recognised by every one who was accustomed to associate with him in such scenes:

"Who that ever joined him in his hour of daily exercise, cannot see him now as he walked round his garden at Highwood, now in animated and even playful conversation, and then drawing from his copious pockets (to contain Dalrymple's State Papers was their standard measure) a Psalter, a Horace, a Shakspeare, or Cowper, and reading or reciting chosen passages, and then catching at long stored flower leaves as the wind blew them from the pages, or standing by a favourite gumcistus to repair the loss. Then he would point out the harmony of the tints, the beauty of the pencilling and the perfection of the colouring, and sum up all into those ascriptions of praise to the Almighty which were ever welling from his grateful heart. He loved flowers with all the simple delight of childhood. He would hover from bed to bed over his favourites, and when he came in, even from his shortest walk, he deposited a few that he had gathered safely in his room before he joined the breakfast table. Often he would say as he enjoyed their fragrance, 'How good is God to us. What should we think of a friend who had furnished us with a magnificent house and all we needed, and then coming in to see that all had been provided according to his wishes, should he be hurt to find that no scents had been placed in the rooms? Yet so has God dealt with us-lovely flowers are the smiles of his goodness.""

The following letter to one of his children exhibits Mr. Wilberforce in one of those racters in which he excelled most men:

"Battersea Rise, Sept. 14, 1814.

assure him that I am to-day, to-morrow, and
always while I exist, his affectionate father.
"W. WILBERFORCE."

Mr. Wilberforce excelled in the arts of hospitality, and delighted in the practice of them. His cordial welcome taught the most casual guest to feel that he was at home; and the mass of his friends and acquaintance could scarcely suppose that there was a domestic sanctuary still more sacred and privileged than that into which they were admitted. Amongst them are not a few obscure, with some illustrious names; and of the latter Mr. Pitt is by far the most conspicuous.

There is no one filling so large a space in recent history as Mr. Pitt, with whose private habits the world is so little acquainted. These volumes do not contribute much to dispel the obscurity. We find him indeed at one time passing an evening in classical studies or amusements with Mr. Canning; and at another, cutting walks through his plantations at Holwood, with the aid of Mr. Wilberforce and Lord Grenville. But on the whole, the William Pitt of this work is the austere minister with whom we were already acquainted, and not the man himself in his natural or in his emancipated state.

The following extract of a letter from Mr. Wilberforce is almost the only passage which gives us an intimation of the careless familiarity in which for many years they lived together:

"And now after having transacted my business with the minister, a word or two to the cha-man-a character in which, if it is more pleasant to you, it is no less pleasant to me to address you. I wish you may be passing your time half as salubriously and comfortably as I am at Gisborne's, where I am breathing good air, eating good mutton, keeping good hours, and enjoying the company of good friends. You have only two of the four at command, nor these always in so pure a state as in Needwood Forest; your town mutton being apt to be woolly, and your town friends to be interested: however, I sincerely believe you are, through the goodness of Providence, better off in the latter particular, than has been the fate of ninety-nine ministers out of a hundred; and as for the former, the quantity you lay in may in some degree atone for the quality; and it is a sign that neither in friends nor mutton you have yet lost your taste. Indeed, I shall reckon it a bad symptom of your moral or corporal state, as the case may be, when your palate is so vitiated, that you cannot distinguish the true from the false flavour. All this is sad stuff, but you must allow us gentlemen who live in forests to be a little figurative. I will only add, however, (that I may not quite exhaust your patience,) that I hope you will never cease to relish me, and do me the justice to believe the ingredients are good, though you may not altogether approve of the cooking. Yours ever,

