for many years, partly on account of the French Revolution, and partly because of the excesses of the revolted negroes in St. Domingo. Ultimately, Wilberforce, Tory and enthusiastic Pittite though he was, placed his main reliance on Fox. His death seemed to dash the philanthropist's hopes to the ground, but Lord Grenville took up the question with zeal, and on the Ministry of "All the Talents" being formed, Brougham and his coadjutors were sent on the mission to Portugal to which we have referred. The envoys on their return held out good hopes that Portugal, which, with the United States and England, chiefly carried on the traffic, would concede. On the 2nd of January, 1807, Lord Grenville brought in his Abolition Bill in the Upper House. Lord Eldon wished to know whether it was the African and West India Trade (from island to island) that was proposed to be abolished, or the former alone. The immediate answer was, "The former alone." Eldon replied that the same principle would be soon applied to the case of the West Indies. Between the first and second readings counsel were heard at the bar of the House, representing the "vested interests" of the West India merchants (ie., slave dealers) and planters, and the merchants, corporation, and dock trustees of Liverpool. There was much opposition to the measure, but rather to the time chosen than to the abolition itself. Lord Sidmouth, especially, pressed for delay. He suggested, as Burke had done long before him, that churches should first be built, and the institution of marriage introduced among our slaves. But the second reading was carried by a large majority, and the third was unopposed. On the 24th of February, Lord Howick moved the final reading

of the Bill in the House of Commons. It was carried by the enormous majority of 283 to 16. Wilberforce received the honour of three hearty rounds of cheering. His old friends and fellow-labourers crowded round him, and shook him heartily by the hand. The philanthropist, at once eager to raise a new quarry of inhumanity, said to Thornton, "Well, Henry, what shall we abolish next?" "The lottery, I think," his friend replied.

BROUGHAM

CHAPTER V.

ENTERS

PARLIAMENT.

A.D. 1810-1812.

The Orders in Council-First Seat in Parliament-Maiden SpeechThe Slave Trade-The Currency-Contest with Canning for the Representation of Liverpool.

IN a former chapter we furnished a somewhat brief explanation of the revival of the old dispute about “mare liberum" and " mare clausum," entered into between the Armed Neutrality of the Northern Powers, acting at the instigation of Napoleon, and England, acting in defence of her sovereignty of the seas. Since that period the power of Napoleon had vastly increased, and he hurled a still more terrible weapon of attack at England, after the bloody battles of Jena, Auerstadt, and Friezland had coerced Prussia and Russia into submission to his behests. From Berlin, after the Treaty of Tilsit, he issued the famous decree which drew a cordon of exclusion around the British Isles, and sealed up the whole stretch of the Continental shores, from the Baltic to the Adriatic, against our commerce. Everything produced or manufactured in England, or in any of her colonies, was declared contraband, the property of British subjects was adjudged lawful prize, and all their letters were ordered to be detained and opened. This was done in retaliation for the efficient blockade which the Fox and Grenvilie Adminis

tration kept up around the shores of France-the first time the whole of France had been blockaded since the glorious days of Chatham and the Seven Years' War. This "Continental System" of Napoleon's was most suicidal; it was opposed to nature, to the necessities of commerce, and to the daily wants of the luxurious life of civilised people. If left to itself, the system would have broken down, as was, indeed, indicated by the fact that Napoleon was soon compelled to sell exceptional "licences" to traders, who were exempted from the prohibition against the importation of English goods. But the English Government, in their madness, remaining blind to the consideration that the "Continental System" did as much harm to France and the Continent as to England, resolved on a measure of reprisal. On the 7th of January, 1807, the well-known Orders in Council were issued. Their provisions were these :-All vessels, of whatever nation, sailing for France, unless they had previously touched at English ports, were declared lawful prize, and privateers, as well as vessels of war, were permitted to exercise "the right of search." Even vessels that were freighted with drugs and medicaments for wounded soldiers lying in foreign hospitals, were placed in the same category as any others. The madness of Napoleon was equalled only by the madness of the English nation. George Rose is reported to have said, while replying to a deputation from Birmingham which had come to entreat the Government to put a stop to the suicidal contest, that England and France occupied the same position as two men holding their heads in a bucket of water, trying which could longest endure the pain of suffocation. We, too, had to depart from the

strict rigour of our plan by the granting of "licences." But, as Brougham very correctly pointed out, this was a peculiarly dangerous practice; the licences were a matter of favour, or purchase, and the state of things which permitted their existence could not fail largely to increase the illegal power of the Crown and its Ministers. Immediately after the issue of the Orders in Council, alarm, distress, and discontent prevailed in the country, We incensed America against us by our assertion of the right to overhaul and capture her merchant-vessels, and destroyed the large indirect trade we had been doing with France in American bottoms. The merchants of London, Manchester, and Liverpool were especial sufferers, and deputed Mr. Brougham, in 1808, to represent them at the bar of the House of Lords. The arguments of the defenders of the Orders were thus summarised :— "We are assailed in our most vital interests. To France and Germany it may be inconvenient to be deprived of our colonial produce and our home manufactures, but to us it is destruction. They can subsist upon their fields, dispense with Oriental condiments, and content themselves with coarse substitutes for the finer fabrics of our looms. But with our trade our agriculture droops, unable to feed the millions that are now estranged from its labours. The United States already possesses half the number of our merchant ships, and will fetch and carry for the world in neutral bottoms." Brougham, as the advocate of English traders, and Baring, as their representative in the House of Commons, rejoined with arguments such as these:-"We are not justified by this assault on our interests to strike at States that may profit by our distress. The laws of trade will prove too