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philanthropists and Christians of the mother country were summoned to the consideration of a question, in which they were destined speedily to take an absorbing interest. 'A few minutes ago,' said Mr. Buxton, in his opening speech, was commenced that process which will conclude, though not speedily, in the extinction of slavery throughout the British dominions.' His words were prophetic. They proved true to the letter. Various alternations took place. Government pledges were violated, political partisans sacrificed their humanity to their selfishness, the fears of the timid were aroused, the mere men of expediency fell off, but the good cause grew and strengthened. From this moment it steadily advanced in public confidence; and when, at length, the earnestness and endurance of religious principle were thrown into it, even a reluctant administration was compelled to aid its triumph. Buxton's conduct of its earlier movements was emphatically illustrative of the firmness and decision of his character. He broke with Mr. Canning, when that minister quailed before the threats of the colonists, and, contrary to the advice of many friends, exposed the feebleness and truculency of his policy:

Mr.

'If,' said Mr. Buxton, in the debate of March, 1824, this full and comprehensive pledge, this engagement given as to all the colonies; is to be frittered down, at present at least, to a single island; if the advantages promised are to be granted indeed, to the 30,000 slaves in Trinidad, but withheld from the 350,000 in Jamaica, and the 70,000 in Barbadoes; if the earliest period' is to be construed to mean some time, so undefined and distant, that no man can say in what century it will take place; if our pledge to do this, is now to mean no more than that we will suffer it to be done, by the slow and gradual course of admonition and example: then, I see no reason why ten centuries may not elapse, before the Negroes are freed from their present state of melancholy and deplorable thraldom. We, who have engaged in the cause, we, at least, will be no parties to such a desertion of duty, to such a breach of faith.

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'I well know,' he added, the difficult situation in which I stand. No man is more aware than I am of my inability to follow the brilliant and able speech which has just been delivered. But I have a duty to perform, and will perform it. I know well what I incur by this. I know how I call down upon myself the violent animosity of an exasperated and most powerful party. I know how reproaches have rung in my ears since that pledge was given, and how they will ring with tenfold fury now that I call for its fulfilment. Let them ring! I will not purchase for myself a base indemnity, with such a sting as this on my conscience. You ventured to agitate the question; a pledge was obtained; you were, therefore, to be considered the holder of that pledge, to which the hopes of half a million of people were linked. And then, fearful of a little unpopularity, and confounded by the dazzling eloquence of the Right Hon. gentleman, you sat still, you held your peace, and were

satisfied to see his pledge, in favour of a whole archipelago, reduced to a single island.'-p. 148.

Such language was worthy of his position, and may well shame the advocates of a timid and vacillating policy in all coming times. Years passed on in faithful and unrequited service, but before we notice its triumphant issue, we must give place to the following brief extract, in which reference is made to another great question that broke up, in fact, the administration of the Duke of Wellington, and prepared the way for the abolition of slavery. It is taken from a letter to Mr. J. J. Gurney, dated February 9, 1829.

'We had a slave meeting,' says Mr. Buxton, at Brougham's, yesterday; and Sam. Gurney would go with me, to prevent them from putting too much upon me. Brougham, Mackintosh, Denman, Spring Rice, Wm. Smith, Macaulay, were the party. They were all in the highest glee about the catholics; Brougham particularly. They seemed exquisitely delighted with the vexation of the Tories, who are, and have reason to be, they say, bitterly affronted; and the great ones among them vow they will have an apology, in the shape of some good place, or they will never forgive the Duke for letting them go down to the House as strong protestants, and insisting upon their returning that very day, stout catholics! They say they do not mind changing their opinions,—that is a duty which they must sometimes pay to their chiefs, -but they think it hard to be obliged to turn right-about-face at the word of command, without a moment being given to change their convictions.

