'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 will think me be-Burked like yourself.' On the occasion of Mr. Pitt's duel with Mr. 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, ville had not the power over Pitt's mind, which he once possessed. Pitt was taking me to Lord Camden's, and in our tête-à-tête he gave me an account of the negotiations which had been on foot to induce him to enter in 1801, Dundas proposed taking as his motto, Jam rude Addington's Administration. When they quitted office 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 '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 (how-in Pitt and Addington on equal terms under him. Dunever 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. das accordingly, confiding in his knowledge of all Pitt's 'In doing so, you will be accessary in loading one of 'Downing Street, Wednesday, May 30, 1798, 11 p.m.' 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: traordinary man. 'My dear Sir, '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; but 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 'When a statement had been made to the House of the name of God, and in the power of his might, till the cruel practices, approaching certainly to torture, by even American slavery, the vilest that ever saw the which the discovery of concealed arms had been en- sun, shall vanish away before it. That He who has forced in Ireland, John Claudius Beresford rose to re-guided you from your youth up, may continue to ply, and said with a force and honesty, the impression strengthen you in this and all things, is the prayer of, of which I never can forget, "I fear, and feel deep shame dear sir, your affectionate servant, 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 look. He turned round to me with that indignant stare which sometimes marked his coun tenance, 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: 'JOHN WESLEY.' From a very different correspondent, Jeremy Bentham, Mr. Wilberforce received two notes, for which, as they are the only examples we have seen in print of his epistolary style, we must find a place. Kind Sir, in the House or elsewhere, be pleased to take a spike"The next time you happen on Mr. Attorney-General the longer and sharper the better-and apply it to him, by way of memento, that the Penitentiary Contract Bill has, for I know not what length of time, been sticking in his hands; and you will much oblige your humble servant to command, 'JEREMY BENTHAM. 'N. B. A corking-pin was, yesterday, applied by Mr. Abbot.' 'I sympathize with your now happily promising ex'I had perceived above a year before that Lord Mel-ertions in behalf of the race of innocents, whose lot it VOL. XXXIII.-JULY, 1838. 41 There are, in this work, some occasional additions to the stock of political anecdotes. Of these we transcribe the following specimens: has hitherto been to be made the subject-matter of de- in themselves the most trivial, wearisome, or even ofpredation, for the purpose of being treated worse than fensive, had, in his solitude, assumed a solemn interest the authors of such crimes are treated for those crimes from their connection with the future destinies of manin other places.' kind, while the brilliant and alluring objects of human ambition had been brought into an humiliating contrast with the great ends for which life is given, and with the immortal hopes by which it should be sustained. Nothing can be more heartfelt than the delight with which he breathed the pure air of these devotional retirements. Nothing more soothing than the tranquillity which they diffused over a mind harassed with the vexations of a political life. Franklin signed the peace 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 by Wedderburne." He showed much rancour and personal enmity to this country-would not grant the common passports for trade, which were, however, easily got from Jay or Adams. Mr. Wilberforce retired from Parliament in the year 1825. The remainder of his life was passed in 'Dined with Lord Camden; he very chatty and plea- the bosom of his family. He did not entirely escape sant. Abused Thurlow for his duplicity and mystery. those sorrows which so usually thicken as the shadows Said the King had said to him occasionally he had grow long, for he survived both his daughters; and wished Thurlow and Pitt to agree; for that both were necessary to him-one in the Lords, the other in the from that want of worldly wisdom which always chaCommons. Thurlow will never do any thing to oblige racterized him, he lost a very considerable part of his Lord Camden, because he is a friend of Pitt's. Lord fortune in speculations in which he had nothing but Camden himself, though he speaks of Pitt with evi- the gratification of parental kindness to gain or to dent affection, seems rather to complain of his being too hope. But never were such reverses more effectually much under the influence of any one who is about him; particularly of Dundas, who prefers his countrymen baffled by the invulnerable peace of a cheerful and whenever he