domestic servitude, or slavery; infers features very distinct from that of servi tude, or slavery, for the purposes of traffic; and the accidental loss of liberty by misfortune differs essentially from premeditated and extensive ravages, to obtain men as plunder; those wholesale dealings in human sufferings, for which avarice gave the signal, and of which cruelty reaped the profit. If the Slave Trade never had existed, who would now desire its institution? Who would now regret that among the imports and exports of Britain, slaves were not included, as they once were, even in our own island? For history relates, that anciently, the persons of Britons were articles of commerce, and a trade in slaves was carried on between England and Ireland. Happier times have been reserved for us! We have not only seen the shackles drop off from the limbs of the enthralled, the moment his foot trod on British ground, but we have seen the interposition of humanity and policy in behalf of our fellow-men, crowned with a success far beyond what we once had dared to anticipate, even when most inclined to selfBattery on the subject. And we are persuaded that the length of time, during which the abolition was under investigation, has been and will continue to be, of the greatest practical importance. For we are not to arraigh the nation as being knowingly a partaker in the crimes of this trade. An acquaintance with those enormities was confined to a few; they were not surrgised by any considerable portion of the Brilish people; and, indeed, the extent of the evil was not so much as suspected, much less understood. The number of slaves purchased by our colonies was less considerable formerly thau of late years, and the rapid increase of the mischief was rather a surprise on the unsuspecting, than tolerated or encouraged, after due examination and cognizance. When the subject was fairly before the public, and the evidence on both sides of the question had been weighed, opinion gradually experienced a change, and ripened to a determination, by the influence of conviction. Even adherents to the trade participated in the feeling of the public mind, and acknowledged themselves to be overcome by truth. The abolition, then, being the result of conviction, was more honourable to our national character, than the existence of the trade had been derogatory from it; because, actions grounded upon knowledge are more truly illustrative of disposition than sufferances admitted without discrimination during a time of ignorance. We presume, also, that what has taken place, after so thorough an examination, is completely and eternally settled: and this alone is no inconsiderable advantage derived from apparent delay. Mr. Clarkson, who was a leading instrument in removing this opprobrium from our country, has drawn up a history of the proceedings for this purpose. His own labours and uncommon exertions form no inconsiderable part of these volumes: the speeches in parlia ment of several friends to the cause form another part, and the perseverance of the committee, who might have adopted the motto "faint yet pursuing," is displayed at large. It appears from Mr. C.'s account, that certain members of the society of Quakers had the honour of first "bearing their testimony" against the state of slavery: that the same society produced those practical philanthropists, also, who first ceased to receive their fellow-men as property, and gave liberty to Africans whom they might have retained as slaves; and that that society was the first public body which forbad the holding of slaves, to its members. Mr. Whitfield, Mr. Wesley, and other considerate men, contributed to forward the good work, and by degrees the friends to the abolition became acquainted with each other, formed connections, established a society, took regular measures, introduced the subject before the privy council, and then before parliament, where they were supported both by the minister and his opponent, who, on this occasion, were seen fighting together in the same rank, and supporting each other's arguments against prolonged opposition. We cannot follow the writer into particulars, but shall state, in general terms, that his narrative commences with the year 1503, when Negroes were first sent as slaves from the Portuguese settlements in Africa to the Spanish colonies in America; that it appears, that the sovereigns, who first tolerated the trade, entertained scruples concerning it, as well Charles the fifth and Pope Leo X, as our own Elizabeth. After them, eminent men of various classes expressed their dissatisfaction with this traffic; and the opinion obtained till 1729, that certainly baptized persons could not be held as slaves. In that year, the attorney and solicitor-general (Yorke and Talbot) declared, that in their opinion a master's property in his slave was permanent, and this authority was considered as law, till Mr. Granville Sharp, the extent of whose benevolence will only be known when disclosed by the celestial registers of deeds done on earth, studied the law for himself, and succeeded in esta blishing the principle of no property in a fellow-mau in England." We well remember the famous case of Somerset, which was argued at three different sittings in 1772; with the satisfaction afforded by its decision in favour of liberty. Mr. S. has lived to see the close of his labours so happily begun, and to triumph over all fear of the return of those calamities which he had been a principal in removing. Mr. C. gives us a Map of the names of those who contributed to the general purpose. Among the supporters of the cause in parliament are enumerated many of our greatest statesmen; Mr. Wilberforce is particularly conspicuous. Mr. Fox is described as equally fervent, and Mr. Pitt's sincerity is affirmed by our author in the