'The Duke is very peremptory. The story goes, that he said to Mr., who has a place under government, We have settled the matter, and hope you like it.' Mr. said, he would take time to

consider it. Oh yes! you shall have plenty of time, I don't want your answer before four o'clock to-day. I shall thank you for it then; for, if you don't like our measures, we must have your office and seat, for somebody else.'

'To-morrow, we are to have a fierce debate. The high church party are very furious, and talk of calling upon the country; and I expect we shall have a good deal of bitterness.'-p. 212.

The result is well known. Catholic emancipation was carried, and the division which thence ensued in the Tory party, made way for the premiership of Earl Grey. Meanwhile, the cause of the negroes had been effectually promoted by the violence of the colonists.

Our slavery concerns,' says Mr. Buxton, writing to Dr. Philip, in November, 1830, 'go on well; the religious public has, at last, taken the field. The West Indians have done us good service. They have of late flogged slaves in Jamaica for praying, and imprisoned the missionaries, and they have given the nation to understand that preaching and

praying are offences not to be tolerated in a slave colony. That is right -it exhibits slavery in its true colours-it enforces your doctrine, that if you wish to teach religion to slaves, the first thing is, to put down slavery.

I have 100, perhaps 150 petitions waiting for me in London, but I do not leave home at present. When another election arrives, and if we have a change of ministry, which may come soon, the subject will be more thought of than it has been; but I must go to my afflicted wife.'p. 240.

What the writer anticipated speedily came to pass. A new parliament was convened, and the religious people of Great Britain did themselves immortal honor, by carrying the slave question to the polling-booth. They had, in fact, outstripped their parliamentary leaders, and now loudly called on them to take up a position in advance of their former ground. The attack made by the white colonists on Christianity,-for it amounted to nothing short of this,-left the religious men of the empire no alternative. They would have borne much. They shrank-unjustifiably, in our judgment-from the publicity, and turmoil, and political strife, which the contest involved; but when the alternative proposed was, Christianity or slavery, the spiritual emancipation of the negroes or their continued brutality and practical atheism, they could not hesitate. They were reduced to a choice which did not admit of question, and their decision was prompt and irrevocable. The effect of their adhesion was marked, not only in the spirit in which the enterprise was conducted, but also in the ground that was assumed. They denounced slavery as a sin, and, therefore, repudiated all attempts at its modification. It was to be abandoned, instantly, and for ever, under a sense of Divine displeasure; and he who hesitated was reproved as faithless to God, and a robber of his fellow-men. Mr. Charles Buxton has not done justice to this part of his case. Not that he has indulged in depreciatory remarks. His good sense and good feeling have kept him from this; he simply notes, in brief and passing words, the fact to which we allude. His fault is one of omission, but it is of serious magnitude, as it leaves unexplained the rapidity of the triumph obtained. It is impossible to account satisfactorily for the consummation, without bearing in view the attitude assumed by the religious community. Their numbers, their earnestness, and their selfsacrifice; the simplicity of the ground they took, and the evident hopelessness of diverting them from their course, brought such an accession of strength to Mr. Buxton, and his parliamentary associates, as enabled them to dictate terms, and to demand the immediate concession of their case. The omis

sion of which we speak, is specially remarkable in the case of the missionaries Knibb and Burchell, to whom only one reference is made, and that respects simply their evidence before the committees of the two Houses (p. 295). We are surprised at this, and are at a loss to explain it. The marvellous effects of their appeals, and especially those of Mr. Knibb, are so notorious; their wondrous energy, the sanctified passion with which they literally stormed the hearts of their countrymen, are so universally known, and brought such vast accessions to the anti-slavery phalanx, that this passing over of their labors puzzles us. The general tone of Mr. Buxton's volume is too honorable to permit the supposition of an unworthy motive, and we must, therefore, leave the matter in absolute ignorance of the cause of so strange a fact.* Can it be, that the biographer's sphere of observation is so limited, his anti-slavery world so contracted, as to preclude his acquaintance with facts so material to his case? We can scarcely admit the supposition, and yet this appears the most charitable explanation which can be given.

