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 Steele, &c. I felt queer, and all day out of breaking out of the war, negotiating with the spirits-wrong! but hurt by the idea of Pitt's principal European powers, for the purpose alienation-12th, party of the old firm at the of obtaining a joint representation to France, Speaker's! I not there." 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 maturely, and, therefore, slowly as to the best conduct to be observed by Great Britain in the present critical emergency. With what a severe self-examination he was accustomed to conduct these inquiries, may be learnt from an entry made at that period in his private journal. "It is a proof to me of my secret ambition, that though I foresee how much I shall suffer in my feelings throughout from differing from Pitt, and how indifferent a figure I shall most likely make, yet that motives of ambition will insinuate themselves. Give me, O Lord, a true sense of the comparative value of earthly and of heavenly things; this will render me sober-minded, and fix my affections on things above."

Pitt at any period of their lives. Though the minister was "furious" on the occasion, he voted and spoke against the motion for augmenting the income of the Prince of Wales. Though fully anticipating the ridicule which was the immediate consequence of the attempt, he moved the House of Commons to interfere for the liberation of Lafayette, when confined in the jail of Olmuky. Though, at the sug gestion of Bishop Prettyman, Mr. Pitt pledged himself to introduce a bill which would have silenced every dissenting minister to whom the magistrates might have thought proper to refuse a license, Mr. Wilberforce resisted, and with eventful success, this encroachment on the principles of toleration. Though the whole 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

reproachfully to him from the treasury bench, | ble to contemplate without some degree of he delivered one of the most memorable of his pain. It was his habit to note, in the most parliamentary speeches,-in which the stern- careless and elliptical language, every passing est principles of public morality were so occurrence, however trivial, apparently as a touchingly combined with compassion for the mere aid to recollection. But his journals errors he condemned, that the effect was irre- also contain the results of a most unsparing sistible; and the casting vote of the speaker self-examination, and record the devotional can scarcely be said with greater truth to have feelings with which his mind was habitually determined the decision of the house. Nothing possessed. They bear that impress of perfect more truly in the spirit of the pure and lofty sincerity, without which they would have been principles by which he was guided is recorded altogether worthless. The suppression of them of him, than his defence to the charge of incon- would have disappointed the expectations of a sistency for declining to join the deputation very large body of readers; and the sacred which carried up to the king the subsequent profession of the editors gives peculiar authoaddress for the removal of Lord Melville from rity to their judgment as to the advantage of the royal councils. "I am a little surprised such disclosures. To their filial piety the that it should be imputed as a fault to any that whole work, indeed almost every line of it, they did not accompany the procession to St. bears conclusive testimony. We feel, howJames's. I should have thought that men's ever, an invincible repugnance to the transfer own feelings might have suggested to them into these pages of the secret communings of that it was a case in which the heart might be a close self-observer with his Maker. The permitted to give a lesson to the judgment. Church of Rome is wise in proclaiming the My country might justly demand that, in my sanctity of the confessional. The morbid anadecision on Lord Melville's conduct, I should tomy of the human heart (for such it must be governed by the rules of justice, and the appear to every one who dares to explore its principles of the constitution, without suffer- recesses) is at best a cheerless study. It would ing party considerations, personal friendship, require some fortitude in any man to state or any extrinsic motive whatever to interfere; how much of our mutual affection and esteem that in all that was substantial I should deem depends upon our imperfect knowledge of myself as in the exercise of a judicial office. each other. The same creative wisdom which But when the sentence of the law is past, is shelters from every human eye the workings not that sufficient? Am I to join in the exe- of our animal frame, has not less closely cution of it? Is it to be expected of me that I shrouded from observation the movements of am to stifle the natural feelings of the heart, our spiritual nature. The lowly and contrite and not even to shed a tear over the very sen- spirit is a shrine in which he who inhabiteth tence I am pronouncing? I know not what eternity condescends to dwell, but where we Spartan virtue or stoical pride might require; at least are accustomed to regard every other but I know that I am taught a different, ay, presence as profane. There is, we think, and a better lesson by a greater than either great danger in such publications. For one Lycurgus or Zeno. Christianity enforces no man who, like Mr. Wilberforce, will honestly such sacrifice. She requires us indeed to do lay bare his conscience on paper, there are at justice, but to love mercy. I learnt not in her least one hundred, living with the fear or the school to triumph even over a conquered ene- hope of the biographer before their eyes, who my, and must I join the triumph over a fallen will apply themselves to the same task in a friend?" very different spirit. The desire of posthu mous, or of living fame, will dictate the acknowledgment of faults, which the reader is to regard as venial, while he is to admire the sagacity with which they are dictated, and the tenderness of conscience with which they are deplored. We may be wrong; but both experience and probability seem to us to show that the publication of the religious journals of one honest man, is likely to make innumerable hypocrites.

