Chapter VIII: Part 8

That his labour in composing this work was not severe, may be inferred from the variety of literary employments in which, during its progress, he found time and inclination to engage: among which we may select for mention the imitation of Juvenal’s tenth satire, entitled Vanity of Human Wishes, and the periodical paper called the Rambler, which was published twice a week, from March 20, 1750, to March 17, 1752. Of the whole series, according to Boswell, only four papers, and a part of a fifth, were contributed by other pens: and it is remarkable, considering the general gravity of the subjects, and the elaboration of the style, that most of them were struck off at a heat, when constitutional indolence could procrastinate no longer, without even being read over before they were printed. The circulation of the work was small; for its merits, which lie chiefly in moral instruction and literary criticism, were of too grave a cast to ensure favour: the lighter parts, and the attempts at humour, are the least successful. But its popularity increased as the author’s fame rose, and fashion recommended his grandiloquent style; and before his death it went through numerous editions in a collected form.

In 1756 he issued proposals for an edition of Shakspeare, a scheme which he had contemplated as long back as 1745, when he published Miscellaneous Observations on the Tragedy of Macbeth. He promised to complete it before Christmas, 1757, but it did not appear until October, 1765. Imperfectly versed in the antiquities, literature, and language of the Elizabethan era, the source from which almost all valuable comment on our early dramatists has been drawn, he has done little to elucidate difficulties or correct errors. His preface has been esteemed among the most valuable of his critical essays. But the perusal of his notes, and especially of his summary criticisms on the several plays, will confirm Garrick’s judgment as to his sensibility, and show that he wanted that delicate perception and deep knowledge of the workings of the passions which were necessary to the adequate fulfilment of his most difficult task.

From April 15, 1758, to April 5, 1760, Johnson wrote a second periodical paper, called the Idler. Twelve only, out of one hundred and three essays, were contributed by his friends; the rest were generally written with as much haste, and are of slighter texture, than those of the Rambler. Rasselas, Prince of Abyssinia, he wrote in the beginning of 1759, to defray the expenses of his mother’s funeral, and pay some trifling debts which she had left. He told Sir Joshua Reynolds, that it was composed in the evenings of one week, and sent to the press in portions as it was written. This anecdote affords a good instance of Johnson’s facility and power, when an adequate stimulus was applied: from the rich imagery, and the varied, powerful strain of reflection which pervade it, and the elaborated pomp of its style, it would assuredly be taken for the product of mature consideration, labour, and frequent revision. For this he received one hundred pounds, and twenty-five pounds more at a second edition. It has been translated into most European languages.

In 1762 Johnson accepted a pension of 300_l._, for which he underwent considerable obloquy. This was entirely undeserved, though in some sort he had brought it on himself by indulging his satirical bias and political predilections in a wayward definition of the words _pension_ and _pensioner_, in his Dictionary; where other instances occur of his indulging the humour of the moment, whether it prompted him to spleen or merriment. Why he should not have accepted the pension, no sound reason can be given: his Jacobitical predilections, never probably so strong as he used to represent them in the heat of argument, were lost, like those of others, in the hopelessness of the cause; and his Toryism naturally led him to transfer his full respect and allegiance to the reigning king, who never was suspected of an undue bias towards Whiggism. The sum bestowed was no more than an honourable testimony to his literary eminence, and a comfortable provision for his declining age: and as far as it is possible to form an opinion on such matters, the gift was unstained by any compact, expressed or understood, for political support.

Among the more important events of Johnson’s life, we are bound to mention his acquaintance with Mr. Boswell, which commenced in 1763, not only because it formed an important article among the pleasures of the philosopher’s declining years, but because it led to the composition and publication of the most lively and vivid picture ever given by one man of another, the Life of Johnson. By Boswell, Johnson was induced, in compliance with a wish that he had long before entertained, to undertake a journey to the Scottish Highlands and the Hebrides: and it is remarkable that the first English book of travels (as we believe,) into what to the English was then almost a _terra incognita_, should have been composed by a man so careless of natural beauty, and so little disposed to sacrifice his ease and habits to the cravings of curiosity, as Johnson. His desire to visit that country seems to have arisen rather from a wish to study society in a simple form, than from any taste for the wild beauties of our Northern regions, of which he saw not the most favourable specimen, and has given not a flattering account. His Journey to the Western Islands will be read with pleasure, abounding in acute observation, passages of lofty eloquence, and grateful acknowledgment of the kindness and hospitality which he received; kindness which his snappish railings against the Scotch in general never led him to undervalue or forget. His companion and disciple’s account of their expedition will, however, be read with more amusement, from presenting such vivid pictures of the author himself, as well as of the subject which he painted, and of the varied characters to which they were introduced, and scenes in which they intermingled. We may here add that Johnson was a resolute unbeliever in the authenticity of Macpherson’s Ossian, against which, in his book, he pronounced a decided judgment. He thus gave considerable offence to national vanity. To the claims of second-sight he was more favourable. Throughout life he was influenced by a belief, not only in the possibility, but in the occasional exertion of supernatural agencies, beyond the regular operation of the laws of nature.

