between that and the session of 1791, and the French Revolution was filling the nation with tumultuous emotions. The opponents of all change openly extended their conservatism to the commerce they had before sustained only by indifference. The pigmies of the House made war upon its Titans from before and behind the Government benches; and inflicted on them defeat, by a hundred and sixty-three to sixty-eight. The country was appealed to by the discouraged Abolitionists. Agitation was organized, and petitions everywhere got up. But accounts arrived that the Girondists had proclaimed themselves the friends of the black as well as of the white man, and that the negroes of St. Domingo had emancipated themselves by insurrection. The "good" King took alarm, and propelled it downwards. To excite "pity for poor Africans" was declared, justly enough, to be too much like arguing for "the rights of man," to be sanctioned by any loyal citizen-religion, property, and order, were more concerned in resisting Jacobinism than in suppressing the slave-trade. Pitt counselled postponement-the bishops and clergy hung back-and the hearty strength of the Abolitionist cause was, quite naturally, displaying its democratic sympathies. But Wilberforce would consent to no delay. His motion for immediate abolition, though supported with unsurpassed eloquence by Fox and Pitt, was defeated; and he was obliged to consent to another, for gradual abolition, which was carried in the Commons, with an amendment changing the period of abolition from 1800 to 1796, but thrown over by the Lords. To support his friends in that House, Wilberforce moved in the Commons, early in 1793, for a further consideration of the subject; but losing his motion by a majority of eight, the Lords dallied with witnesses through the whole session. In 1794 he carried in the Commons a bill to suppress the foreign trade—that is, the employment of British ships in conveying slaves to other than our own settlements. Through the next five years he was regularly beaten, by small majorities. The three following years he spent in privately urging the Addington Ministry to attempt a convention with the continental governments for the suppression of the trade, which the French ambassador, during the brief peace, assured him Bonaparte was willing to accomplish. Pitt returned to office with a resolution to atone for the comparative lukewarmness of his support during his last half-dozen years of power; and the result was seen in a majority of one hundred and twenty-four to forty-nine for immediate abolition [May 30th, 1804]. But the Lords were still obstructive, and the bill was "hung up" till next session. As that approached, Pitt begged for the deferment of this, as one of the questions that might divide his now dwindling majorities. Wilberforce, as usual, conscientiously refused, and suffered an utterly unexpected and dispiriting defeat. Fox espoused the cause with all the warmth of his heart when he took office, and

engaged to silence the Prince of Wales, at least, of "all the Guelphs." Two bills were introduced-one in either House, to prevent miscarriage-for the suppression of the foreign slave-trade; and when they were safe, a resolution pledging the House to the main question was carried triumphantly in the Commons. Fox's death perilled the great cause once more; for in the next session the royal dukes resumed their opposition, and the peers, led on by Sidmouth and Eldon, threatened renewed resistance. But Lord Grenville was faithful and resolute, and the crisis of the struggle was over. A later stage of the measure-when it "came from the Lords"- -was a complete ovation [February 23rd, 1807]. Sir Samuel Romilly closed his speech with an allusion which startled the House from its ordinary habits, and covered its subject with the blush of humility. "He entreated young members of Parliament to let this day's event be a lesson to them, how much the rewards of virtue exceeded those of ambition; and then contrasted the feelings of the Emperor of the French, in all his greatness, encircled with kings, with those of the honoured individual who would this day lay his head upon his pillow, and remember that the slave-trade was no more." Three cheers, such as seldom salvoed the triumph of party, saluted the victorious philanthropist. Congratulations poured in from every quarter. Mackintosh wrote from the East Indies, whither he had gone as a judge, "To speak of fame and glory to Mr. Wilberforce would be to use language far beneath him; but he will surely consider the effect of his triumph on the fruitfulness of his example. Who knows whether the greater part of the benefit that he has conferred on the world (the greatest that any individual has had the means of conferring) may not be the encouraging example that the exertions of virtue may be crowned by such splendid success." "How wonderful are the ways of God!" ejaculates the pious subject of these well-deserved laudations, in allusion to the political changes which his own special work had survived and triumphed over-“ how are we taught to trust not in man but in Him!" With no more appropriate reflection can we close this brief record of his great labours and glorious success.

CHAPTER VI.

THE CATHOLIC QUESTION CABINET CHANGES GENERAL ELECTION- PERCEVAL, CASTLEREAGH, HUSKISSON, AND CANNING-CAMPAIGNS PRECEDING THE TREATY OF TILSIT-BERLIN DECREES AND ORDERS IN COUNCIL.

THE Catholic question was fast gaining its reputation for cabinetbreaking-it had terminated, ostensibly at least, Pitt's lease of office; it was now about to destroy the Fox-Grenville ministry. The death of Fox only necessitated a general shifting of seats among the party, the last vacant being taken by his nephew, Lord Holland—a young nobleman who had well distinguished himself in about the worst House of Peers that ever sat. An appeal was made to the country by a general election, in the hope of strengthening the Liberal portion of the Cabinet, but without much effect. They had taken office, it seems, without any stipulation as to religious disabilities; intending to attempt their mitigation with or without the royal consent. They proceeded to govern Ireland in that spirit of impartiality which is the redeeming feature of Whig administrations; and excited that virulent hostility from the Protestant faction which it is their honour to have provoked. They even dared—as though unable to refrain from spoiling well-doing-to increase the grant to Maynooth. On the 5th of March [1807] Lord Howick moved for leave to bring in a bill for securing to all his Majesty's subjects the privilege of serving in the army or navy, without religious distinctions; for Parliament in 1793 had enacted the wretched anomaly, that while in Ireland Catholics might hold commissions under the rank of a general, in England they could hold no post but that of a private. The bill was read a first time, in spite of the opposition of Perceval; and the second reading fixed for that day week. Then Lord Howick requested a further postponement, and again the week after. It afterwards came out, that here the King interposed. Ministers offered to modify the measure, but liberty to do so was refused, and a written promise required never again to moot the Catholic question to his Majesty. The disgraceful condition was indignantly rejected—and, that the odium might rest in the right quarter, Grenville and his colleagues resolved not to resign, but to await a dismissal. And it came without delay. The bigoted tyrant who would suffer a ministry to proceed with a measure-as Grenville declared, without contradiction, the King had done with this; returning to: them a draft of its provisions without comment or objection-who would have "turned down from his advisers one corner of the map of the empire," for ›