"My very dear
"I do not relish the idea that you are the
only one of my children who has not written
to me during my absence, and that you should
be the only one to whom I should not write. I
therefore take up my pen, though but for a few
moments, to assure you that I do not suspect
your silence to have arisen from the want of
affection for me, any more than that which I
myself have hitherto observed has proceeded
from this source. There is a certain demon
called procrastination, who inhabits a castle in
the air at Sandgate, as well as at so many
other places, and I suspect that you have been
carried up some day (at the tail of your kite
perhaps) and lodged in that same habitation,
which has fine large rooms in it from which
there are beautiful prospects in all directions;
and probably you will not quit a dwelling-place
that you like so well, till you hear that I am on
my way to Sandgate. You will meet the to-
morrow man there, (it just occurs to me,) and
I hope you will have prevailed on him to tell
you the remainder of that pleasant story, a part
of which Miss Edgeworth has related, though I
greatly fear he would still partake so far of the
spirit of the place as to leave a part untold till
-to-morrow. But I am trifling sadly, since I
am this morning unusually pressed for time, I
will therefore only guard my dear boy se-
riously against procrastination, one of the
most dangerous assailants of usefulness, and

"W. WILBERFORCE."

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. | tete he gave me an account of the negotiations Tierney, Mr. Wilberforce had designed to which had been on foot to induce him to enter bring the subject under the notice of the House Addington's administration. When they quitted of Commons. The intention was defeated by office in 1801, Dundas proposed taking as his the following kind and characteristic letter: motto, Jam rude donatus. Pitt suggested to him that having always been an active man, "My dear Wilberforce: office, and then that his having taken such a he would probably wish again to come into 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 bring in Pitt and Addington on equal terms was to appoint some third person head, and under him. Dundas, accordingly, confiding in his knowledge of all Pitt's ways and feelings, set out for Walmer Castle; and after dinner, and Port wine, began cautiously to open his proposals. But he saw it would not do, and stopped abruptly. Really,' said Pitt with a sly severity, and it was almost the only sharp thing I ever heard him say of any friend, 'I had not the curiosity to ask what I was to be.""

"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 (however 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.

"In doing so, you will be accessary in loadone of the parties with unfair and unmerited obloquy. With respect to the other party, myself, I feel it a real duty to say to you frankly that your motion is one for my removal. If any step on the subject is proposed in Parliament and agreed to, I shall feel from that moment that I can be of no more use out of office than in it; for in it according to the feelings I entertain, I could be of none. I state to you, as I think I ought, distinctly and explicitly what I feel. I hope I need not repeat what I always feel personally to yourself."My dear Sir, WILLIAM PITT."

Your's ever,

"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:

"When a statement had been made to the house of the cruel practices approaching certainly to torture, by which the discovery of concealed arms had been enforced in Ireland, John Claudius Beresford rose to reply, and said with a force and honesty, the impression of which I never can forget, 'I fear, and feel deep shame 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 countenance, 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:

Amongst the letters addressed to Mr. Wilberforce, to be found in these volumes, is one written by John Wesley from his death-bed, on the day before he sank into the lethargy from which he was never roused. They are probably the last written words of that extraor dinary man.

"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; and 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 the name of God, and in the power of his might, till even American slavery, the vilest that ever saw the sun, shall vanish away before it. That He who has guided you from your youth up, may continue to strengthen you in this and all things, is the prayer of, dear sir, your affectionate servant,

"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,

general in the house or elsewhere, be pleased "The next time you happen on Mr. Attorneyto take a spike-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.

"I had perceived above a year before that Lord Melville had not the power over Pitt's mind, which he once possessed. Pitt was taking me to Lord Camden's, and in our tete-a- by Mr. Abbot."

"JEREMY BENTHAM.”

"N. B. A corking-pin was, yesterday, applied

"I sympathize with your now happily pro- | in every week, and a Sabbatical hour in every mising exertions in behalf of the race of inno- day." Those days and hours gave him back cents, whose lot it has hitherto been to be made the subject-matter of depredation, for the purpose of being treated worse than the authors of such crimes are treated for those crimes in other places."