can. Lord Camden is sure that Lord Bute self-approving heart. There were not wanting exgot money by the Peace of Paris. He can account for his ternal circumstances which marked the change; but sinking near L.300,000 in land and houses; and his the most close and intimate observer could never perpaternal estate in the island which bears his name was ceive on his countenance even a passing shade of denot above L.1500 a-year, and he is a life-tenant only of Wortley, which may be L.8000 or L.10,000. Lord jection or anxiety on that account. He might, indeed, Camden does not believe Lord Bute has any the least have been supposed to be unconscious that he had lost connexion with the King now, whatever he may have any thing, had not his altered fortunes occasionally had. Lord Thurlow is giving constant dinners to the suggested to him remarks on the Divine goodness, by Judges, to gain them over to his party. ***** applied to by *****, a wretched sort of dependent of which the seeming calamity had been converted into a the Prince of Wales, to know if he would lend money blessing to his children and to himself. It afforded on the joint bond of the Prince and the Dukes of York him a welcome apology for withdrawing from society and Clarence, to receive double the sum lent, whenever at large, to gladden, by his almost constant presence, the King should die, and either the Prince of Wales, the Dukes of York and Clarence, come into the inheritance. The sum intended to be raised is L.200,000. "Tis only a hollow truce, not a peace, that is made between Thurlow and Pitt. They can have no confidence in each other.' was the homes of the sons by whom his life has been re- It is perhaps the most impressive circumstance in Mr. Wilberforce's character, that the lively interest with which he engaged in all these political occurrences was combined with a consciousness not less habitual or intense of their inherent vanity. There is a seeming paradox in the solicitude with which he devoted so much of his life to secular pursuits, and the very light esteem in which he held them. The solu- Looking back with gratitude, sometimes eloquent, but tion of the enigma is to be found in his unremitting more often from the depth of the emotion faltering on habits of devotion. No man could more scrupulously the tongue, to his long career of usefulness, of honour, obey the precept which Mr. Taylor has given to his and enjoyment, he watched with grave serenity the ebb 'statesman'-To observe a 'Sabbatical day in every of the current which was fast bearing him to his eternal week, and a Sabbatical hour in every day.' Those reward. He died in his seventy-fifth year, in undisdays and hours gave him back to the world, not merely turbed tranquillity, after a very brief illness, and without with recruited energy, but in a frame of mind the most any indication of bodily suffering. He was buried in favourable to the right discharge of its duties. Things Westminster Abbey, in the presence of a large number of the members of both Houses of Parliament; nor was the solemn ritual of the church ever pronounced over the grave of any of her children with more affecting or more appropriate truth. Never was recited, on a more fit occasion, the sublime benediction-'I heard a voice from Heaven saying, Write, blessed are the dead who die in the Lord, for they rest from their labours, and their works do follow them.' which The volumes to which we have been chiefly indebted for this very rapid epitome of some of the events of Mr. Wilberforce's life, will have to undergo a severe ordeal. There are numberless persons who assert a kind of property in his reputation, and who will resent as almost a personal wrong any exhibition of his character may fall short of their demands. We believe, however, though not esteeming ourselves the best possible judges, that even this powerful party will be satisfied. They will find in this portraiture of their great leader much to fulfil their expectations. Impartial judges will, we think, award to the book the praise of fidelity, and diligence, and unaffected modesty. Studiously withdrawing themselves from the notice of their readers, the biographers of Mr. Wilberforce have not sought occasion to display the fruits of their theological or literary studies. Their task has been executed with ability, and with deep affection. No one can read such a narrative without interest, and many will peruse it with enthusiasm. It'contains several extracts from Mr. Wilberforce's speeches, and throws much occasional light on the political history of England during the last half century. It brings us into acquaintance with a circle in which were projected and matured many of the great schemes of benevolence by which our age has been distinguished, and shows how partial is the distribution of renown in the world in which we are living. A more equal dispensation of justice would have awarded a far more conspicuous place amongst the benefactors of mankind to the names of Mr. Stephen and Mr. Macaulay, than has ever yet been assigned to them. Madame de Staël the