466 DECLINING HEALTH OF MR. FOX-SLAVE TRADE. [1806. the Speaker records that on the 31st of March Mr. Fox was taken ill at the House of Commons, and that Mr. Cline, the eminent surgeon, entertained a very bad opinion of his case, general symptoms appearing of a dropsical habit. Three days after, Fox spoke for an hour in the House of Commons on Windham's military plans. At the end of April, the same diarist records that Mr. Fox was "advised to retire for a time from his unceasing attention to business; which he positively refuses to do at this period." He had, indeed, no common work in hand which required the exercise of his vast ability, his energy, and his discretion. He died on the 13th of September, having been engaged to the last in consultation with his colleagues on two great points of national policy. In the House of Commons, in January 1807, lord Howick thus described the leading aspirations of Mr. Fox in the last conversation of the two friends on the 7th of September: "On that occasion he told me, that the ardent wishes of his mind were, to consummate before he died, two great works on which he had set his heart, and these were, the restoration of a solid and honourable peace, and the abolition of the slavetrade." In the one object, he did not live to see the unsuccessful issue of a negotiation with France which was begun soon after his entrance into office. In the other object he had the happiness of being partially successful; but the final success was reserved for his colleagues, as the one great measure of permanent good which they accomplished during their brief tenure of power. The history of the Abolition of the Slave-Trade is a history of individual efforts, carried on, through many years, with unexampled zeal and perseverance; and taken up, again and again, by the British Legislature, amidst slight hopes of success against an opposition resolute to defend a traffic, of which the enormity of the evil was reconciled to many minds by the magnitude of the profits. Truly, for the few enthusiasts who entered into a contest with the great merchants of Bristol and Liverpool, whose ships carried every year fifty thousand captive negroes from the African coast to the West India Islands-truly, for such as Thomas Clarkson, "it was an obstinate hill to climb." In looking back to the growth of public opinion on the subject of African slavery, some may believe that the triumphant exclamation of Cowper, "Slaves cannot live in England," had reference to an earlier time than that of lord North's administration. It was through the exertions of Mr. Granville Sharp, that it was solemnly declared "that a slave, the moment he lands in England, falls under the protection of the laws, and becomes a free man." We quote the words of Blackstone, who refers to the great case of the negro Somerset, as reported in the State Trials. That case was not decided till 1772. To the Society of Friends in England belongs the honour of the first united efforts to prevent the continuance of the Slave-Trade, against which they petitioned parliament in 1783. Clarkson was a graduate of St. John's College, Cambridge, when the vice-chancellor of the University announced as the subject of a Latin Prize Essay, "Is it right to make slaves of others against their will ?" Ciarkson obtained the prize. He has recorded *Colchester's "Diary," vol. ii. p. 48. 1806.] PROGRESS OF THE CAUSE OF ABOLITION-CLARKSON. 467 that after having read his Essay in the Senate House, on returning to London on horseback, he sat down disconsolate on the turf by the road-side, asking himself if the horrible facts stated in his own composition could be true? "Here a thought came into my mind that, if the contents of my Essay were true, it was time some person should see these calamities to their end." Timidly he asked himself, a young man of twenty-four, if the business of his life lay in that direction? He was intended for the Church. He thought that there were few labourers in the vast field which was always present to his agitated imagination; and that in that field he would work in his 66 great task-master's eye," better than in the field where the labourers were many. He translated his Essay into English, with additional facts. He became known to some zealous Quakers. He obtained introductions to Wilberforce, Pitt, and Fox. Henceforth the cause was in the hands of men whose voices would go through the world, and would speak trumpet-tongued to the justice of mankind. From this time to 1788, Clarkson pursued his great object in the most practical manner-by the collection of a vast body of details, totally new to the English people, which he published in 1788. These facts he gathered together by incessant labour; by obtaining evidence, often at his personal peril, amongst the seafaring population of the great commercial ports. The difficulty of finding a disinterested witness was almost insurmountable. He searched fifty-seven vessels to find one sailor who had been serving in the Canterbury slave-ship, and had gone up the river Calabar with the canoes of the natives, when they seized all the inhabitants of a village, and carried them off, men, women, and children. Narratives such as this roused the feelings of the country; the feelings, we mean, of families who pondered over those horrors, as dangers from without, and dangers from within, gathered around the land, and who thought that God would not bless their nation whilst it tolerated such crimes. It was a time when in this, as in every other instance, men were afraid to touch any foul ulcer of the commonwealth lest the vital parts should be endangered by the attempts to cure. Slaves were property, some said; destroy slavery and you render all property insecure. We have matters of more consequence to attend to than what you term