After a few pages of general introduction, which might, perhaps, have been omitted with advantage, the author commences his history by an eloquent and dramatick representation of the evils belonging to the slave trade, with respect to the Africans, in its three principal stages. First, on the continent of Africa; secondly, in the middle passage; thirdly, in the West Indies and the adjoining colonies. This is followed by a well reasoned and affecting counterpart of the evil, in the grievous effects of this trade on those who are employed in carrying it on. First, on the masters and men of the slave ships; next, on the factors and those employed in purchasing or seizing the unhappy victims; and, lastly, on the planters and owners of slaves, and on the countries in general in which slavery is established. We have, indeed, always been of opinion, that too little stress has been laid on this part of the subject. The sufferings of the Africans were calculated, no doubt, to make a more rapid and violent impression on the imaginations and bodily sympathies of men; but the dreadful depravity that of necessity was produced by it on the immediate agents of the injustice; and the further influence of such corruption on the morals of countries that are in habits of constant commercial intercourse, and who speak the same language; these, though not susceptible of colours equally glaring, do yet form a more extensive evil,—an evil more certain, and of a more measurable kind. These are evil in the form of guilt; evil in its most absolute and most appropriate sense; that sense to which the sublimest teachers of moral wisdom, Plato, Zeno, Leibnitz, have confined the appellation; and which, therefore, on a well disciplined spirit, will make an impression deeper than could have been left by mere agony of body, or even anguish of mind; in proportion as vice is more hateful than pain; eternity more awful than time. To this may be added, the fatal effects on national morals, from the publick admission of principles professedly incompatible with justice and from the implied disavowal of any obligation paramount to that of immediate expediency, compared with which even state-hypocrisy may not have been without its good effects. Those who estimate all measures, institutions and everts, exclusively by their palpaple and immediate effects, are little qualified to trace, and less inclined to believe, the ceaseless agency of those subtler causes to which the philosopher attributes the deterioration of national character. Yet history will vouch for us, if we affirm, that no government ever avowedly acted on immoral principles (as, for instance, the Prussian, since the accession of their Frederick the unique, as the Germans style him, and the court of France from the administration of Richelieu) without inducing a proportional degradation in the virtue and dignity of the individuals who form the mass of the nation.

Consistently with this conviction, our author, though least of all men insensible of the meritorious efforts of legislators acting in their legislative capacity, yet commences and concludes his history in one and the same spirit, every where aiming to establish the dignity and importance of individual minds, as the ultimate causes of moral phenomena, good or evil. Hence his conscientious anxiety to trace, from the earliest times, those who, by bearing publick testimony concerning the iniquity of this trade, had produced that state of knowledge and feeling throughout society, which was an indispensable condition of legislative interference for its removal. Hence, too, his amiable and cheerful faith, that all is safe, that all is virtually effected (igyasai, as Medea says in Euripides) when the good and intelligent part of the community have united in the same conviction. This is, indeed, the more amiable, since, great as was the effect of his own "Essay on the Impolicy of the Slave Trade;" yet, his indefatigable, personal labours form the more prominent and unusual characteristick of his fame. His writings, as well as the evidences

adduced to the legislature, and the facts so eloquently managed by the great parliamentary advocates for the abolition, were but the results of those, perhaps unexampled, personal exertions.

It is a peculiar advantage of this subject, that the history of the abolition of the slave trade involves the history of the trade itself; as the manifestation of its rise and progress, by the detail of attested facts, and by the arguments deduced from them, furnished the sole weapons with which the friends of human nature could carry on their contest, or hope for final sueThe history of the evil, therefore, and the history of its removal, though in themselves perfectly distinct, are not only compatible with the strictest unity of plan, but necessarily lead to it. And well may we deem both the one and the other awfully impressive: for the victory can scarcely prove more beneficent than the combat was arduous, the struggle obstinate.

cess.

This difficulty our author has stated with equal conciseness and energy. Many evils, says he, of a publick nature, which existed in former times, were the offspring of ignorance and superstition, and they were subdued, of course, by the progress of light and knowledge. But the evil in question began in avarice. It was nursed also by worldly interest. It did not, therefore, so easily yield to the usual correctives of disorders in the world. We may observe also, that the interest by which it was thus supported, was not that of a few individuals, nor of one body, but of many bodies of men. It was interwoven again into the system of the commerce and of the revenue of nations. Hence the merchant-the planter-the mortgagee-the manufacturer-the politician-the legislator-the cabinet-minister-lifted up their voices against the an. nihilation of it.