most explicit terms. We deem it an act of justice to that departed minister to insert Mr. C's. vindication of his character. We place first his ignorance of the general conduct of the trade; and this ignorance of the minister justifies the account we have given of that of the nation. The doubts of Mr. Pitt mark the man of understanding. second circumstance, of the truth of which he doubted, was the mortality and usage of seamen in this trade; and a third was the statement, by which so much had been made and abilities of her people; for he seemed at of the riches of Africa, and of the genius a loss to comprehend, if these things were so, how it had happened that they should not have been more generally noticed before. I promised to satisfy him upon these points, and an interview was fixed for this purpose the next day. Mr. Pitt examined for himself: and admitted conviction from evidence. Mr. Pitt died in January, 1806. I shall stop therefore to make a few ol.servations upon is character, as it related to this cause. This I feel myself bound in justice to do, because his sincerity, towards it has been generally questioned. The way, in which Mr. Pitt became ac quainted with this question, has already been explained. A few doubts having been removed, when it was first started, he professed himself a friend to the abolition. The first proof, which he gave of his friendship theless, true, that so early as in 1788, he octo it is known but to few; but it is, nevercasioned a communication to be made to the French government, in which he recommended an union of the two countries for the promotion of the great measure. proposition seemed to be then new and strange to the court of France; and the answer was not favourable. This From this time his efforts were reduced within the boundaries of his own power. As far, however, as he had scope, he exerted them. If we look at him in his parliamentary capacity, must be acknowledged by all, that he took an active, strenuous, and consistent part, and this, year after year, by which My first business in London was to hold he realized his professions. In my own pria conversation with Mr. Pitt previously to vate communications with him, which were the meeting of the council, and to try to in- frequent, he never failed to give proofs of a rest him, as the first minister of state, in similar disposition. I had always free access our favour. For this purpose Mr. Wilber- to him. I had no previous note or letter to force had opened the way for me, and an in- write for admission. Whatever papers I terview took place. We were in free conver-wanted, he ordered. He exhibited also, in sation together for a considerable time, during which we went through most of the branchcs of the subject. Mr. Pitt appeared to me to have but little knowledge of it. He had also his doubts, which he expressed openly, on many points. He was at a loss to conceive how private interest should not always restrain the master of the slave from abusing him. This matter I explained to him as well as I could; and if he was not entirely satisfied with my interpretation of it, he was at least induced to believe that cruel practices were more probable than he had imagined. A his conversation with me on these occasions, marks of a more than ordinary interest in the welfare of the cause. Among the subjects, which were then started, there was one which was always near his heart. This was the civilization of Africa. He looked upon this great work as a debt due to that continent for the many injuries we had inflicted upon it and had the abolition succeeded sooner, as in the infancy of his exertions he had hoped, I know he had a plan, suited no doubt to the capaciousness of his own mind, for such establishments in Africa, as he cou ceived would promote in due time this im-¡ cause there, to the duke de la Rochefou portant end. I believe it will be said, notwithstanding what I have advanced, that if Mr. Pitt had exerted himself as the minister of the country in behalf of the abolition, he could have carried it. This brings the matter to an issue; for unquestionably the charge of insincerity, as it related to this great question, arose froin the mistaken notion, that, as his measures in parliament were supported by great majorities, he could do as he pleased there. But, they who hold this opinion, must be informed, that there were great difficulties, against which he had to struggle on this subject. The Lord Chancellor Thurlow ran counter to his wishes almost at the very outset. Lord Liverpool and Mr. Dundas did the same. Thus, to go no further, three of the most powerful members of the cabinet were in direct opposition to him. The abolition then, amidst this difference of opinion, could never become a cabinet measure; but if so, then all his parliamentary efforts in this case wanted their usual authority, and he could only exert his influence as a private man. This he did with great effect on one or two occasions. | On the motion of Mr. Cawthorne in 1791, the cause hung as it were by a thread; and would have failed that day, to my knowledge, but for his seasonable exertions. cauld, the Marquis de Condorcet, Messieurs The first public steps taken after my arrival I found great delicacy as a stranger in making my observations upon these resolutions, and yet I thought I ought not to pass them But a difficulty, still more insuperable, over wholly in silence, but particularly the presented itself, in an occurrence which took last. I therefore rose up, and stated that place in the year 1791, but which is much there was one resolution, of which I did not too delicate to be mentioned. The explana- quite see the propriety. But this might arise tion of it, however, would convince the rea- from my ignorance of the customs, as well der, that all the efforts of Mr. Pitt from