negro wrongs, said others. The interests, so called, of the West Indies were for a long time paramount, amidst the sophistries and indifference of either party in Parliament. At length Wilberforce came, with his persuasive eloquence and his influence over Pitt, and the cause of the Abolition gradually grew into shape. In 1788, Wilberforce being seriously ill, Pitt carried a Resolution binding the House of Commons to consider the circumstances of the Slave Trade early in the ensuing Session. From that time the Abolition of the Slave Trade was never suffered to pass wholly out of the view of the English Parliament. Wilberforce and his immediate friends, who looked upon the Abolition as a great religious question, were indefatigable. Pitt, who had to deal with the matter as a statesman, was often held, perhaps unjustly, to be lukewarm. The motions of the Abolitionists were uniformly defeated in the House of Lords. In the House of Commons they were carried twice-in 1792 and in 1796-by small majorities. In 1804, Wilberforce carried his Bill by a majority of 75. Although lost in the Upper House, he was now sanguine of its ultimate success. It was, however, lost in the Commons in 1805. In 1806, under the ministry of lord Grenville and Mr. 468 NEGOTIATIONS FOR PEACE. [1806. Fox, a Bill introduced to the Peers by the First Lord of the Treasury, prohibiting British subjects from engaging in the trade for supplying foreign settlements or the conquered colonies, was carried. This almost unexpected. success called for new efforts. On the 10th of June, Mr. Fox proposed a Resolution "that this House, conceiving the African Slave Trade to be contrary to the principles of justice, humanity, and sound policy, will, with all practical expedition, proceed to take effectual measures for abolishing the said trade, in such manner, and at such period, as may be deemed advisable." The motion was carried by 114 against 15. In moving his Resolution Mr. Fox used these touching words: "So fully am I impressed with the vast importance and necessity of attaining what will be the object of my motion this day, that if, during the forty years that I have now had the honour of a seat in parliament, I had been so fortunate as to accomplish that, and that only, I should think I had done enough, and could retire from public life with comfort, and conscious satisfaction that I had done my duty." On the 19th of June, Mr. Fox spoke, for the last time, in the House of Commons. There is a pleasant reminiscence of this, his last attendance in parliament, in the Diary of lord Colchester. In the room behind the Chair he drank tea with the Speaker, whilst the evidence upon the Oude charge against lord Wellesley was being discussed in Committee. They gossiped pleasantly upon a variety of subjects;-upon the dark ages, which Fox denied to be so dark as we were apt to represent them; upon Livy's history, which he looked upon as a beautiful romance; upon the Greek historians; upon political economy, and his little faith in Adam Smith, and in the other economists, whose reasons were so plausible but so inconclusive; on the eminence of the Greeks in arts and arms, which he chiefly attributed to their abandonment of pursuits, such as those of commerce and manufactures, which engaged modern nations. "In this desultory talk he was extremely pleasant, and appeared to please himself." * A week later, Wilberforce records in his Diary, that William Smith, after they left the House, was talking of Fox constrainedly; "when at last, overcome by his feelings, he burst out, with a real divulging of his danger-dropsy. Poor fellow! how melancholy his case! he has not one religious friend, or one who knows anything about it. How wonderful God's Providence! How poor a master the world! No sooner grasps his long sought object than it shews itself a bubble, and he is forced to give it up." + The second great point upon which Mr. Fox had set his heart, when he accepted office, was the conclusion of a sound and honourable peace. He had not received the seals as Foreign Secretary longer than ten or twelve days, when he had occasion to address M. Talleyrand upon a very singular occurrence; which he felt it his duty," as an honest man," to communicate to the French minister. A person informed Mr. Fox that he had lately returned from Paris, and had something to impart which would give him satisfaction: "I received him," says Fox, "alone in my closet; when, after some unimportant conversation, this villain had the audacity to tell me, that it was necessary for the tranquillity of all crowned heads to put to death the ruler of * Lord Colchester's "Diary," vol. ii. p. 70. 1806.] NEGOTIATIONS FOR PEACE. 469 France; and that for this purpose a house had been hired at Passy, from which this detestable project could be carried into effect with certainty, and without risk." Mr. Fox caused the man to be detained, and wrote to Talleyrand, in continuation of this statement, that he could not, according to our laws, detain him long; but that the wretch should not be sent away till full time had been gained to avert any danger. The letter was laid before Bonaparte, who upon reading it said, "I recognize here the principles of honour and of virtue by which Mr. Fox has ever been actuated." On the 5th Talleyrand sent to Fox a copy of the emperor's speech to the Legislative Body. It contained these words: "I desire peace with England. On my part I shall never delay it for a moment. I shall always be ready to conclude it, taking for its basis the stipulations of the treaty of Amiens." On the 26th of March the Secretary for Foreign Affairs wrote a long despatch to the French minister, in which he stated that he had submitted the private letter to the king; that his majesty's wishes were uniformly pacific, but that a safe