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 Looking back with gratitude, sometimes eloa consciousness not less habitual or intense quent, but more often from the depth of the of their inherent vanity. There is a seeming emotion faltering on the tongue, to his long paradox in the solicitude with which he de- career of usefulness, of honour, and enjoyvoted so much of his life to secular pursuits, ment, he watched with grave serenity the ebb and the very light esteem in which he held of the current which was fast bearing him to them. The solution of the enigma is to be his eternal reward. He died in his seventyfound in his unremitting habits of devotion. fifth year, in undisturbed tranquillity, after a No man could more scrupulously obey the very brief illness, and without any indication precept which Mr. Taylor has given to his of bodily suffering. He was buried in West"Statesman"-To observe a "Sabbatical day | minster Abbey, in the presence of a large

number of the members of both Houses of | brings us into acquaintance with a circle in Parliament; nor was the solemn ritual of the which were projected and matured many of church ever pronounced over the grave of any the great schemes of benevolence by which of her children with more affecting or more our age has been distinguished, and shows appropriate truth. Never was recited, on a how partial is the distribution of renown in more fit occasion, the sublime benediction- the world in which we are living. A more "I heard a voice from heaven, saying, Write, equal dispensation of justice would have blessed are the dead who die in the Lord, for awarded a far more conspicuous place amongst they rest from their labours, and their works the benefactors of mankind to the names of do follow them." Mr. Stephen and Mr. Macaulay, than has ever yet been assigned to them.

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 which 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 taste 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.

Biography, considered as an art, has been destroyed by the greatest of all biographers, James Boswell. His success must be forgotten before Plutarch or Isaac Walton will find either rivals or imitators. Yet memoirs, into which every thing illustrative of the character or fortunes of the person to be described is drawn, can never take a permanent place in literature, unless the hero be himself as pic turesque as Johnson, nor unless the writer be gifted with the dramatic powers of Boswell. Mr. Wilberforce was an admirable subject for graphic sketches in this style; but the hand of a son could not have drawn them without impropriety, and they have never been delineated by others. A tradition, already fading, alone preserves the memory of those social powers which worked as a spell on every one who approached him, and drew from 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 deIt scend with honour to the latest times.

THE LIVES OF WHITFIELD AND FROUDE.*

[EDINBURGH REVIEW, 1838.]

Ir the enemies of Christianity in the com- proofs of the credibility of the Gospels. A mencement of the last century failed to accom-greater than any of these, Joseph Butler, was plish its overthrow, they were at least suc- induced, by the same adversaries, to investicessful in producing what at present appears gate the analogy of natural and revealed relito have been a strange and unreasonable gion, and Berkeley and Sherlock, with a long panic. Middleton, Bolingbroke, and Mande- catalogue of more obscure names, crowded to ville, have now lost their terrors; and (in common with the heroes of the Dunciad) Chubb, Toland, Collins, and Woolston, are remembered only on account of the brilliancy of the Auto-da-fe at which they suffered. To these writers, however, belongs the credit of having suggested to Clarke his inquiries into the elementary truth on which all religion depends; and by them Warburton was provoked to "demonstrate" the Divine legation of Moses. They excited Newton to explore the fulfilment of prophecy, and Lardner to accumulate the

The Life and Times of the Rev. George Whitfield, M. A. By ROBERT PHILIP. 8vo. London, 1838.

Remains of the Rev. Richard Hurrell Froude, M. A.

Fellow of Oriel College, Oxford. 2 vols. 8vo. London, 1838.

the rescue of the menaced citadel of the faith. But in this anxiety to strengthen its defences, the garrison not only declined to attempt new conquests, but withdrew from much of their ancient dominion. In this its apologetic age, English theology was distinguished by an unwonted timidity and coldness. The alliance which it had maintained from the days of Jewel to those of Leighton, with philosophy and eloquence, with wit and poetry, was dissolved. Taylor and Hall, Donne and Hooker, Baxter and Howe, had spoken as men having authority, and with an unclouded faith in their divine mission. In that confidence they had grappled with every difficulty, and had wielded with equal energy and ease all the resources of genius and of learning. Alternately search