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Rodney. And it was with great difficulty, and not until the last day of the Session, that there passed a measure on the subject, though curtailed of its first proportions.

The result so far, however, was encouraging to the Committee of Management under Mr. Granville Sharpe. They despatched Mr. Clarkson as their agent from place to place, partly to obtain information, and partly to diffuse their opinions. For their own seal they had chosen a design well adapted for popular effect. It represented an African in chains, kneeling with one knee upon the ground, and raising his hands in supplication, while around him the motto ran: "Am I not a man and a brother?"

Of the gross exaggerations and misstatements which were at this time put forward in defence of the Slave Trade one instance may suffice. Several of the dealers or captains had not scrupled to assert that the Middle Passage was perhaps the happiest period of the negroes' lives; that they were constantly well fed; that the close air below in the holds was congenial to their frame of body; and that when upon deck they made merry and amused themselves with their national dances. But the real facts were disclosed by the evidence before the Privy Council. It was found that the poor wretches were chained two and two together, and secured by ring-bolts to the lower decks. The allowance for each was one pint of water daily, and they had two meals of yams and horse-beans. After eating they were loosened from their rings, and allowed to jump up in their irons, as an exercise necessary for

their health; and for that reason it was not only permitted but urged on them by lashes whenever they refused. And such, then, were the "national dances" which had been so boldly and boastfully alleged!

In comparing the controversies on Slave Trade and on Slavery as they once prevailed in England, and as they still prevail in the United States, we may feel some surprise as we observe how much they run in opposite directions. With us the defence was based in the first instance on such arguments as the supposed predictions of Holy Writ, or the personal interest of the slave-dealers to study the good health and wellbeing of their slaves. By degrees these arguments were utterly refuted and overthrown. Then the advocates of the existing system, while acknowledging the general considerations against it to be irresistible, took their stand on what lawyers would have termed a dilatory plea. They contended, and certainly with great truth, that the question was no longer a plain and simple one, but had become interwoven with many practical considerations; that care must be taken of the interests which had grown up under a system which the law had sanctioned; and that even for the sake of the negroes themselves the great work of their Emancipation should be accomplished by slow degrees. In America the course of the discussion has been the very reverse. We may learn from such high authorities as the letters of Washington or the travels of Tocqueville that till within these thirty years the force of the general arguments against Slave Trade and Slavery was not denied, and that the planters of the south,

with few exceptions, relied, as they justly might, on the particular grounds for caution and delay. But since that time there has been taken a large step in advance. Slavery is no longer excused as an existing evil rendered necessary by especial circumstances, and to endure only for a time, but is rather vindicated as a laudable and lasting "institution." Nay, there are even found some clergymen among them so keen and thorough-going as to say—and not only to say, but to preach—that Slavery as a permanent system is perfectly consistent with, or rather enjoined by, the leading principles of the Gospel.

CHAPTER XI.

1788.

Official changes and appointments - Treaties of Defensive Alliance with Holland and Prussia - Mental alienation of the King - Pitt's measures - Prince of Wales consults Lord Loughborough - Manifestation of national sympathy-Objects of Pitt and Thurlow Meeting of Parliament — The King's removal to Kew-Fox's return from Italy.

THE Session of 1788, marked both by important measures and by eloquent debates, was closed on the 11th of July by a Speech from the Throne. Even before its close Mr. Pitt had been much intent on some official changes and new appointments. On the chief of these we find him write to his mother as follows:

"MY DEAR MOTHER,

66

Downing Street, June 19, 1788.

"You have been infinitely good, as usual, in making more allowance than could fairly be claimed for the calls of business as well as for some necessary intervals of idleness. I feel, however, really ashamed of having availed myself so long of the latitude you gave. Business is now fairly at an end in the House of Commons, and will probably finish in the House of Lords so as to admit of the Prorogation in the course of next week. The Session ends most satisfactorily, and its close will be accompanied by some events which add not a little to that satisfaction. I

feel, indeed, no small pleasure in having to communicate a piece of news which will, I believe, fully make up for my long silence, and which you will be as happy in hearing as I am in telling. It is no other than this, that a new arrangement in the Admiralty is, from various circumstances, become unavoidable, that Lord Howe must be succeeded by a landsman, and that landsman is my brother. I have had some doubts whether the public may not think this too much like monopoly, but that doubt is not sufficient to counterbalance the personal comfort which will result from it and the general advantage to the whole of our system. You will, I am sure, be happy to hear that Lord Howe does not quit without a public mark of honour by a fresh step in the peerage, without which, I own, I should feel more regret than I can pretend to do now. Another event which you will not be sorry to learn is the conclusion of a very satisfactory alliance with Russia, which will probably lead to a very secure and permanent system of Continental politics.

“I am going, the end of next week, if our arrangement is by that time completed, for a few days to Cambridge, and a fortnight or three weeks after will, I hope, bring me to Burton. Be so good as to let my news remain an entire secret, as it should not transpire till it takes effect.

"Ever, my dear Mother, &c.,

"W. PITT."

The same appointment is thus referred to in a letter from Mr. Grenville to his brother in Ireland:

"Pitt's intention is to place his brother at the head of the Admiralty, giving him Sir Charles Middleton

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