This trade seems to have been begun as early as the year 1503, when a few slaves were sent from the Portuguese settlements in Africa into the Spanish colonies in America In 1511, it was greatly enlarged by Ferdinand the Fifth of Spain; and the benevolent Bartholomew de las Casas, blinded by anguish of compassion for the poor American Indians, proposed to the government of Spain, then administered by cardinal Ximenes, during the minority of Charles the Fifth, the establishment of a regular commerce in the persons of the native Africans. "The cardinal, however (says our author) with a foresight, a benevolence, and a justice, which will always do honour to his memory, rejected the proposal; not only judging it to be unlawful to consign innocent people to slavery at all, but to be very inconsistent to deliver the inhabitants of one country from a state of misery by consigning it to those of another. Ximenes, therefore, may be considered as one of the first great friends of the Africans, after the partial beginning of the trade."

It is no less pleasant to consider, that in the two nations to which the larger portion of this commerce belongs, it was first introduced by a base imposition on the government. Louis the Thirteenth was duped by assu rances, that the main object of the adventurers was to facilitate the conversion of the poor Africans to Christianity: and our Elizabeth, suspecting the truth of the fine tales told to her of the redemption of poor victims from cruel deaths, and their eagerness to emigrate to happier lands, "expressed her concern lest any of the Africans should be carried off without their free consent, declaring that it would be detestable, and call down the vengeance of heaven upon the undertakers."

Thus our author proceeds to prove, that from the very commencement of the trade to the first combination for its abolition,-from the truly great cardinal Ximenes to the illustrious ministers Pitt and Fox, there were never wanting voices to declare its iniquity: that the best and most active good men, in the most different sects of religious or political opinion, had united their suffrages and efforts against this affrightful piracy, impudently enti

tled commerce, whenever they were made acquainted with its real state. To the testimonies of these men, aided by the spread of moral knowledge, the extension of education, and the general increase of readers, our author has justly ascribed that state of the publick mind, which has so eminently favoured and supported the good cause; and which, but for the delays occasioned by its unblushing but too powerful antagonists, must (as the facts contained in the two last chapters of the first volume clearly prove) have succeeded in storming and demolishing this fabrick of iniquity at the first attack. These names, whether of statesmen or of authors, from our author's first class, viz. that of the individuals who, by enlightening the publick mind, and kindling the publick feelings, produced, as it were, the materials, which the associate bodies, constituting a second class, were enabled to employ and organize. From the catalogue of honoured names in the first class, we must select, as deserving of especial reverence, those of George Fox, the founder of the Society of Friends, and John Woolman, a quaker of unsectarian benevolence, and of principles truly evangelical.

The second class consists almost wholly of the quakers in two divisions, -the former division comprising the efforts of the whole as a religious body, the latter the efforts of those individual quakers, who were the first, and ever remained among the most active members of a committee for the abolition of the slave trade. In the year 1727, and still more strongly in the year 1758, the quakers, at their yearly meeting, and in their collective character, fervently warned all their members to avoid being any way concerned in this unrighteous commerce. In the yearly meeting of 1761, they proceeded to exclude from membership such as should be found directly concerned in this practice: and, in 1763, declared it to be criminal to aid and abet the trade in any manner, directly or indirectly. From this time there appears to have been an increasing zeal on this subject among the friends, so as to impel the society to step out of its ordinary course in behalf of their injured fellow men. Accordingly, in the month of June, 1783, the friends collectively petitioned the house of commons against the continuance of this traffick; and afterwards, both collectively and individually, exerted themselves by the press, by private correspondence, and by personal journies, to enlighten the minds of men concerning it, especially those of the rising generation. Indeed, by the frequent intercommunion of the missionary quakers from England to America, and America to England, the quakers had earlier and greater opportunities than any other body of men in Great Britain, of becoming acquainted with its horrours; while, from their religious principles, they were likely to be the first in becoming uneasy under the sense of its injustice. Three or four years prior to the establishment of that publick committee, to whose persevering efforts we undoubtedly owe the abolition of the slave trade, six quakers had been in the habit of meeting privately, for the purpose of exposing and discouraging it by all legal means. For this purpose, they had secured a place in two London, and in many provincial papers, for such essays as they deemed most likely to influence the minds of unprejudiced readers in favour of the object of their institution. In 1787, Mr. Clarkson, whose attention had been turned to the subject, as he ingenuously relates, in the first instance, wholly by academick ambition, there having been given out, as the theme of the bachelors' prize, in the university of Cambridge, " Anne licear invitos in servitutem dare ?" discovered the existence of this small but benevolent institution, and, joining himself with it, raised upon it the superstruc ture of the great publick committee, which appeared afterwards.

