WILBERFORCE.

Press, Volume LXIX, Issue 20920, 29 July 1933, Page 13

WILBERFORCE.

|P' ♦ IX GREAT EMANCIPATOR. (%SIZIS.LLX TTCITI'r.X TO:; 'CUE TJ-vESS.; LBy tttft VKX. ARCIIDEACO.N" I'. X. TAYLOR.]

To-day is the hundredth anniversary of the death of William Wilberforce, tr>„ man who through the greater part of a long life devoted his time, his talents and his fortune to the interests of the black slaves of Britain's dominions. Born in 1759 at Hull, and left fatherless at the age of nine, he divided his boyhood days between an uncle's house at Wimbledon and a school at his birthplace. In 1766 he went up to St. John's College, Cambridge, where, as a rich, handsome, and fashional; '_• young man he neither scorned delights nor lived laborious days. In 1780 he entered Parliament as member for Hull, and from that time began a great friendship with Pitt, whose acquaintance he had first made at Cambridge. The two maintained an intimate correspondence from that date until Pitt's death in 1805. At one point they differed radically, but this made no difference to their friendship. The divergence was on the matter of religion. Pitt was a man of whom it was said that "he was so much absorbed in politics that he had never given himself time for due reflection on religion." Consequently, when in 1785 Wilberforce came under the influence of the Evangelical Revival, and felt constrained to give up many of the amenities of social life, he took it for granted that Pitt would fail to * sympathise with his altered views. Pitt, however, showed a surprising tenderness and sympathy. He wrote a long letter, speaking of himself as "one who, believe me, does not know how to separate your happiness from his own." The next morning, Pitt called on Wilberforce, and for two hours the two friends discussed the subject with complete frankness on both sides. "Surely a memorable episode," says Lord Rosebery, "this heart-searching of the young saint and the young Minister. They went their different ways, each -- following his high ideal in the way that seemed best to him. And so it went on to the end, Wilberforce ever hoping to renew the sacred conversation." First Abolition Bill. In 1787, Wilberforce met Thomas Clarkson, who had already resolved to devote his life to a crusade against African slavery. Henceforward this was the chief interest and labour of Wilberforce's life also. He at once enlisted the support of Pitt, who wrote in April, 1788 : As to the slave trade, I wish on every account it should come forward l - in your hands rather than any other .... and I will take my part in it as actively as if I was myself the mover.

But the abolition of the slave trade (to say nothing yet of slavery itself) was a big task which could not be hurried. The national conscience had first to be aroused. Vested interests were naturally in strong opposition to the proposed change. -Many other questions claimed the attention of the political world. War with France at one time compelled the shelving of the question. So there were many failures, many delays, many disappointments. But Wilberforce kept on. He had the golden gift of eloquence. Of one of his speeches in 1789 Burke said : It equalled anything I have heard in modern times, and is not, perhaps, to be surpassed in the remains of Grecian eloquence. And Pitt said : "Of all the men I ever knew, Wilberforce had the greatest natural eloquence." In 1791, John Wesley from his death-bed sent him a message encouraging him to persevere. At length in January, 1807, a Bill for the Abolition of the Slave Trade was introduced into the House of Lords and carried by 100 votes to 36. The Commons, largely no doubt under the influence of the orator, passed it by 283 to 16, and the Bill received the Royal Assent on March 25th. It was now illegal to import any more slaves from Africa to the West Indies or to any other British possession. But slavery itself remained, with all its horrors. There were, at the time, no less than 800,000 slaves in the West Indies. Under decent conditions this number would have increased year by year, through excess of births over deaths. Actually it decreased to 700,000 by 1830. Abolitionists were able to use these figures to enforce their demand that slavery itself should be abolished. This argument was subsequently justified by the fact that •within a few years after Emancipation in 1833, the black population of the West Indies showed a large increase. Checks to Progress. But we are anticipating. The first great victory had been won; the second was still a long way off. England was very busy with war. It was convenient to forget a tiresome question for a while; and many consciences were lulled to sleep by the pretty tales that were told of happy slaves loving their masters and singing at their work, and.taking their lickings (for after all they were but children and must he whipped sometimes)' with cheerful good humour. So there was a pause. But Mr Wilberforce was not content. His watchword now was : amelioration of the condition of the slaves. He worked to secure some regard for decency in the treatment of female slaves: he sought to curtail the powers of cruel and tyrannical owners : he wanted to secure for slaves some rights of niarriage and family life. About this time a zealous helper named Thomas Fowell Buxton came to his aid. Mi* Buxton has left abundant information about this period in his letters which his friends have published. He very quickly decided that Abolition not Amelioration must be the watchword. The thing itself was rotten. It must go. It was no good trying to "improve" a thing which was essentially bad. Mr Buxton pricked the bubble of "the happy nigger." He tells several amusing stories on this subject. One day a gentleman who had been resident in Mauritius, was dining with Buxton and the conversation naturally turned to the slave question. The gentleman assured Mr Buxton that the slaves there were the happiest people in the world. He finished by appealing to his wife. "Now, my dear," he said, "you saw Mr T 's slaves; do tell Mr Buxton how happy they looked." .'Well, yes," innocently replied the kdy, "they were very happy, I am sure—only I used to think it so odd to see the black cooks chained to the