In 1775, Johnson received from the University of Oxford the honorary degree of D.C.L. The same degree had been conferred on him some time before by the University of Dublin; but he did not then assume the title of doctor. His only subsequent work which requires notice is the Lives of the English Poets, written for a collective edition of them, which the booksellers were about to publish. To the selection of the authors, praise cannot be given: many ornaments to our literature are omitted, and many obscure persons have found a place in the collection: this however, probably, was not Johnson’s fault. The publication began in 1779, and was not completed till 1781: the lives have gone through many editions by themselves. Though strongly coloured by personal and political predilections, they contain much sound criticism, and form a valuable article in British biography.

Many incidents connected with Johnson’s life, his places of residence, his domestication in Mr. Thrale’s family, his connexion with The Club, and the like, have been made generally known by the amusing works of Boswell, Mrs. Piozzi, and others. Perhaps public curiosity was never so strongly directed towards the person, habits, and conversation of any man known only as an author; and certainly it never has been so amply gratified. Boswell’s Life of Johnson is unique in its kind.

His powers of conversation were very great, and not only commanded the admiration and deference of his contemporaries, but have contributed in a principal degree to the upholding of his traditionary fame. They were deformed by an assumption of superiority, and an intolerance of contradiction or opposition, which often betrayed him into offensive rudeness. Yet his temper was at bottom affectionate and humane, his attachments strong, and his charity only bounded, and scarcely bounded, by his means.

The latter years of Dr. Johnson’s life were overshadowed by much gloom. Many of his old and most valued friends sank into the grave before him; his bodily frame was much shattered by disease; his spirits became more liable to depression; and his sincere and ardent piety was too deeply tinged by constitutional despondency to afford him steady comfort and support under his sufferings. He was struck by palsy in 1783, but recovered to the use both of his bodily and mental faculties. A complication of asthma and dropsy put an end to his existence, December 13, 1785. During his illness, his anxiety for a protracted life was painfully intense: but his last hours are described by the bystanders to have been calm, happy, and confident. He was buried in Westminster Abbey. A statue to his memory is erected in St. Paul’s Cathedral.

]

_Engraved by W. Holl._

JEFFERSON.

_From a Print engraved by A. Desnoyers._

Under the Superintendence of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful
Knowledge.

_London, Published by Charles Knight & C^o. Ludgate Street._
]

JEFFERSON.

From the American Revolution of 1776 we may date the commencement of that struggle which has agitated and still agitates Europe and the two Americas. By whatever words the character of this struggle may be expressed,—whether under the name of popular rights against exclusive privileges, or self-government or the government of the people, against absolute government or the government of a few, or by any other terms more or less appropriate,—the contest is still going on, openly and actively in those called free governments, silently and languidly in those where the sovereign power is opposed to the extension or introduction of the new doctrines. The contest is between progress (not here considered whether as right or wrong) and standing still; between change, without which there cannot be improvement, and a desire to resist all change, which can hardly end in keeping things stationary, but almost necessarily leads to a backward movement. The contest is not only for the practical application of principles in government, which are vigorously maintained by the one party, and either not denied or faintly opposed by the arguments of the other; but also for the free expression and publication of all opinions on all subjects affecting the moral and political condition of society.

There is no individual, either in America or in Europe, who by his actions and opinions has had a greater influence on this contest than THOMAS JEFFERSON. During a long and laborious life, both in official situations which gave him opportunities that his activity never let slip, and in private life in his extensive correspondence and intercourse with persons of all countries, he constantly, perseveringly, and honestly maintained what he conceived to be the principle of pure republican institutions. In the ardour of youth, his zeal and energy mainly contributed to animate his countrymen to declare their independence on a foreign power. In his maturer age, when a member of the General Administration, he struggled, and he struggled at one time almost alone, against a monarchical and aristocratical faction, to maintain the great principles of the Revolution, and develop the doctrines of a pure unmixed popular government. His influence gave to these doctrines a consistency, and a form, and a distinctness, which the mass of the nation could easily seize and retain. He thus became the head of a party in the United States, which, whether always rightly appealing to his doctrines or not for the vindication of their acts, still regards him as the father of their school and the expounder of their principles. By his plain and unaffected manners, and the freedom with which he expressed his opinions on all subjects, he gave a practical example of that republican simplicity which he cultivated, and of that free inquiry which he urged upon all. Such a man must always have many friends and many enemies. From his friends and admirers he has received, perhaps, not more praise than those who believe in the truth of his doctrines and the purity of his conduct are bound to bestow; by his enemies, both at home and abroad, he has been blackened by every term of abuse that bigotry, malice, and falsehood can invent.