that as of the genius and spirit of the French peoday were rendered useless, I mean as to bring-ple. It struck me that an application from a ing the question, as a minister of state, to a little committee in England to the National favourable issue. Assembly of France was not a dignified mea sure, nor was it likely to have weight with such a body. It was, besides, contrary to all the habits of propriety, in which I had been educated. The British Parliament did not usually receive petitions from the subjects of other nations. It was this feeling, which had induced me thus to speak. But though Mr. Pitt did not carry this great question, he was yet one of the greatest supporters of it. He fostered it in its infancy. If, in his public situation, he had then set his face against it, where would have been our hope? He upheld it also in its childhood; and though in this state of its existence it did not gain from his protection all the strength which it was expected it would have acquired, he yet kept it from falling, till his successors, in whose administration a greater number of favourable circumstances concurred to give it vigour, brought it to triumphant maturity. This incidental mention of the French government leads us to remark that Mr. C. visited France with the design of interesting that country in favour of the abolition, and his account of that excursion we consider as among the most noticeable contents of his volumes. I was introduced as quickly as possible, en my arrival at Paris, to the friends of the This snare, for as such we consider it, the British feelings of our author happily enabled him to avoid; and the committee in London afterwards sent a positive refu sal to the proposal. Mr. C. staid several months in France, and did nothing. It is true, he was the means of interesting good king Louis in behalf of the negroes; he was favoured by Mr. Necker, by Mirabeau, and by other eminent men; but the turbulence of the time (it was the autumn and winter of 1789) rendered every effort. unavailable. While at Paris he met with the deputies from the People of Colour in St. Domingo, who came to claim enrolment as men and citizens: they too, were disappointed, and the language they held shewed how deeply They were now sure that they should never be able to make head against the intrigues and plots of the White Colonists. Day after day had been fixed as before for the hearing of their cause. Day after day it had Been deferred in like manner. They were now weary with waiting. One of them, Ogé, could not contain himself, but broke out with great warmth." I begin," says he, "not to care, whether the National Assembly will admit us or not. But let it beware of the consequences. We will no longer continue to be beheld in a degraded light. Dispatches shall go directly to St. Domingo; and we will soon follow them. We can produce as good soldiers on our estates, as those in France. Our own arms shall make us independent and respectable. If we are once forced to desperate measures, it will be in vain that thousands will be sent across the Atlantic to bring us back to our former state." On hearing this, I intreated the deputies to wait with patience. I observed to them, that, by an imprudent conduct they might not only ruin their own cause in France, but bring indescribable misery upon their native land. I found, however, notwithstanding all I said, that there was a spirit of dissatisfaction in them, which nothing but a redress of their grievances could subdue; and that, if the planters should persevere in their intrigues, and the National Assembly in delay, a fire would be lighted up in St. Domingo, which could not easily be extinguished. This was afterward realized. to in one year than in the whole remaining trade of the country in two. Out of 910 sailors in it, 216 died in the year, while upon a fair average of the same number of men Indies, Petersburgh, Newfoundland, employed in the trades to the East and West and Greenland, no more than 87 died. It appeared also, that out of 3170, who had left Liverpool in the slave-ships in the year 1787, only 1428 had returned. The trade was almost abolished at one time; for, says our author, In the year 1772, when a hundred vessels sailed out of Liverpool for the coast of Africa, the dock-duties amounted to £4552, and in 1779, when, in consequence of the war, only eleven went from thence to the same coast, they amounted to £4957; then the opulence of Liverpool was not indebted to the slave-trade; and although the vessels in it had been gradually reduced from one hundred to cleven yet the West Indians had not complained of their ruin, nor had the merchants or manufacturers suffered, nor had Liverpool been affected by the change. The productions of Africa (certainly only a part, and probably a small part of what that country yields) may be inferred from the specimens collected by Mr. C. The first division of the box consisted of woods of about four inches square, all polished. Among these were mahogany of five different sorts, tulip-wood, satin-wood, camwood, bar-wood, fustic, black and yellow ebony, palm-tree, mangrove, calabash, and date, There were seven woods of which the native nanies were remembered: three of these, Tumiah, Samain, and Jimlaké, were of a yellow colour; Acajoú was of a beautiIn fact, the horrors to which St. Domin-ful deep crimson; Bork and Quellé were apgo was subjected was one of those occur-parently fit for cabinet work; and Benten rences that furnished the enemies of the was the wood of which the natives made their abolition with their most plausible and canoes. Of the various other woods the impressive arguments; arguments names had been forgotten, nor were they this moment not wholly forgotten. Quit-known in England at all. One of them was of a fine purple; and from two others, upon ting