The publick efforts of Mr. Wilberforce, the sincere zeal and splendid eloquence of Mr. Fox, and of other senators in both houses, are so universally known and so properly estimated, that we shall content ourselves with ob→ serving, that the specimens of eloquence which are here given, were taken down with uncommon care, and will surprise and delight such readers as have taken their ideas of Pitt, Fox, and Wilberforce, as orators, exclusively from newspaper reports. We refer, with especial admiration, to the second speech of Mr. Wilberforce, on the 18th of April 1791, after the accumulation of evidence had rendered him perfectly master of the subject, vol. II. p. 212 to 255; to Mr. William Smith's, 281 to 299; to Mr. Pitt's, 304 to 317; to Mr. Fox's, 318 to 333; but, above all, to the admirable reply of this truly great man to the speeches of the then Messrs. Addington and Dundas in favour of moderate measures, 407 to 415. It is among the happiest productions of a rapid and vigorous intellect, called into action suddenly by the warmth of an honest and noble heart. The feeling seems all intellect,--the intellect all feeling. Never surely was the project of a medium between truth and falsehood, justice and injustice, rendered more completely ridiculous; nor the paltry wisdom of a narrow self-interest so withered and blasted by the lightnings of genius and virtue.

Without confining ourselves to our author's more complex classification, we have alluded to three of the four classes into which the abolitionists of the slave trade may be divided. The first, that of the individuals who, by writings or publick declarations, had prepared the minds of their countrymen for the abolition. The second, that of associate bodies, namely, the quakers in their collective capacity, and the committee who, during so many years, pursued this great object with such indefatigable energy. The third, that of the illustrious members of the legislature, who arranged themselves under Mr. Wilberforce, and preeminently that great and good man, among whose deathbed consolations the certainty of the complete abolition of the trade, as the result of his own short ministry, was (of all external events) the chief and most soothing. The merits of the last class, indeed, are already well known to the publick; and the details, both of it and of the two former, are ably and perspicuously given in their several places in these interesting volumes. We shall pay, therefore, a more minute attention to the fourth class, namely, that of the individuals, whose personal toils and unwearied efforts were not only highly conducive to the ultimate event, but were an indispensable condition of it. And this we feel especially a duty, because, from motives of delicacy, one of the most meritorious has been prevented from stating his own services as clearly and prominently as, for the benefit of mankind, they ought to have been stated. The gratitude which we feel to the illustrious benefactors of our race, ennobles our own hearts. It is a debt, the payment of which enriches the mind which discharges it. We participate of the goodness and greatness which we learn habitually to love and admire.

At the head of this list unquestionably stands the name of Mr. Wilberforce a name already sanctified and immortalized in the memories of all good men, and to which, in any quarter of the world, it would be impertinent to annex any eulogium. He it was who first brought the evil to light, and ceased not until he pursued it to justice. He it was, who, for twenty long years, watched day and night over the sacred flame which his eloquence had kindled, and cherished and kept it alive when, chilled by an atmosphere of false policy, and blown upon by the breath of corruption, it sickened, and almost ceased to glow; nay, when the broader glare of other fires drew away from it the eyes of all men, he kept it steadily in view, and

sent it forth at last to consume the scourges and fetters of oppression, and to purify and enlighten a benighted world. Mr. Wilberforce indubitably has been the great captain of the abolitionists; and without his courage, and skill, and unwearied perseverance, their cause must long since have been lost and abandoned.

Next to him, we think it a duty to mention the name of Mr. Granville Sharp, the cause and occasion of whose exertions in this great work, are related with much feeling and simplicity, vol. I. pp. 63 to 79. Regardless of the dangers to which he exposed himself, both in his person and his fortune, Mr. Sharp stood forward in every case as the courageous friend of the poor Africans in England, in direct opposition to an opinion of York and Talbot, the attorney and solicitor general for the time being. This opinion had been acted upon; and so high was its authority, that, after it had been made 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 recognised 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