Thomas Jefferson was born April 2, 1743, at Shadwell, now in the county of Albemarle, in Virginia. He was educated at the College of William and Mary, at Williamsburg, then the capital of the colony, where, under Dr. Small, a native of Scotland, who was then Professor of Mathematics in the College, he studied mathematics, ethics, and other branches of knowledge. His education, owing to the care of this excellent instructor and his own industry, must have been of a superior kind. In addition to his general acquirements, he made himself well acquainted with the best Greek and Latin writers, and to the end of his long life retained his ability to read them. Mr. Jefferson studied law under Mr. Wythe, then a lawyer of eminence. He made his first appearance at the bar of the General Court in 1767, at the age of twenty-four, about two years after the misunderstanding between Great Britain and the Colonies had commenced. He practised for seven or eight years in the General Court, and was gradually rising to the first rank as an accurate and able lawyer, when he was called away to more important duties by the political events that preceded the American Revolution. In 1769 he was elected a member of the House of Burgesses for the County of Albemarle. In the session of this spring the House unanimously came to resolutions in opposition to those which had been lately passed in England by both Houses of Parliament on the affairs of Massachusetts. This measure, which was accompanied with the declaration that the right of laying taxes in Virginia was exclusively vested in its own legislature, and others of a like tendency, induced the Governor, Lord Botetourt, abruptly to dissolve the Assembly. The next day the members met at the Raleigh Tavern, and entered into articles of agreement, by which they bound themselves not to import or purchase certain specified kinds of British merchandise, till the act of parliament for raising a revenue in America was repealed; and they recommended this agreement to be adopted by their constituents. Eighty-eight members signed the agreement, among whom were George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and others, who afterwards took a distinguished part in public affairs.

In 1773, on the meeting of the Virginia Assembly in the spring, Mr. Jefferson was an active member in organizing the Standing Committee of Correspondence and Inquiry, the main objects of which were to procure early intelligence of the proceedings of the British Parliament, and to maintain a constant communication among all the Colonies. On the dissolution of the Assembly, in May 1774, by the Governor, Lord Dunmore, eighty-nine members met at the Raleigh Tavern, and, among other things, recommended the Committee of Correspondence to communicate with the Committees in the other colonies “on the expediency of appointing deputies for the several colonies of British America, to meet in General Congress, at such place annually as should be thought most convenient,” to consult on their common interests. It was also forthwith agreed that the members who might be elected under the writs at that time issuing in the colony of Virginia, should meet in Convention at Williamsburg on the 1st of August following, in order to appoint delegates to the Congress, if such General Congress should be approved by the other colonies. The Convention did meet, and thus formed the first popular assembly in Virginia, uncontrolled by Governor or Council. Mr. Jefferson, who was one of the deputies, prepared instructions for the delegates who might be sent to the Congress. In his absence, for illness prevented him from attending on this occasion, his instructions were laid on the table for perusal, and were generally approved, but thought too bold in the existing state of affairs. Still the Convention printed them, in the form of a pamphlet, under the title of A Summary View of the Rights of British America. The Convention drew up another set of instructions, which, though not so strong as Mr. Jefferson’s, expressed with great clearness the points at issue between the colonies and the mother-country, and the grievances of which the colonies had to complain. The General Congress, consisting of fifty-five members, met at Philadelphia, September 4, 1774. The disputes which had broken out between Lord Dunmore and the Assembly of Virginia were continually increased by fresh causes of mutual irritation. The Governor at last thought it prudent to remove himself and his family into a British ship of war that was lying at York in York River. His whole conduct during this period was feeble and contemptible. His last acts from his head-quarters at Norfolk were to annoy the inhabitants on the rivers and bays by a predatory kind of warfare, to proclaim martial law in the colony, and to give freedom to such of the slaves as would bear arms against their masters. At last, after setting fire to Norfolk, he was obliged to take refuge in his ships, and soon after to leave the country. Thus ended the colonial government in Virginia.

June 21, 1775, Mr. Jefferson took his seat in the General Congress, as one of the delegates from Virginia, and was appointed one of a Committee for preparing a declaration of the cause of taking up arms. A part of the address which he drew up was finally adopted, and no doubt greatly contributed to bring about the more decisive declaration of the following year. In 1776, Mr. Jefferson was again a delegate to Congress, and one of a committee appointed to draw up a Declaration of Independence. The committee was chosen in the usual way, by ballot, and as Mr. Jefferson had received the greatest number of votes, he was deputed by the other members to make the draught. Before it was shown to the committee, a few verbal alterations were made in it by Dr. Franklin and Mr. Adams. After being curtailed about one-third, and with some slight alterations in the part retained, it was agreed to by the House, July 4, and signed by all the members present, except one. This instrument is too well known to require any remarks. It has both merits and defects; but it possessed one great quality. It served the purpose for which it was intended, and its author had the satisfaction of seeing the mighty question between the mother-country and the colonies referred to the decision of the sword, the only alternative then left except unconditional and disgraceful submission.

Before their adjournment the Virginia Convention, July 5, had elected Mr. Jefferson a delegate to Congress for another year; but he declined the honour on various grounds, among which was his desire to assist in reforming the laws of Virginia, under the New Constitution, which had just been adopted. Congress also marked their sense of his services by appointing him joint envoy to France, with Dr. Franklin and Silas Deane; but domestic considerations induced him to decline this honour also.

From this time Mr. Jefferson’s public life is interwoven with the history of his native state, and with that of the United States. During the war, he took no part in military movements. He was governor of Virginia in part of 1779, 1780, and part of 1781, in which year the State suffered considerably from the incursions of Lord Cornwallis; and at the close of his period of office, he narrowly escaped being taken prisoner by Colonel Tarleton, in his own house at Monticello.