all whose government they, and not he, were responsible-had no scruples in destroying the finest combination of statesmen and administrators ever beheld. They were all dismissed, except Sidmouth and Ellenborough. Nor could they regret to quit a service without freedom, and therefore without dignity. Erskine had the boldness, according to his own account, to tell the monarch he could never know another hour of tranquillity or comfort-but the ex-chancellor's vanity was at least equal to his courage and his love of place to that of principle: we have lived to see a larger edition of the character, and know its capabilities.

On the 25th of March the Ministers were dismissed. By the 31st the following, and other less important, appointments were announced-the Duke of Portland, First Lord of the Treasury; Lord Hawkesbury, Secretary for the Home Department; George Canning, Secretary for Foreign Affairs; Lord Castlereagh, Secretary for War and the Colonies; Spencer Perceval, Chancellor of the Exchequer; Lord Eldon, High Chancellor; and the Duke of Richmond, Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland. Lord Melville, having been acquitted by his peers, in the previous session, of the malpractices charged by the Commons, returned to the Privy Council. Henry Dundas was made President of the Board of Control, and George Rose supplanted poor Sheridan in the Treasurership of the Navy.

This precious compound of immobile mediocrity and purchased talent, was ostentatiously patronized by the Duke of Cumberland, in the name o. his reyal father. As Chancellor of the University of Dublin, he wrote to that body, urging petitions against the relief of the Catholics. The ducal premier wrote, in a similar capacity and in a similar strain, to the University of Oxford. Perceval went down to his constituents with boastful Protestantism on his lips. Wilberforce prostituted his influence with the religious public to the same intent, and set the non-political Christian Knowledge Society to scatter anti-papal tracts. The witty Harry Erskine, brother to the ex-Chancellor, wished Lord George Gordon were living, that he might have a place in the cabinet instead of the Tower. The gong thus struck, its bruta fulmina were soon resonant through the country. "No Popery" was shouted from every pulpit and press which bigotry could inspire or corruption command. Sapient corporations and parish officers scandalized democratic institutions by blurting forth the idiot cry. Charity boys and country louts chalked it upon dead walls, to be rewarded with money for gunpowder or beer. Parliament was dissolved [April, 1807]— though it had existed but seventeen weeks, and though the obsequious Commons refused, by a majority of forty-six, to censure the dismissal of the ministry whose distinctive measures they had approved—that a general, septennial election might consolidate this floating foam. Both parties outdid their former feats of bribery and intimidation in the struggle. Immense

sums were expended to retain or win seats. Wilberforce had resolved to resign York county, terrified at the expense, and was indebted for it to the zeal of his friends, who subscribed about forty thousand pounds, and spent eighteen thousand; two other candidates spending two hundred thousand. Tierney was unable to get a borough for ten thousand pounds. The new ministry gained greatly by the dissolution—as was certain from their unlimited command of crown influence and public money; and after one or two trials of strength, parliament was prorogued.

Before resuming that continuous view of military and naval operations which we have hitherto kept up, we may here pause to observe those new men who have now risen to be uppermost. Spencer Perceval was born in 1762, the second son of the Earl of Egmont. The landless scion of a poor house, he betook himself with great industry and considerable talent to the legal profession; and was so fortunate as to attract, by a pamphlet on the Warren Hastings case, the attention of Mr. Pitt, who was ever on the look-out to supply from the ranks of clever aspirants the dearth of ability among his aristocratic clients. He had first procured for him the deputy-recordership and then the representation of Northampton. His professions were those of staunch Conservative Protestantism, which soon commended him to the King, as those of Addington had done. He was successively Solicitor and Attorney General under Pitt and Addington, and was advanced to Lord Henry Petty's vacant chair, the Exchequer Chancellorship, on the downfal of the Fox administration; lured from his lucrative profession-which it was no trifle to a needy man to resign, while ministries were thus mutative —by the offer of the perpetual Chancellorship of Lancaster; which occasioned some sharp debates in parliament. His colleague, Lord Castlereagh, was seven years younger-an Irish nobleman, hotly patriotic in his youth, sitting in the Irish Commons for the county of Down; converted by governmental influence, and transferred to the British parliament; but sent back, as Chief Secretary to the Lord-Lieutenant, to effect the Union. He retained office, with Perceval, under Addington; but was less a Tory than either -participating Pitt's conviction of the necessity, for state purposes, of emancipating Catholicism; and sharing his arbitrary disposition while only copying his imperious manner: a second-rate despot, not without occasional "compunctious visitings." Jenkinson, younger son of the Earl of Liverpool, gained some distinction in the lower House before taking the seat vacated by the death of his brother. Huskisson held a subordinate office, recommended by his financial abilities, which he nourished by the free-trade doctrines on which he had begun to feed. But the unruly master-spirit of this ill-assorted company was George Canning. The son of a poor barrister, who died young, and of a mother who took to the stage for the support of herself and her fatherless son-whose devotion to her in after life, on his way