these considerations, we wish to rewhich the privy council had caused expericord the destructive effects of this trade ments to be made, a strong yellow, a deep on our seamen; and to shew from Mr. C's. orange, and a flesh-colour were extracted. testimony the probability of trading with Africa for honest productions. The first of these particulars demonstrates what detriment Britain certainly avoids by the abolition; the second indicates advantages that Africa probably may reap; and to these we would now direct the expectations of the public.. By the report of the Privy Council it appeared, that, instead of the slave-trade being a nurery for British seamen, it was their grave. It appeared that more seamen died in that trade The second division included ivory and musk; four species of pepper, the long, the black, the Cayenne, and the Malaguetta: three species of gum; namely, Senegal Copal, and Ruber astringens; cinnamon, rice, tobacco, indigo, white and Nankin cotton, Guinea which two were used for food, and the other corn, and millet; three species of beaus, of for dyeing orange; two species of tamarinds, one for food, and the other to give whiteness to the teeth; pulse, seeds, and fruits of various kinds, some of the latter of which Dr. Spaarman had pronounced, from a trial dur ring his residence in Africa, to be peculiarly valuable as drugs. Récit Historique de la Campagne de Buonaparte en Italie. Historical Account of the Campaign of Buonaparte in Italy, in the Years 1795 and 1796. By an Eye Witness. 8vo. Price 7s. Deconchy, London, 1808. The third division contained an African loom, and an African spindle with spun cot ton round it; cloths of cotton of various kinds, made by the natives, some white, but others dyed by them of different colours, and others, in which they had interwoven European silk; cloths and bags made of grass, and fancifully coloured; ornaments made of WHEN two opposite parties divide the same materials, ropes made from a species the world with fierce contention, the man of aloes, and others, remarkably strong, from who, from whatever circumstances, is grass and straw; fine string made from the placed at the head of one of them, can fibres of the roots of trees; soap of two hardly be rightly appreciated by his conkinds, one of which was formed from an While he pursues his triearthy substance; pipe-bowls made of clay, temporaries. and of a brown red; one of these, which umphant career, he is a deity to his folcame from the village of Dakard, was beau-lowers, who worship in him that fortune tifully ornamented by black devices burnt in, which is their idol, and shouts of victory and was besides highly glazed; another, drown the accusing voice of his injured, brought from Galiàm, was made of earth, but conquered foe. On the other hand, which was richly impregnated with little par- malignity too often preys on exalted chaticles of gold; trinkets made by the natives racters, and cankers that laurel which it, from their own gold; knives and daggers could not blast. Posterity alone, by made by them from our bar-iron; and various comparing the several testimonies, when other articles, such as bags, sandals, daggerhope cases, quivers, grisgris, all made of leather of their own manufacture, and dyed of various colours, and ingeniously sewed together, The extent of our extracts forbids us to enlarge on this interesting subject: we therefore only hint, that our author notices as it deserved Sir W. Dolben's middle passage bill; which was some relief to suffering humanity; also the prevention of supplying foreign nations with slaves, which was another point gained in favour of the main object Until at length, the abolition itself was carried triumphantly through both houses of parliament, and received the sanction of the crown by commission on Wednesday, March 25, 1807, the last act of the then ministry. Mr. Clarkson has executed his task with attention, and, we doubt not, with fidelity. His work is valuable as an authentic document of a very important national act : an act not hazarded in the fervour of zeal, or on the impulse of momentary passion; but after long inquiry, after much and vehement opposition, after the public as well as individuals were fully informed. May all our national proceedings, intended to advance the real rights of man, and the just privileges of the citizen, be equally well understood by the country at large, and be brought to an equally honourable and successful termination! [Compare Panorama, Vol. I. p. 706.] and fear, gratitude, and resentment, have lost their sway, is enabled to form an impartial judgment. In that trial of fame, the character of the writers, on both sides, has necessarily a great weight: but, this is an anonymous publication! These reflections are rather meant as general, than as applying to the man whose deeds are the theme of this work. Indeed his offences are "too rank," his crimes are too notorious, to admit of a doubt or of a palliation; besides, the same scenes of treachery, plunder, and devastation, which were acted in Italy, are now acting in Spain; there, too, generals and officers have been seduced, others have been tampered with; most enormous atrocities have followed deceitful promises of friendship and protection. We easily believe, that Buonaparte made use of the influence of the archbishop of Milan to pacify the incensed inhabitants of Pavia, under promises of forgiveness, and that he afterwards disarmed them and gave the town to plunder (as our author affirms, pp. 117, &c.); for the same has been done in Madrid; the same promises have been held out to the inhabitants of Vittoria. Our opinion, therefore, is founded on the uniform tenor of the man's conduct, rather than on the writer's testimony. The charges he prefers against Buonaparte are highly probable, but we could |