In May, 1784, Mr. Jefferson was appointed by Congress minister to France; where he remained five years, during which he was actively employed in promoting the general interests of his country, and in keeping up an extensive correspondence. His industry and methodical habits enabled him to devote a great deal of his time to the examination of everything that could in any way prove beneficial to his countrymen. His correspondence during this period shows the variety of his pursuits, his unwearied industry, and unbounded zeal for every improvement that could benefit the social condition of man. His remarks on the political troubles of France, of which he witnessed the beginning, are characterized by his usual closeness of observation, and his sanguine anticipations of the benefit that would result from the people being called to participate in the exercise of the sovereign power. After all that has been written on the subject, they will still be read with interest.

He returned to America at the close of 1789, and early in the next year he was appointed Secretary of State by the President, General Washington. He held this office till the end of 1793, when he resigned. From 1793 to 1797 he lived in retirement. In 1797 he was elected Vice-President of the United States; and in 1801 was chosen President, in place of Mr. Adams, by the House of Representatives, on whom the election devolved in consequence of the equal division of the electors’ votes between Mr. Jefferson and Colonel Burr. He was elected a second time, and after fulfilling his term of eight years retired to his favourite residence at Monticello, near the centre of the State of Virginia.

On Mr. Jefferson’s retirement from the Presidency of the United States he received, in the form of a farewell address, the thanks of the General Assembly of his native State, Feb. 9, 1809. After briefly recapitulating the leading measures of his administration, most of which faction itself must allow were eminently calculated to promote the happiness of the nation, and secure those republican principles on which the constitution was founded, the General Assembly conclude with bearing testimony to his unvarying singleness of purpose, from the days of his youth when he resisted the Governor Dunmore, to his retirement from the highest honours which the united nation could bestow. This address, which, in point of style, is more free from objection than most American productions of the same class, is such as few men on retiring from power have received, and it was offered for services which few have performed.

In this document, among the advantages for which the nation was indebted to Mr. Jefferson’s administration, the acquisition of Louisiana and with it the free navigation of the Mississippi, are not forgotten. Mr. Jefferson early saw the importance of the United States possessing this great outlet for the commerce of the Western States, and strongly urged it while he was Secretary of State under General Washington. The object was accomplished in 1803, when Louisiana was purchased from the French, for 15,000,000 dollars.

Mr. Jefferson himself thought that the most important service which he ever rendered to his country, was his opposition to the federal party during the presidency of Mr. Adams, while he was himself Vice-President of the United States. Himself in the Senate, and Mr. Gallatin in the House of Representatives, had alone to sustain the brunt of the battle, and to keep the Republican party together. The re-action that ensued, drove Mr. Adams from his office, and placed Mr. Jefferson there. Mr. Jefferson’s administration was characterized by a zealous and unwearied activity in the promotion of all those measures which he believed to be for the general welfare. He never allowed considerations of relationship or friendship to bias him in the selection of proper persons for offices; he always found, as he says, that there were better men for every place than any of his own connexions.

The last years of his life, though spent in retirement, were not wasted in inactivity. He continued his habits of early rising and constant occupation: he maintained a very extensive correspondence with all parts of the world, received at his table a great number of visitors, and was actively engaged in the foundation and direction of the University of Virginia, which was established by the State of Virginia, near the village of Charlottesville, a few miles from Monticello.

The last letter in Mr. Jefferson’s published correspondence, and it is probably the last that he wrote, is in reply to Mr. Weightman of Washington, on behalf of the citizens of Washington who had invited Mr. Jefferson to the celebration of the fiftieth anniversary of American Independence. His health would not permit him to accept the invitation: his reply is characteristic. The zeal for republican institutions which had animated him during a long life still glows warm and fresh in the letter of a man of the age of fourscore and three, suffering under a painful malady. His firm conviction in the truth of those principles which he had maintained through life, appears stronger as he approaches the termination of his career. He died July 4, 1826, the day of the celebration, just half a century after that on which the instrument was signed. Mr. Adams died on the same day. Mr. Jefferson is buried in the grounds near his own house, with a simple inscription recording him as the author of the Declaration of Independence, and the Act for Religious Toleration; and as the Rector of the University of Virginia. The fact of his having been President of the United States is not mentioned.

The latter days of Mr. Jefferson were embittered by pecuniary difficulties, which were owing, no doubt, in some measure to the neglect of his estates during his long absence on the public service; and in a great degree to an obligation which he incurred to pay a friend’s debts (see an excellent letter to Mr. Madison, Feb. 17, 1826).

In the 4th vol. of his Memoirs, &c., p. 439, are printed his Thoughts on Lotteries, which were written at the time when he was making his application to the Legislature of Virginia for permission to sell his property by lottery, in order to pay his debts and make some provision for his family. The general arguments in defence of lotteries are characterized by Mr. Jefferson’s usual felicity of expression and ingenuity in argument, and they are also in like manner pervaded by the fallacies which are involved in many of his political and moral speculations. But this paper has merits which entitle it to particular attention. It contains a brief recapitulation of his services; and is in fact the epitome of the life of a man who for sixty years was actively and usefully employed for his country. “I came,” he says, “of age in 1764, and was soon put into the nomination of justices of the county in which I live, and at the first election following I became one of its representatives in the legislature;

“I was thence sent to the old Congress;

“Then employed two years with Mr. Pendleton and Wythe, on the revisal and reduction to a single code of the whole body of the British Statutes, the acts of our Assembly, and certain parts of the Common Law;

“Then elected Governor;

“Next to the legislature, and to Congress again;

“Sent to Europe as Minister Plenipotentiary;

“Appointed Secretary of State to the new government;

“Elected Vice-President and President;

“And lastly, a Visitor and Rector of the University of Virginia. In these different offices, with scarcely any interval between them, I have been in the public service now sixty-one years, and during the far greater part of that time in foreign countries, or in other states.”