and lasting peace was what the king had in view, and not an uncertain truce; that the stipulations of the treaty of Amiens had been variously interpreted; but that the true basis of a negotiation would be the reciprocal recognition of the following principle: "That the object of both parties should be a peace honourable for both, and for their respective allies; and, at the same time, of a nature to secure, as far as is in their power, the future tranquillity of Europe." Many were the letters that passed between Fox and Talleyrand; in which the simple and straightforward style of the Englishman contrasts in a striking manner with the involved sentences, well adapted to conceal his thoughts, of the subtle Frenchman. Fox set out by assuming that the negotiation was to be conducted as by "two great powers, equally despising every idea of chicane." This correspondence went on up to the 14th June, the British minister insisting that the negotiation should be conducted with reference to the British alliance with Russia, and the French minister as constantly refusing to treat upon that principle. The negotiation then took another shape. Lord Yarmouth was amongst the Englishmen detained in France at the commencement of the war. Talleyrand induced him to be the medium of a communication with the Court of St. James's, of a private and confidential conversation, in which Talleyrand would explain the sentiments and views of France. At a second interview, Talleyrand told lord Yarmouth that the restoration of Hanover should be no difficulty; that the restoration of Naples to the king of Sicily should be no difficulty. Full powers were then sent to lord Yarmouth to negotiate; which he properly held back till he had seen more clearly what was really meant. Talleyrand had gone from his former propositions with regard to Sicily. At the end of July lord Yarmouth communicated to Mr. Fox that a separate treaty had been concluded between Russia and France. This was a great discouragement to the successful termination of the negotiation. But Fox still persevered in his endeavours for peace; and directed the earl of Lauderdale to proceed to Paris as a plenipotentiary, although he feared that no peace could be concluded upon terms which would be admissible. The negotiations were begun upon the principle of the uti possidetis-the principle of retaining what each party possessed. The French government shifted from that position. Meanwhile the emperor 470 END OF THE NEGOTIATIONS-DEATH OF FOX. [1806. of Russia repudiated the treaty which a rash if not treacherous agent had concluded. This fact was known in England on the 4th of September. Mr. Fox died on the 13th. The diplomatic intercourse was prolonged till the 1st of October, when lord Howick wrote to lord Lauderdale, that after six months of negotiation, there could be no reason why France should not give a plain and decisive answer upon points which had been so long under consideration. In the last note of Talleyrand which preceded the final rupture of the negotiation, he said, "The event will disclose whether a new coalition will be more disadvantageous to France than those which have preceded it. The event will also disclose whether those who complain of the grandeur and ambition of France should not impute to their own hatred and injustice this very grandeur and ambition of which they accuse her." When the papers were laid before Parliament, in January, 1807, lord Howick, who, in common with his party, had maintained that in the negotiations for peace, in the time of Mr. Pitt, the English government was chiefly to be blamed for their failure, now said that in the negotiations of 1806, "there never was any opportunity of procuring such terms as would have been adequate to the just pretensions, and consistent with the honour and interests, of this country." At that time the predictions of Talleyrand as to the issue of a new coalition had been partly accomplished. Lord Howick saw then what all true-hearted Englishmen began to see: "The event is in the hands of Him who giveth the victory. But one thing is clear-the progress of Bonaparte has never yet been stopped by submission, and our only hope, therefore, is in resistance, as far as we can resist his ambitious projects. We have done what our honour and duty called upon us to do. When this instrument of vengeance may be deprived of his terrors, I know not; but we may at least look to the honour and independence of this country as secure against all his attacks, and while this country exists as an honourable and independent nation, there will still remain some hopes of restoring that political balance in Europe which has for the present been overturned.” * Thus, one of the two great objects upon which Fox had set his heart had utterly failed. More than a month before his death, he had almost ceased to hope for the accomplishment of this object. The failure was not to him a fatal blow, as Austerlitz was to Pitt; but the protracted negotiation wore his spirit, breaking down under disease, and his end came on rapidly. The final despatch from lord Lauderdale was received by him on the 7th of September, the day of his last interview with lord Howick. He died at the duke of Devonshire's villa at Chiswick, being unable to bear the journey from Downing-street to his beloved St Anne's Hill. He was buried with all public honours on the 10th of October. The grave of Fox in Westminster Abbey is within six yards of the grave of Pitt. "The mighty chiefs sleep side by side." + Most of that generation, who had looked upon the battles of these chiefs during a quarter of a century-fierce battles, but rarely wanting in chivalrous respect each for the other,-most men felt what Francis Horner expressed, "Hansard," vol. viii. col. 323. + Scott-"Introduction to Marmion." |