We might, with the aid of these volumes, trace Mr. Wilberforce's political career through all the memorable controversies of his times, and prove, beyond the reach of contradiction, that every vote was given under such a sense of responsibility to the Supreme Lawgiver as raised him above the influence of those human affections, which scarcely any man felt more keenly. He was supported by the acclamations of no party, for in turn he resisted all. Even the great religious bodies who acknowledged him as their leader were frequently dissatisfied with a course which, while it adorned their principles, conceded nothing to their prejudices. The errors into which he may have fallen were in no single case debased by any selfish motive, and were ever on the side of peace and of the civil and religious liberties of mankind.

But those indications of human character which it chiefly concerns us to study, are not, after all, to be discovered in places where men act together in large masses, and under strong excitement. Mr. Wilberforce's interior life is exhibited in this biography with a minuteness of self-dissection which we think hardly possi

The domestic life of Mr. Wilberforce is a delightful object of contemplation, though it cannot be reduced into the form of distinct narration. From his twenty-sixth year his biography consists rather of a description of habits than of a succession of events. No man had less to do with adventure, or was more completely independent of any such resource. The leisure which he could withdraw from the service of the public was concentrated upon his large and happy household, and on the troops of friends who thronged the hospitable mansion in which he lived in the neighbourhood of London.

The following sketch of his domestic retirement possesses a truth which will be at once

recognised by every one who was accustomed to associate with him in such scenes:

Who that ever joined him in his hour of daily exercise, cannot see him now as he walked round his garden at Highwood, now in animated and even playful conversation, and then drawing from his copious pockets (to contain Dalrymple's State Papers was their standard measure) a Psalter, a Horace, a Shakspeare, or Cowper, and reading or reciting chosen passages, and then catching at long stored flower leaves as the wind blew them from the pages, or standing by a favourite gumcistus to repair the loss. Then he would point out the harmony of the tints, the beauty of the pencilling and the perfection of the colouring, and sum up all into those ascriptions of praise to the Almighty which were ever welling from his grateful heart. He loved flowers with all the simple delight of childhood. He would hover from bed to bed over his favourites, and when he came in, even from his shortest walk, he deposited a few that he had gathered safely in his room before he joined the breakfast table. Often he would say as he enjoyed their fragrance, How good is God to us. What should we think of a friend who had furnished us with a magnificent house and all we needed, and then coming in to see that all had been provided according to his wishes, should he be hurt to find that no scents had been placed in the rooms? Yet so has God dealt with us-lovely flowers are the smiles of his goodness.'"

The following letter to one of his children exhibits Mr. Wilberforce in one of those racters in which he excelled most men:

"Battersea Rise, Sept. 14, 1814.

assure him that I am to-day, to-morrow, and
always while I exist, his affectionate father.
"W. WILBERFORCE."

