ever they might deplore the existence of public evils among them, they joined in associations for their suppression, or that they carried their charity, as bodies of men, into other kingdoms. To christianity alone we are indebted for the new and sublime spectacle of seeing men going beyond the bounds of individual usefulness to each other-of seeing them associate for the extirpation of private and public misery-and of seeing them carry their charity, as a united brotherhood, into distant lands. And in this wider field of bensolence it would be unjust not to confess, that no country has shone with more true lustre than our own, there being scarcely any case of acknowledged affliction, for which some of her christian children have not united in an attempt to provide relief."

Our author to excite his readers to value the blessing of the abolition as they ought," proposes briefly to examine it in three points of view. 1st. As it has been proved to arise on the continent of Africa in the course of reducing the inhabitants to slavery. 2dly. In the course of conveying them from thence to the lands and colonies of other nations: and 3dly. In continuing them there as slaves. On each of these topics, language the most animated is used, in detailing the horrible circumstances, which we are thankful, there is now the less occasion for harrowing up the souls of our readers by repeating. Our author then glances at the evil as it relates to the difficulty of subduing it, describing the various interests and the conduct of the friends to the

traffick, who when " good men at tacked the hydra, and marked him as the object of their destruction, began to assail him, did not fly,

The chapter closes with the ex pressions of joy and exultation on the abolition of the traffic, and with the most powerful and persuasive exhortations to perseverance on all occasions in the path of duty. With the aspirations of the author, every friend to liberty, justice, humanity, and piety will cordially unite.

"Finally, it cannot be otherwise than useful to us to form the opinion, which the contemplation of this subject must always produce, namely, that many of the evils, which are still left among us, may, by an union of wise and virtuous individuals, be greatly alleviated, if not entirely done away for if the great evil of the slave trade, so deeply entrenched by its hundred interests, has fallen pros

trate before the efforts of those who attacked it, what evil of a less magnitude shall not be more easily subdued? O may reflections of this sort always enliven us, always encourage us, always stimuate us to our duty! May we never cease to believe, that many of the miseries of life are still to be remedied, or to rejoice that we may be permitted, if we will only make ourselves worthy by our endeavours, to heal them! May we encourage for this purpose every generous sympathy that arises in our hearts, as the offspring of the divine influence for our good, convinced that we are not born for ourselves alone, and that the Divinity never so fully dwells in us, as when we do his will; and that we never do his will more agreeably, as far as it has been revealed to us, than when we employ our time in works of charity towards the rest of our fellow creatures!" [To be continued.]

CORRECT PARTICULARS OF THE DEATH AND BURIAL OF THE CELEBRATED HOWARD.

SIR, Ilaving

spot when Howard died, and who attended his burial.

About the middle of January, 1790, Howard, being at Cherson, was informed that a young lady, eighteen years old, was dangerously ill with a fever; and without being at all requested, he immediately offered to go and visit her at the distance of about seven miles from Cherson. A horse was procured from Admiral Mordwinoff's stable, and Howard set off in the afternoon, without a great coat, as he seldom wore one, even in hard frosty weather, such as it then was at Cherson, and although he was then in the 65th year of his age.

Hevisited the young lady, to whom he administered a dose of Dr. James's

powder, in which he had the greatest confidence; assuring the afflicted family, that if the young lady could be brought to a perspiration, he would answer for her recovery. In fact she did perspire, and recover a few days after.

On his return to Cherson, late in the evening on which he visited the young lady, he fell off his horse, and remained a considerable time on the snow, with which the ground was covered, until some one happened to pass, and helped him upon his horse again, and thus he reached Cherson late at night.

On the next morning Howard found himself extremely unwell, both on account of the fall from his horse, and because he had caught cold by laying so long on the snow, without He therefore took a large dose of Dr. James's powder, and indeed much larger than he ought to have taken, as he himself acknowledged. He then declared to the persons who went to see him, that his end was fast approaching, and requested of Mr. Dauphinè, a French merchant established at Cherson, to have him buried in his garden, about two miles from the town, in these remarkable

even a great coat.

words: "I have always wished to be buried in free ground, and as the French are become free, I think that your property must also be free." Mr. Dauphinè promised him compliance with his wishes; and on the fifth day from his visit to the young lady, he expired; with the consolation, however, of knowing, that the innocent cause of his death was recovering.

Captain Priestman, of the Russian navy, read the burial service over him. His funeral was attended by all the English officers of the Russian navy, and by many Russians. Mr. Dauphinè erected a plain monument with Howard's bust over his grave, in his own (Mr. D's) garden.

Mr. Howard was very abstemious in his meals, which chiefly consisted of rice, bread and water. He drank very strong tea.