This is the outline of Mr Jefferson’s public life: to fill it up would be to write the history of the United States, from the troubles which preceded the declaration of Independence, to Mr. Jefferson’s retirement from the Presidency in 1809.

The paper from which we have already made one extract, presents us with his services, in another point of view, still more interesting. It is an epitome of those great measures which were due mainly or entirely to his firm resolution, unwearied industry, and singleness of mind, in his pursuit of objects which he believed essential to the stability and happiness of his country.

“If legislative services are worth mentioning, and the stamp of liberality and equality, which was necessary to be impressed on our laws in the first crisis of our birth as a nation, was of any value, they will find that the leading and most important laws of that day were prepared by myself, and carried chiefly by my efforts; supported, indeed, by able and faithful coadjutors from the ranks of the House, very effective as seconds, but who would not have taken the field as leaders.

“The prohibition of the further importation of slaves was the first of these measures in time.

“This was followed by the abolition of entails, which broke up the hereditary and high-handed aristocracy, which by accumulating immense masses of property in single lines of families, had divided our country into two distinct orders, of nobles and plebeians.

“But further to complete the equality among our citizens, so essential to the maintenance of republican government, it was necessary to abolish the principle of primogeniture. I drew the law of descents, giving equal inheritance to sons and daughters, which made a part of the revised code.

“The attack on the establishment of a dominant religion was first made by myself. It could be carried at first only by a suspension of salaries for one year, by battling it again at the next session for another year, and so from year to year, until the public mind was ripened for the bill for establishing religious freedom, which I had prepared for the revised code also. This was at length established permanently, and by the efforts of Mr. Madison, being myself in Europe at the time that work was brought forward.

“To these particular services, I think I might add the establishment of our University, as principally my work, acknowledging at the same time, as I do, the great assistance received from my able colleagues of the Visitation. But my residence in the vicinity threw of course on me the chief burden of the enterprise, well as of the buildings, as of the general organization and care of the whole. The effect of this institution on the future fame, fortune, and prosperity of our country, can as yet be seen but at a distance. That institution is now qualified to raise its youth to an order of science unequalled in any other state; and this superiority will be the greater from the free range of mind encouraged there, and the restraint imposed at other seminaries by the shackles of a domineering hierarchy, and a bigoted adhesion to ancient habits.”

When Mr. Jefferson was a member of the Colonial Legislature, he made an effort for the emancipation of slaves; but all proposals of that kind, as well as to stop the importation of slaves, were discouraged during the colonial government. The importation of slaves into Virginia, whether by sea or land, was stopped in 1778, in the third year of the Commonwealth, by a bill brought in by Mr. Jefferson, which passed without opposition, and as Mr. Jefferson observes, “stopped the increase of the evil by importation, leaving to future efforts its final eradication[4].” The Act for the Abolition of Entails was not carried without some opposition, and that for the abolition of the Established Anglican Church was not finally carried till 1778, though before the Revolution the majority of the people had become dissenters from the Church. The reason of the difficulty lay in the majority of the legislature being churchmen.

Footnote 4:

Act in Hening’s Statutes at Large, vol ix., p. 471. Act declaring
tenants of lands, or slaves in taille, to hold the same in fee simple.
Hening, ix., p. 226.

Mr. Jefferson married, in 1772, Martha Skelton, the widow of Bathurst Skelton. She died ten years after their marriage. One daughter, and a numerous family of grandchildren and great grandchildren, survived him. He was the author of Notes on Virginia, which have been several times printed; but his reputation as a writer rests on his official papers and correspondence, of which latter, we believe, that which is published forms only a part of what he left behind him.

The authorities here used are Jefferson’s Memoirs, Correspondence, &c., London, 1829, and part of the forthcoming Life of Jefferson, by Professor Tucker, of the University of Virginia. An article in the Journal of Education, No. 7, by Professor Tucker, contains a full account of the University of Virginia. To these sources we add, as evidence for some opinions expressed, some personal knowledge of Mr. Jefferson during the last two years of his life.

WILBERFORCE.

William Wilberforce, whose name a heartfelt, enlightened, and unwearied philanthropy, directing talents of the highest order, has enrolled among those of the most illustrious benefactors of mankind, was born August 24, 1759, in Hull, where his ancestors had been long and successfully engaged in trade. By his father’s death he was left an orphan at an early age. He received the chief part of his education at the grammar school of Pocklington, in Yorkshire, and at St. John’s College, Cambridge, of which he became a fellow-commoner about 1776 or 1777. When just of age, and apparently before taking his B.A. degree, he was returned for his native town at the general election of 1780. In 1784 he was returned again; but being also chosen member for Yorkshire, he elected to sit for that great county, which he continued to represent until the year 1812, during six successive parliaments. From 1812 to 1825, when he retired from parliament, he was returned by Lord Calthorpe for the borough of Bramber. His politics were in general those of Mr. Pitt’s party, and his first prominent appearance was in 1783, in opposition to Mr. Fox’s India Bill. In 1786 he introduced and carried through the Commons a bill for the amendment of our criminal code, which was roughly handled by the Lord Chancellor Thurlow, and rejected in the House of Lords without a division.