The immediate coadjutors of Mr. Buxton were endlessly divided in their views. Even those on whom he most relied, were, with few exceptions, unprepared to carry out the convictions of the great body of his supporters. On the 25th of March, 1832, twenty of his leading anti-slavery friends dined with him, for the purpose of consulting on the course to be pursued, and the following is the account he gives of their views.

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This select band of our special friends and faithful supporters, differed upon every practical point; and opinions wavered all the way, from the instant abolition of slavery without any compensation, to its gradual extinction, through the agency, and with the cordial concurrence of, the planters.'-p. 279.

The government of Earl Grey were little disposed to trouble themselves with the slavery question. Their attention was engrossed with the Reform Bill, and they would gladly, if public feeling had permitted it, have continued a medium policy. They admitted the evil of slavery, and the obligation of effecting its ultimate extinction, but clung 'to their old notion of gradually mitigating its evils, before doing it away.' In this they acted in the low spirit of their generation, but happily the day of their power was gone. A greater than Cæsar had arisen, and before its mandate they were compelled to give way. Mr. Buxton needed all the support which public opinion could give him. It

To those who are unacquainted-if such there are with the antislavery labors of Mr. Knibb, we strongly recommend the immediate perusal of Mr. Hinton's' Memoir of William Knibb,' reviewed in our journal for April, 1847.

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was a critical conjuncture in his own history and in the abolition struggle, and, had he wavered, the result would have been disastrous. But he did not waver, and we hold him in lasting honor for it. The 24th of May was probably the most trying and painful day of his life. He had endeavored to carry the government with him, and failing to do so, he resolved to move for the appointment of a committee. Nearly all his friends besought him not to persevere. Dr. Lushington was of opinion that it would endanger the cause,' and Lords Althorp and Howick 'used every argument and almost every entreaty.' 'Is the man mad?' inquired Lord Brougham; does he mean to act without means? He must give way.' Happily Mr. Buxton, spurned this dictation. His rule of duty was far higher and more stringent than that which the chancellor admitted, and he was therefore deaf to the entreaties of friends, though the struggle cost him dear. The following extract, somewhat too extended for our limits, is so deeply interesting, and so intimately connected with the elucidation of his character, that we cannot forego its insertion. It is taken from a letter of

his eldest daughter :

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'Thursday morning, May 24th, came. My father and I went out on horseback directly after breakfast, and a memorable ride we had. He began by saying that he had stood so far, but that divide he could not. He said I could not conceive the pain of it, that almost numberless ties and interests were concerned, that his friends would be driven to vote against him, and thus their seats would be endangered. But then his mind turned to the sufferings of the missionaries and of the slaves, and he said after all he must weigh the real amount of suffering, and not think only of that which came under his sight; and that if he were in the West Indies, he should feel that the advocate in England ought to go straight on, and despise those considerations. In short, by degrees, his mind was made up. When we got near the House every minute we met somebody or other, who just hastily rode up to us. 'Come on to-night?' 'Yes.'-' Positively?' 'Positively;' and with a blank countenance, the inquirer turned his horse's head, and rode away. I do not know how many times this occurred. In St. James's Park we met Mr. Spring Rice, whom he told, to my great satisfaction, that he positively would divide. Next Sir Augustus Dalrymple came up to us, and, after the usual queries, said, Well, I tell you frankly I mean to make an attack upon you to-night.' 'On what point?' You said some time ago, that the planters were opposed to religious instruction.' 'I did, and will maintain it.' We came home, and dined at three. It is difficult to recall, and perhaps impossible to convey to you the interest and excitement of the moment. Catherine Hoare, and I, and the little boys, went down with him. We were in the ventilator by 4 o'clock; our places were therefore good. For a long time we missed my father, and found afterwards, he had been sent for by Lord Althorp for a further discussion, in which, however, he did not yield. Many Anti-slavery

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