fheplace!" In the House of commons one day, when the same "n * as talked > Buxton replied: -But how comes it that these happiest of the happy decrease at a rate entirely unequalled in the history oi man?'' Buxton's Determination. : . EarJ y in 1825 Wilberforce retired trom the House of Commons, in the hope of recuperating his health for further work in the cause £ e had . at heart - This left tfuxton in command of the Abolitionist forces in the House. It had now become clear that as long as slavery existed the slave trade would go on despite all attempts to stop it. To a member of the House denying that slaves were still being imported into the Seychelles, Mr Buxton proved from statistics of the black population that in that case every woman in that sjroup of islands must have had 180 children ! By 1831 the movement of public opinion towards abolition was such that the slave-owners made desperate efforts to stem the tide. In that year a public meeting of planters in Jamaica declared that the determination of the Government to insist on the enforcement of ameliorating measures was " unjust and inhuman," while the allegations of the anti-slavery party were stigmatised as " the false and infamous representations of interested and infuriated lunatics." The more timid reformers (and possibly some of the more astute opponents) urged gradual abolition. But Buxton insisted that a slave half freed would be in a worse position than ever, seeing that he would still be under the power of a man with a grudge against him for being half free. There was also a favourite argument that no people ought to be free until they are fit to use their freedom. Of this I plausible proposition Macaulay said: This maxim is worthy of the fool in the old story who resolved not to go into the water till he had learnt to j swim. Tf men are to wait for liberty ] till they become wise and good in i slavery they may indeed wait for ever. A Cause Triumphant. The cause was held up in 132829 by Roman Catholic emancipa-; tion and in 1832 by the Reform agitation. But on May 14, 1833, the j Government introduced its proposals. Then there was an adjourn-1 ment till May 30, when a discus- I sion began which went on till June ' 12. The actual Bill for the Aboli- i tion of Slavery in the British! Dominions was introduced on July ! 5, and quickly passed its second i reading. Wilberforce, now very ill, ' heard this news with joy and ex- ' claimed, " Thank God that I should ! have lived to witness a day when [ England is willing to give 20 ; millions sterling for the abolition \ of slavery." That was the figure , proposed in the Bill as compensa-! tion to slave-owners. There was a ] good deal of discussion about it. [ Some of the more ardent Abolitionists thought there should be no : compensation at all. Buxton, him- j self, had been of that mind at one i time and lost the good opinion of j many of his friends for what they thought to be an unworthy concession to practical politics. The ques- j tion was being discussed in Committee when the news of Wilberforce's death was brought to the House. Buxton aptly quoted Cowper's lines as applicable to his lost j friend : A veteran warrior in the Christian j field i Who never saw the sword he could, not wield ; Who, when occasion justified its use; Had wit as bright, as ready, to ! produce; Could draw from records of an earlier > age, ' Or from Philosophy's enlightened j page, I His rich material—and regale the ear With strains it was a luxury to hear.. The Bill passed Jhe Commons on j August 7, upon which Miss Buxton j wrote to Macaulay : " Would that Mr W. had lived one fortnight longer, that my father might have taken back to him fulfilled the task i he gave him 10 years ago!" The Bill passed quickly through the House of Lords and received the Royal consent on August 28. The day of freedom proclaimed in the Act was August 1, 1834. It was the triumph of Jubilee, the day so many slaves had dreamt of, longed for, sung about. It had come at last and in their joy they did not forget the good man who like them had lived for that day but had not quite lived to see it.