_Engraved by E. Scriven._

WILBERFORCE.

_From a Picture by George Richmond._

Under the Superintendence of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful
Knowledge

_London, Published by Charles Knight & C^o. Ludgate Street._
]

At the time when Mr. Wilberforce was rising into manhood, the iniquity of the Slave Trade had engaged in a slight degree the attention of the public. To the Quakers belongs the high honour of having taken the lead in denouncing that unjust and unchristian traffic. At the beginning of the eighteenth century, during the life of Penn, the Quakers of Pennsylvania passed a censure upon it, and from time to time the Society of Friends expressed their disapprobation of the deportation of negroes, until in 1761 they completed their good work by a resolution to disown all such as continued to be engaged in it. Occasionally the question was brought before magistrates, whether a slave became entitled to his liberty upon landing in England. In 1765 Granville Sharp came forward as the protector of a negro, who, having been abandoned and cast upon the world in disease and misery by his owner, was healed and assisted through the charity of Mr. Sharp’s brother. Recovering his value with his health, he was claimed and seized by his master, and would have been shipped to the colonies, as many Africans were, but for the prompt and resolute interference of Mr. Sharp. In several similar cases the same gentleman came forward successfully: but the general question was not determined, or even argued, until 1772, when the celebrated case of the negro Somerset was brought before the Court of King’s Bench, which adjudged, after a deliberate hearing, that in England the right of the master over the slave could not be maintained. The general question was afterwards, in 1778, decided still more absolutely by the Scotch Courts, in the case of Wedderburn _v._ Knight. In 1783 an event occurred well qualified to rouse the feelings of the nation, and call its attention to the atrocities of which the Slave Trade was the cause and pretext. An action was brought by certain underwriters against the owners of the ship Zong, on the ground that the captain had caused 132 weak, sickly slaves to be thrown overboard, for the purpose of claiming their value, for which the plaintiffs would not have been liable if the cargo had died a natural death. The fact of the drowning was admitted, and defended on the plea that want of water had rendered it necessary; though it appeared that the crew had not been put upon short allowance. It now seems incredible that no criminal proceeding should have been instituted against the perpetrators of this wholesale murder.

In 1785 the Vice-Chancellor of Cambridge proposed, as the subject for the Bachelor’s Prize Essay, the question, Is it allowable to enslave men without their consent? Thomas Clarkson, who had gained the prize in the preceding year, again became a candidate. Conceiving that the thesis, though couched in general terms, had an especial reference to the African Slave Trade, he went to London to make inquiries on the subject. Investigation brought under his view a mass of cruelties and abominations, which engrossed his thoughts and shocked his imagination. By night and day they haunted him; and he has described in lively colours the intense pain which this composition, undertaken solely in the spirit of honourable rivalry, inflicted on him. He gained the prize, but found it impossible to discard the subject from his thoughts. In the succeeding autumn, after great struggles of mind, he resolved to give up his plan for entering the Church, and devoted time, health and substance (to use his own words) to “seeing these calamities to an end.” In sketching the progress of this great measure, the name of Wilberforce alone will be presented to view; and it is our duty therefore, in the first place, to make honourable mention of him who roused Wilberforce in the cause, and whose athletic vigour and indomitable perseverance surmounted danger, difficulties, fatigues, and discouragements, which few men could have endured, in the first great object of collecting evidence of the cruelties habitually perpetrated in the Slave Trade.