declaration that he was the most eloquent and the wittiest converser she had met in England. But the memory of his influence in the councils of the state, of his holy character, and of his services to mankind,' rests upon an imperishable basis, and will descend with honour to the latest times. NOTE. We have awkwardly enough omitted to make any allusion, in this article, though the work forming its subject proceeds from two of his sons, to Mr. Wilberforce's marriage. To correct this oversight, we beg here to mention, that he married, in the year 1797, Miss Barbara Spooner, daughter of a banker of that name at Birmingham. By this lady he had six children, of whom four sons still survive, his two daughters having died before their father. From the Edinburgh Review. Diary illustrative of the times of George the Fourth, interspersed with original Letters from the late Queen Caroline, and from various other distinguished Persons. 2 vols. 8vo. Colburn. London: 1838, The appearance of this silly, dull, and disgraceful publication both calls for some remarks adapted to the offence itself, and affords an opportunity of entering upon the important subjects of the Abuses of the Press, and the Characters of the Individuals of whom the book treats. Various circumstances have concurred to make the restraints upon publicity far less effectual of late years than they ever were before; and in proportion to the greater liberty enjoyed from the diminished risk of legal proceedings, has been the increased license assumed by all who cater for the bad feelings, and bad taste of the public, in providing for its gratification, and swelling their own gains. Among the chief of these circumstances must, no doubt, be reckoned the rapid progress of free opinions, the conviction of the press's importance as an engine of public instruction, Biography, considered as an art, has been destroyed and a vehicle, above all, of political discussion; the by the greatest of all biographers, James Boswell. His aversion felt by all friends of liberty to impose any success must be forgotten before Plutarch or Isaac fetters upon this important agent of good, and the disWalton will find either rivals or imitators. Yet position thus produced to pass over its errors, and Memoirs, into which every thing illustrative of the pardon its abuse in consideration of its eminent usefulcharacter or fortunes of the person to be described is ness in the vast majority of instances. It thus became drawn, can never take a permanent place in literature, one of the great distinctions between the parties which unless the hero be himself as picturesque as Johnson, divide political men both in England and other counnor unless the writer be gifted with the dramatic pow-tries, that the friends of arbitrary government were ers of Boswell. Mr. Wilberforce was an admirable jealous of the press's licentiousness, and always prone subject for graphic sketches in this style; but the hand to enforce the law against it; while the advocates of of a son could not have drawn them without impro-liberal opinions scarcely ever could be persuaded that priety, and they have never been delineated by others. a case was made out which justified prosecution. It A tradition, already fading, alone preserves the memory is true, that until a comparatively late period, the of those social powers which worked as a spell on friends of the press, however hostile to proceedings every one who approached him, and drew from against libellers, always restricted this disinclination to cases of public or political writings, and avowed | and all others in high stations, which, a quarter of a themselves the enemies of all private slander and per- century ago, would inevitably have consigned their sonal abuse;-holding the protection of that offence to authors to imprisonment for two years, accompanied by be altogether unnecessary to public liberty, and the a heavy fine. commission of it to be pernicious, and not beneficial to the liberty of the press, in the true acceptation of the term. But the line which separates attacks upon private and personal failings from the discussion of public conduct, like that which parts the consideration of measures from the judgment to be pronounced upon men, the authors of those measures, is not always easy to trace or to observe; and the consequences has been, With this more general cause, others of an acciden tal nature combined, about the same time, to increase the freedom of the press, by interposing obstacles in the way of prosecutions. Of these accidental circumstances, the affair of the Duke of York, which occupied so large a portion of the public attention in 1809, and drew it away from matters of far greater moment, was the most remarkable. It may with perfect safety be affirmed, that the result of this singular investigation far less injurious to the exalted individual whom it proved, after time had been allowed for calm reflection, that almost at all times considerable latitude has been allowed of mingling comments on private with remarks upon public conduct; so that, generally