Mr. Wilberforce excelled in the arts of hos pitality, and delighted in the practice of them. His cordial welcome taught the most casual guest to feel that he was at home; and the mass of his friends and acquaintance could scarcely suppose that there was a domestic sanctuary still more sacred and privileged than that into which they were admitted. Amongst them are not a few obscure, with some illustrious names; and of the latter Mr. Pitt is by far the most conspicuous.

There is no one filling so large a space in recent history as Mr. Pitt, with whose private habits the world is so little acquainted. These volumes do not contribute much to dispel the obscurity. We find him indeed at one time passing an evening in classical studies or amusements with Mr. Canning; and at another, cutting walks through his plantations at Hol wood, with the aid of Mr. Wilberforce and Lord Grenville. But on the whole, the William Pitt of this work is the austere minister with whom we were already acquainted, and not the man himself in his natural or in his emancipated state.

The following extract of a letter from Mr. Wilberforce is almost the only passage which gives us an intimation of the careless familiarity in which for many years they lived together:

"And now after having transacted my business with the minister, a word or two to the cha-man-a character in which, if it is more pleasant to you, it is no less pleasant to me to address you. I wish you may be passing your time half as salubriously and comfortably as I am at Gisborne's, where I am breathing good air, eating good mutton, keeping good hours, and enjoying the company of good friends. You have only two of the four at command, nor these always in so pure a state as in Needwood Forest; your town mutton being apt to be woolly, and your town friends to be interested: however, I sincerely believe you are, through the goodness of Providence, better off in the latter particular, than has been the fate of ninety-nine ministers out of a hundred; and as for the former, the quantity you lay in may in some degree atone for the quality; and it is a sign that neither in friends nor mutton you have yet lost your taste. Indeed, I shall reckon it a bad symptom of your moral or corporal state, as the case may be, when your palate is so vitiated, that you cannot distinguish the true from the false flavour. All this is sad stuff, but you must allow us gentlemen who live in forests to be a little figurative. I will only add, however, (that I may not quite exhaust your patience,) that I hope you will never cease to relish me, and do me the justice to believe the ingredients are good, though you may not altogether approve of the cooking. Yours ever, "W. WILBERFORCE

"My very dear
"I do not relish the idea that you are the
only one of my children who has not written
to me during my absence, and that you should
be the only one to whom I should not write. I
therefore take up my pen, though but for a few
moments, to assure you that I do not suspect
your silence to have arisen from the want of
affection for me, any more than that which I
myself have hitherto observed has proceeded
from this source. There is a certain demon
called procrastination, who inhabits a castle in
the air at Sandgate, as well as at so many
other places, and I suspect that you have been
carried up some day (at the tail of your kite
perhaps) and lodged in that same habitation,
which has fine large rooms in it from which
there are beautiful prospects in all directions;
and probably you will not quit a dwelling-place
that you like so well, till you hear that I am on
my way to Sandgate. You will meet the to-
morrow man there, (it just occurs to me,) and
I hope you will have prevailed on him to tell
you the remainder of that pleasant story, a part
of which Miss Edgeworth has related, though
greatly fear he would still partake so far of the
spirit of the place as to leave a part untold till
-to-morrow. But I am trifling sadly, since I
am this morning unusually pressed for time, I
will therefore only guard my dear boy se-
riously against procrastination, one of the
most dangerous assailants of usefulness, and

I

P. S. Remember me to all friends. I hope you have no more gout, &c. If you will at any time give me a line (though it be but a mouthful) I shall be glad of it. You wil think me be-Burked like yourself."

