colonies,—which an honest Government could have con- trolled,—has been the cause of fresh importations in other coun- tries, over which we have no control whatever. Even what he did, he managed weakly. His abler coadjutor and brother-in-law, Mr. STEPHEN, quickly saw through the hollowness of Ministerial professions, and urged WI I.1JERFOuCE to cease finessing and coquet- ting with great men, and throw himself wholly upon the public. This, however, Mr. STEPHEN never could persuade him to do, even when he set the example by resigning his own seat (a Minis- terial borough) in order to act freely. But, whatever the faults of his public life might have been, WILLIAM WILBERFORCE was no vulgar self-seeker. Favour for himself or for his family he neither solicited nor received ; though situations of emolument no doubt were in his power, and a peer- age he might have had for asking, at least from PITT.

As a private man, he was unblemished : of boundless charity, of unimpeachable integrity, of strict morality, of wide sympathies and affections, but perhaps not of very deep feelings. They lost children, and whilst his wife was sorrowing over the anniversaries of their deaths, he was occupying himself in writing commonplace

reflections in his diary. One anecdote seems to show, that whilst engaged in plans of universal philanthropy., he was rather neglect- ful as a parent. When he took up one of his infants one day, the child cried ; and the nurse, by way of excuse, remarked—" He always cries at strangers, Sir." This touched him ; and he im- proved the rebuke. It was probably the eventual cause of his withdrawal from representing Yorkshire.

The close of his life was dashed with worldly misfortunes ; but they served to bring out the better and brighter parts of his cha- racter. The ill success of his eldest son in some business specu- lations, compelled him, unless he had accepted the spontaneous offers of many individuals, one of them a West Indian, to reside alternately with his other sons. And he bore this altered state with the firmness of a philosopher and the cheerfulness of a Chris- tian.

• Ilia sons have engaged in a eontroversT touching the respective merit of Wrintaroaca and CLARICsON in originating the Slave.trade abolition. It belongs to neither one nor the other, and would have sprung up without them. In 1772, GRANVILIA SHARPE proved slavery illegal in England. In 1783, PORTIL'S preached against the Slave-trade. In 1784, the Reverend Mr. RAMSAY published a pamphlet against it. The University of Cambridge, in 1785, made the question a subject for a prise; which first suggested it to CLARKION. And it was the talk of the tea-tables at the time; through one of which indeed, according to Laramie, it was urged upon Wrasearoaca, who took time to consider it in 1788, and only brought it forward afterwards, on Lading Perr and Gazavir.t.s favourable to it.