speaking, they who were the most adverse to state prosecu-chiefly concerned, than to the system of which he and tions were also the most patient of personal attacks, his defenders were the strenuous advocates; and indeed, and the least disposed to seek protection from the law that when the season for pronouncing a cool judgment against even very unmeasured abuse of their private demeanour. It is hardly necessary to add, that such had arrived, others were found to have sustained, in distinctions between the two parties, and such repug the person against whom they were pointed. There the course of the proceedings, much more damage, than nance in both to proceedings against libels of any kind, was left, however, a general impression exceedingly became more marked as the diffusion of liberal opiunfavourable to the Royal family; not merely as to their nions became more general, and that progress more rapid. But it is fit that we consider the effects of this habits of life, but as to their jealousies and intrigues improvement, as it materially affected the conduct even against one another; and the disgraceful scenes, soon of the party most opposed to the licentiousness of the afterwards disclosed in some legal proceedings conpress. They followed their more liberal adversaries, nected with the Duke of York's case, tended greatly though at a distance which was increasing and not to increase that impression, by showing one of his lessening. State prosecutions became daily more rare, brothers mixed up in the combination that had been and it seems difficult to believe that we live in the formed to accomplish his ruin. As for the Duke himsame country and under the same law, when we cast self, indeed, his love affairs were not to be justified; yet our eye over the kind of publications prosecuted as from all the charges of corruption he was completely libels, not merely fifty, but five-and-twenty years ago; cleared; nor could any one living believe him guilty and see the sedition and the scurrility now daily print- of more connivance at the jobs of those about him, than ed without the least effort to check either by judicial might well be ascribed to the careless habits of an exproceedings. Who can think that he lives in the same tremely good-natured man, of less than the ordinary community which expressed no kind of surprise or measure of acuteness and sagacity. Against this was reprobation, when Sir Vicary Gibbs filed, all at once, willingly set by his friends, and readily admitted by between twenty and thirty ex officio informations, the world at large, the admirable dispositions of that chiefly for comments upon the character and conduct Prince, his kindness of temper, his affection for his of members of the Royal family; and when the same friends, his regard for his word generally, the undelaw officer of the Crown some years later, put the viating integrity of his dealings in private life, his editor of the most moderate and most respectable paper entire want of all pride, and singular exemption from of the day, upon his trial, for remarking that the suc- the common failings of princes in the intercourse of cessor of George the Third would have a glorious task society; even his pertinacious adherence to opinions when he came to the throne, from the contrast which which the bulk of mankind believed to be erroneous, his reign might afford to that of his royal predecessor? but which he, because conscientiously imbued with It may safely be asserted, that there is no one news-them, treated as of religious obligation. It may be paper or other publication now, in the whole United affirmed that there seldom has lived an individual in Kingdom, which ever mentions the conduct of any one his exalted station, who possessed more of the general member of the Royal family with disapprobation half esteem, who had more personal friends, and whose so gentle as in 1809 exposed the late Mr. Perry to a friends loved him better; while even his political adververy imminent risk of being convicted and punished; saries gave him credit for the honesty of his prejudices, while there are in every quarter of the country almost willingly overlooking the obstinacy with which he daily attacks made upon all princes, all magistrates, clung to them. charge. But before the end of George III.'s reign, the Constitution had been restored; and the accession of his son, who from Regent became King, in consequence of a circumstance accidental in some degree, produced effects as remarkable upon the freedom of public discussion as the Duke of York's case had done ten years before. But from its own nature, from the unusual interest which it excited, and from its influence upon the aspect of political affairs in this country, as well as upon the character and conduct of the press, both at the time and in its more remote consequences, we are called upon to trace to its origin the event to which we have now only very generally alluded as connected with the Regent's accession to the Crown. But although the character of the Duke of York did | trolled by the fear of