On the occasion of Mr. Pitt's duel with Mr. | fete he gave me an account of the negotiations Tierney, Mr. Wilberforce had designed to bring the subject under the notice of the House of Commons. The intention was defeated by the following kind and characteristic letter: "My dear Wilberforce :

"I am not the person to argue with you on a subject in which I am a good deal concerned. I hope too that I am incapable of doubting your kindness to me (however mistaken I may think it,) if you let any sentiment of that sort actuate you on the present occasion. I must suppose that some such feeling has inadvertently operated upon you, because whatever may be your general sentiments on subjects of this nature, they can have acquired no new tone or additional argument from any thing that has passed in this transaction. You must be supposed to bring this forward in reference

to the individual case.

which had been on foot to induce him to enter Addington's administration. When they quitted office in 1801, Dundas proposed taking as his motto, Jam rude donatus. Pitt suggested to him that having always been an active man, he would probably wish again to come into office, and then that his having taken such a motto would be made a ground for ridicule. Dundas assented, and took another motto. Addington had not long been in office. before Pitt's expectation was fulfilled, and Dundas undertook to bring Pitt into the plan; which was to appoint some third person head, and bring in Pitt and Addington on equal terms under him. Dundas, accordingly, confiding in his knowledge of all Pitt's ways and feelings, set out for Walmer Castle; and after dinner, and Port wine, began cautiously to open his proposals. But he saw it would not do, and stopped abruptly. Really,' said Pitt with a sly severity, and it was almost the only sharp thing I ever heard him say of any friend, I had not the curiosity to ask what I was to be."

799

Amongst the letters addressed to Mr. Wilberforce, to be found in these volumes, is one written by John Wesley from his death-bed, on the day before he sank into the lethargy from which he was never roused. They are probably the last written words of that extraor dinary man.

"In doing so, you will be accessary in loadone of the parties with unfair and unmerited obloquy. With respect to the other party, myself, I feel it a real duty to say to you frankly that your motion is one for my removal. If any step on the subject is proposed in Parliament and agreed to, I shall feel from that moment that I can be of no more use out of office than in it; for in it according to the feelings I entertain, I could be of none. I state to you, as I think I ought, distinctly and explicitly what I feel. I hope I need not repeat what I always feel personally to yourself."My dear Sir, Your's ever, "Downing Street, Wednesday, May 30, 1798, 11 P. M."

WILLIAM PITT."

The following passage is worth transcribing as a graphic, though slight sketch of Mr. Pitt, from the pen of one who knew him so well:

"When a statement had been made to the ouse of the cruel practices approaching certainly to torture, by which the discovery of concealed arms had been enforced in Ireland, John Claudius Beresford rose to reply, and said with a force and honesty, the impression of which I never can forget, 'I fear, and feel deep shame in making the avowal-I fear it is too true-I defend it not-but I trust I may be permitted to refer, as some palliation of these atrocities, to the state of my unhappy country, where rebellion and its attendant horrors had roused on both sides to the highest pitch all the strongest passions of our nature.'

I was

with Pitt in the House of Lords when Lord Clare replied to a similar charge-Well, suppose it were so; but surely,' &c. I shall never forget Pitt's loo He turned round to me with that indignant stare which sometimes marked his countenance, and stalked out of the house."

It is not generally known that at the period of Lord Melville's trial a coolness almost approaching to estrangement had arisen between that minister and Mr. Pitt. The following extract from one of Mr. Wilberforce's Diaries on this subject affords an authentic and curious

illustration of Mr. Pitt's character:

"I had perceived above a year before that Lord Melville had not the power over Pitt's mind, which he once possessed. Pitt was taking me to Lord Camden's, and in our tete-a

"February 24, 1791.

"Unless Divine power has raised you up to be as Athanasius contra mundum, I see not how you can go through your glorious enterprise, in opposing that execrable villany which is the scandal of religion, of England, and of human nature. Unless God has raised you up for this very thing, you will be worn out by the opposition of men and devils; and if God be for you, who can be against you? Are all of them together stronger than God? Oh! be not weary of well-doing. Go on in the name of God, and in the power of his might, till even American slavery, the vilest that ever saw the sun, shall vanish away before it. That He who has guided you from your youth up, may continue to strengthen you in this and all things, is the prayer of, dear sir, your affectionate servant,

"JOHN WESLEY."