In the first stage of his proceedings, Mr. Clarkson, in the course of his application to members of Parliament, called on Mr. Wilberforce, who stated, that “the subject had often employed his thoughts, and was near his heart.” He inquired into the authorities for the statements laid before him, and became, not only convinced of, but impressed with, the paramount duty of abolishing so hateful a traffic. Occasional meetings of those who were alike interested were held at his house; and in May, 1787, a committee was formed, of which Wilberforce became the Parliamentary leader. Early in 1788 he gave notice of his intention to bring the subject before the House: but owing to his severe indisposition that task was ultimately undertaken by Mr. Pitt, who moved and carried a resolution, pledging the House in the ensuing session to enter on the consideration of the subject. Accordingly, May 12, 1789, Mr. Wilberforce moved a series of resolutions, founded on a report of the Privy Council, exposing the iniquity and cruelty of the traffic in slaves, the mortality which it occasioned among white as well as black men, and the neglect of health and morals by which the natural increase of the race in our West India islands was checked; and concluding with a declaration, that if the causes were removed by which that increase was checked, no considerable inconvenience would result from discontinuing the importation of African slaves. Burke, Pitt, and Fox supported the resolutions. Mr. Wilberforce’s speech was distinguished by eloquence and earnestness, and by its unanswerable appeals to the first principles of justice and religion. The consideration of the subject was ultimately adjourned to the following session. In that, and in two subsequent sessions, the motions were renewed, and the effect of pressing such a subject upon the attention of the country was to open the eyes of many who would willingly have kept them closed, yet could not deny the existence of the evils so forced on their view. In 1792 Mr. Wilberforce’s motion for the Abolition of the Slave Trade was met by a proposal to insert in it the word “gradually;” and in pursuance of the same policy, Mr. Dundas introduced a bill to provide for its discontinuance in 1800. The date was altered to 1796, and in that state the bill passed the Commons, but was stopped in the Upper House by a proposal to hear evidence upon it. Mr. Wilberforce annually renewed his efforts, and brought every new argument to bear upon the question, which new discoveries, or the events of the times, produced. In 1799 the friends of the measure resolved on letting it repose for a while, and for five years Mr. Wilberforce contented himself with moving for certain papers; but he took an opportunity of assuring the House that he had not grown cool in the cause, and that he would renew the discussion in a future session. On the 30th of May, 1804, he once more moved for leave to bring in his bill for the Abolition of the Slave Trade, in a speech of great eloquence and effect. He took the opportunity of making a powerful appeal to the Irish members, before whom, in consequence of the Union, this question was now for the first time brought, and the greater part of whom supported it. The division showed a majority of 124 to 49 in his favour; and the bill was carried through the Commons, but was again postponed in the House of Lords. In 1805 he renewed his motion, but on this occasion it was lost in the Commons by over-security among the friends of the measure. But when Mr. Fox and Lord Grenville took office in 1806, the Abolition was brought forward by the ministers, most of whom supported it, though it was not made a government question in consequence of several members of the cabinet opposing it. The Attorney General (Sir A. Pigott) brought in a bill which was passed into a law, prohibiting the Slave Trade in the conquered colonies, and excluding British subjects from engaging in the foreign Slave Trade; and Mr. Fox, at Mr. Wilberforce’s special request, introduced a resolution pledging the House to take the earliest measures for effectually abolishing the whole Slave Trade: this resolution was carried by a majority of 114 to 15; and January 2, 1807, Lord Grenville brought forward a bill for the Abolition of the Slave Trade, in the House of Lords, which passed safely through both Houses of Parliament. As however the King was believed to be unfriendly to the measure, some alarm was felt by its friends, lest its fate might still be affected by the dismissal of the ministers, which had been determined upon. Those fears were groundless; for though they received orders to deliver up the seals of their offices on the 25th of March, the royal assent was given by commission by the Lord Chancellor Erskine on the same day; and thus the last act of the administration was to conclude a contest, maintained by prejudice and interest during twenty years, for the support of what Mr. Pitt denominated “the greatest practical evil that ever afflicted the human race.”

Among other testimonies to Mr. Wilberforce’s merits, we are not inclined to omit that of Sir James Mackintosh, who in his journal, May 23, 1808, speaks thus of Wilberforce on the “Abolition.” This refers to a pamphlet on the Slave Trade which Mr. Wilberforce had published in 1806. “Almost as much enchanted by Mr. Wilberforce’s book as by his conduct. He is the very model of a reformer. Ardent without turbulence, mild without timidity or coolness, neither yielding to difficulties, nor disturbed or exasperated by them; patient and meek, yet intrepid; persisting for twenty years through good report and evil report; just and charitable even to his most malignant enemies; unwearied in every experiment to disarm the prejudices of his more rational and disinterested opponents, and supporting the zeal, without dangerously exciting the passions, of his adherents.”

The rest of Mr. Wilberforce’s parliamentary conduct was consistent with his behaviour on this question. In debates chiefly political he rarely took a forward part: but where religion and morals were directly concerned, points on which few cared to interfere, and where a leader was wanted, he never shrunk from the advocacy of his opinions. He was a supporter of Catholic Emancipation and Parliamentary Reform; he condemned the encouragement of gambling, in the shape of lotteries established by Government; he insisted on the cruelty of employing boys of tender age as chimney sweepers; he attempted to procure a legislative enactment against duelling, after the hostile meeting between Pitt and Tierney; and on the renewal of the East India Company’s charter in 1816, he gave his zealous support to the propagation of Christianity in Hindostan, in opposition to those who, as has been more recently done in the West Indies, represented the employment of missionaries to be inconsistent with the preservation of our empire. It is encouraging to observe, that with the exception of the one levelled against duelling, all these measures, however violently opposed and unfairly censured, have been carried in a more or less perfect form.

As an author, Mr. Wilberforce’s claim to notice is chiefly derived from his treatise entitled A Practical View of the prevailing religious system of professing Christians in the higher and middle classes in this country, contrasted with Real Christianity. The object of it was to show that the standard of life generally adopted by those classes, not only fell short of, but was inconsistent with, the doctrines of the Gospel. It has justly been applauded as a work of no common courage, not from the asperity of its censures, for it breathes throughout a spirit of gentleness and love, but on the joint consideration of the unpopularity of the subject and the writer’s position. The Bishop of Calcutta, in his introductory essay, justly observes, that “the author in attempting it risked every thing dear to a public man and a politician, as such—consideration, weight, ambition, reputation.” And Scott, the divine, one of the most fearless and ardent of men, viewed the matter in the same light, for he wrote, “Taken in all its probable effects, I do sincerely think such a stand for vital Christianity has not been made in my memory. He has come out beyond my expectations.” Of a work so generally known we shall not describe the tendency more at large. It is said to have gone through about twenty editions in Britain, since the publication in 1797, and more in America; and to have been translated into most European languages.