being arrested and confined for an not suffer materially in the estimation of the circles to indefinite period of time, without any trial or even any which he belonged, it is impossible to doubt that with the community at large, and especially the middle and lower classes, his morals were regarded as of a libertine cast, in consequence of the disclosures made respecting his illicit amours; and the circumstances of these things not being denied by his defenders, and of his reputation with the upper classes suffering nothing in consequence, plainly indicated that a lax morality prevailed at Court, as well as that the Royal Family shared in this stain. The consequence was, that both the Aristocracy at large, and, in an especial manner, the Family, became objects of distrust or aversion with a large body of the people; who had till then never distinctly perceived that the different orders of society lived under different dispensations of the moral law. The freedom with which the press commented upon these things became impossible to check; no prosecution could be instituted against any libellers, however violent; no jury could be expected to convict, how indecent soever might be the license of abuse assumed; and all the pending informations and indictments were at once abandoned as hopeless. Not only attacks upon the Royal Family were published without any reserve or decorum, but libels upon all other public men were circulated with equal freedom; and unmeasured invectives against all the institutions of the State were, in like manner, ventilated through all the channels of publication without restraint; because, when there was no possibility of prosecuting the libels upon the Royal Family, it became impossible to prosecute other libels, without appearing to admit the innocence of the former class of writings. Indeed there is every reason to believe that juries would have been as unwilling to convict the one class of libellers as the other; because the singling out a few publications for prosecution, when so many were suffered to pass unheeded, would have appeared contrary to all honesty of purpose, and would have set the minds of men against the proceeding. Accordingly, in the comparatively few attempts made, -as when libels respecting military punishments were prosecuted, the influence of the Crown and the authority of the Bench failed in some remarkable instances to obtain convictions. at rest. The restoration of peace brought along with it for some time, if not a suspension of political strife, at least a mitigation of its rancour; and the press ceasing to exhibit any great activity or animosity, was itself left There ensued some years of great distress, and the symptoms of disaffection which appeared in its train were laid hold of as the pretext for suspending the Constitution. While the power of Arbitrary Imprisonment was vested in the Government, it is needless to observe that writers, like all other persons, were con George Prince of Wales had been educated after the manner of all princes whose school is the palace of their ancestors, whose teacher is boundless prosperity, whose earliest and most cherished associate is unrestrained self-indulgence, and who neither among their companions form the acquaintance of any equal, nor in the discipline of the seminary ever taste of control. The regal system of tuition is indeed curiously suited to its purpose of fashioning men's minds to the task of governing their fellow-creatures-of training up a naturally erring and sinful creature to occupy the most arduous of all human stations, the one most requiring habits of self-command, and for duly filling which, all the instruction that man can receive, and all the virtue his nature is capable of practising, would form a very inadequate qualification. This system had, upon the Prince of Wales, produced its natural effects in an unusually ample measure. He seemed, indeed, to come forth from the School a finished specimen of its capabilities and its powers; as if to show how much havoc can be made in a character originally deficient in none of the good and few of the great qualities, with which it may be supposed that men are born. Naturally of a temper by no means sour or revengeful, he had become selfish to a degree so extravagant, that he seemed to act upon the practical conviction, that all mankind were borne for his exclusive use; and hence he became irritable on the least incident that thwarted his wishes; nay seemed to consider himself injured, and thus entitled to gratify his resentment, as often as any one, even from a due regard to his own duty or his own character, acted in a way to disappoint his expectations or ruffle his repose. His natural abilities, too, were far above mediocrity: he was quick, lively, gifted with a retentive memory, and even with a ready wit-endowed with an exquisite ear for music, and a justness of eye, that fitted him to attain refined taste in the arts-possessed, too, of a nice sense of the ludicrous, which made his relish for humour sufficiently acute, and bestowed upon him the powers |