In the discharge of his parliamentary duties Mr. Wilberforce was punctual and active beyond his apparent strength: and those who further recollect his diligent attendance on a vast variety of public meetings and committees connected with religious and charitable purposes, will wonder how a frame naturally weak should so long have endured the wear of such exertion. In 1788, when his illness was a matter of deep concern to the Abolitionists, Dr. Warren said that he had not stamina to last a fortnight. No doubt his bodily powers were greatly aided by the placid and happy frame of mind which he habitually enjoyed: but it is important to relate his own opinion, as delivered by an ear-witness, on the physical benefits which he derived from a strict abstinence from temporal affairs on Sundays. “I have often heard him assert that he never could have sustained the labour and stretch of mind required in his early political life, if it had not been for the rest of his Sabbath: and that he could name several of his contemporaries in the vortex of political cares, whose minds had actually given way under the stress of intellectual labour, so as to bring on a premature death, or the still more dreadful catastrophe of insanity and suicide, who, humanly speaking, might have been preserved in health, if they would but conscientiously have observed the Sabbath.” (Venn’s Sermon.)

In 1797 Mr. Wilberforce married Miss Spooner, daughter of an eminent banker at Birmingham. Four sons survive him. He died, after a gradual decline, July 29, 1833, in Cadogan Place. He directed that his funeral should be conducted without the smallest pomp; but his orders were disregarded in compliance with a requisition addressed to his relatives by many of the most distinguished men of all parties, and couched in the following terms:—“We, the undersigned Members of both Houses of Parliament, being anxious, upon public grounds, to show our respect for the memory of the late William Wilberforce, and being also satisfied that public honours can never be more fitly bestowed than upon such benefactors of mankind, earnestly request that he may be buried in Westminster Abbey, and that we, and others who may agree with us in these sentiments, may have permission to attend his funeral.” The attendance of both Houses was numerous. Mr. Wilberforce was interred within a few yards of his great contemporaries Pitt, Fox, and Canning.

Among the other honours paid to his memory may be mentioned the York meeting, held October 3, 1833, at which it was resolved to erect a public memorial in testimony of the high estimation in which Mr. Wilberforce’s character and services were held by men of all parties: and further, “that it is advisable (if the sum raised be adequate) to found a benevolent institution, of a useful description, in this country, and to put up a tablet to the memory of Mr. Wilberforce; but should the subscriptions be insufficient to accomplish such an object, that they should be applied to the erection of a monument.” An asylum for the indigent blind has in consequence been founded. At Hull a monument has likewise been erected to his memory by public subscription; and a statue by Joseph is about to be placed in Westminster Abbey, also by subscription, the surplus of the fund thus raised being reserved for founding an institution congenial to his principles, as soon as it shall be sufficient for the purpose.

No fitting life of Mr. Wilberforce has yet appeared. A short memoir, from the pen of a friend, appeared in the Christian Advocate, August 5, 1833; which we believe may be relied on for accuracy, and which seems to form the basis of other memoirs in the periodical publications. The funeral sermons of Messrs. Brown, Scott, and Venn contain some interesting anecdotes, which are told on good authority.

_Engraved by J. Posselwhite._

BLACK.

_From a Print by Ja^s. Heath, after a Picture by Raeburn._

Under the Superintendence of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful
Knowledge.

_London, Published by Charles Knight & C^o. Ludgate Street._
]

DR BLACK.

Joseph Black was born in 1728, near Bourdeaux in France, where his father, a native of Ireland, but of Scottish extraction, who was engaged in the wine trade, then resided. In 1740 young Black was sent home to receive the rudiments of education at a grammar-school in Belfast. Thence he went, in 1746, to Glasgow, and having chosen the profession of medicine, proceeded in that university with the preliminary studies.

At that period, Dr. Cullen had just entered on the then untrodden paths of philosophical chemistry in his lectures, at which Black was an assiduous attendant. He soon formed an intimacy with his instructor, with whom he associated himself in the toils of the laboratory. It was here that he laid the foundation of his future attainments and discoveries, in an accurate and practical knowledge of the science as far as it then reached, and above all in the cultivation of habits of precise and cautious inductive investigation.

In 1750 he removed to Edinburgh to complete his medical course; and it was in connexion with the important inquiries belonging to that department that he made his first discoveries in chemistry.

His first object of research was one which possessed high medical as well as chemical interest:—the nature and properties of magnesia. This substance had hitherto been confounded with lime: Dr. Black first showed it to be characterized by peculiar properties which demonstrate its distinct nature as a separate species of earth. The second point of his investigation was the difference between mild and caustic alkalis, between limestone and quick-lime, common and calcined magnesia, &c. The whole of this subject was at that period involved in complete obscurity. Dr. Black showed by simple and decisive experiments the real condition of these substances, and indicated the general law by which they are governed, viz.:—that the difference consists merely in the combination of the simple earth or alkali with a peculiar air, which is driven off by heat, and which was called _fixed air_ by him, and _carbonic acid gas_ by later chemists. He did not however prosecute the inquiry into the nature and properties of this gas. This discovery supplied the foundation on which all subsequent researches and theories have been built. He gave an account of these investigations in an inaugural dissertation, composed as an exercise on taking his Doctor’s degree, and in a paper entitled Experiments on Magnesia Alba, &c., first published in the Edinburgh Physical and Literary Essays in 1755.