From the above account it appears that Dr. Clarke must have been misinformed respecting the particulars of Howard's death and burial. The recovery of the young lady, the fall from his horse, and the remarkable terms in which his request was made to Mr. Dauphinè, who erected the monument, and not Admiral Mordwinoff, the confusion of Mr. Dauphine's name with that of Dauphiny, an imaginary village, are sufficient proofs of the incorrectness of the statement. The well known volubility of Captain Priestman's (afterwards a rear-admiral) tongue was perhaps the cause of it, as Dr. Clarke appears to have taken the whole account from this gentleman.

I remain, Sir, yours,
W. B.

Epping, Feb. 8, 1811.

P. S. In addition to the above remarks, I beg leave to observe, that the inscription on the monument erected to Howard in St. Paul's, stating that he died of the plague is erroneous; for there was nothing like the plague

at Cherson when he died; nor could there be any plague in the depth of winter, the ground covered with snow, and hard frosty weather.

ON THE DISINTERESTEDNESS OF MR. PITT!

SIR, Regarding the late William Pitt as the chief author of the present disastrous war, and, consequently, of the awful crisis into which our country is at length brought; I read, with peculiar satisfaction, in the last Political Review, your animadversions on the unfounded panegyricks lately reiterated in a certain assembly, on the talents and virtues of the great statesman now no more. I call them unfounded, without the least reserve, or fear of contradiction; seeing that not one of the admirers or partizans, of the ever to be lamented minister, had the courage to accept the challenge of that honest and enlightened senator, Sir SAMUEL ROMILLY, who defied them to produce a single measure of Mr. Pitt's, that had proved beneficial to his country or to mankind at large. This was the gauntlet, which the friends of the heaven-born minister were afraid to touch: at the sight of it they stood" aghast and mute." How significant their silence! Though I am convinced Sir Samuel has put to rest for ever the question of Mr. Pitt's abilities as a statesman; yet there is one quality ascribed to him, by both friends and others, with great confidence, to which I beg leave to draw the attention of your readers :—I mean, his disinterested

ness.

Mr. Pitt died poor-he left nothing but his debts; which, instead of being defrayed by his ardent admirers, were saddled upon his country,-upon that country which he had beggared by his improvident schemes. But his poverty was no proof of disinterestedness

We know, from the most indubitable authority that he squandered immense sums on his friends and minions; as well as on plans that regarded solely his ambition and his. power: we know that he connived at the most shameful peculation in certain persons in office, with whom he was nearly connected; and that he did not scruple to advance large sums of the public money to individuals (whom it was his interest to support) without the knowledge of parliament.

Let it be carefully remembered, that in the short space of three years, from 1793 to 1796, a debt funded and unfunded, scarcely short of a hundred millions, was contracted by Mr. Pitt, and all inquiry into this incredible expenditure uniformly denied. Is it likely that the minister, pressed as he was by the opposition, would have refused the least expla nation concerning so improvident an expenditure, had the money been expended for useful and lawful pur poses? He had the parliament completely at his nod, and could have nothing to fear from their scrutiny or severity-yet he would never con sent that an investigation should take place.-Is this the conduct of an upright man, of a man of integrity? Can there be an instance of more. glaring effrontery than to exalt such a minister on the basis of disinte restedness? What should we think of the integrity of Aristides, of Epaminondas, of General Washington, or of any other worthy, ancient or modern, if when accused of squandering the public money, they obstinately refused to give the least explanation of their conduct? Your readers will not be at a loss for an answer; and will be ready to exclaim with Mr. Pitt's evangelical panegyrist, on Lord Melville's famous de-. claration, when asked at the bar of the house of Commons, how he had disposed of a sum, of ten thousand pounds of the public money," that

The late proceedings in parliament respecting the king's incapacity, and the consequent appointment of a representative of Majesty during its continuance, present to the mind reflections which deserve something more than a transient regard.

One party, inheriting the sentiments and following the traces of Mr. Pitt, seem to have thought the king every thing and the kingdom nothing: the other party, pursuing a very different course chalked out by Mr. Fox, admitted that the sovereign power was a trust vested in the chief magistrate for the benefit of the people.

It is no wonder that the Pittites violated the constitution, since they seem entirely to have lost sight of the office, and to have attended only to the man. The reason for this anticonstitutional preference is not difficult to discover; the office was only necessary for the nation; but the man was indispensably requisite to answer the end of the party.

The constitution has vested in the Sovereign both an executive and a legislative authority. The first of these, the executive, must be in a state of constant activity; because the peace of the kingdom at home, and its security against danger from abroad, comprehend all the objects for which that executive power was vested in the hands of the chief magistrate; and these objects cannot be secured without an unremitted attention to the judicial and military affairs of the nation. It is only on

particular occasions that the monarch may be called on to give his legislative sanction to such new laws as the people may deem advantageous to the future government of the country, but as the first general and the first judge in the state, his duty is incessant. I use the term judge, instead of minister of justice, in compliance with common usage, the real judges being or at least ought to be the jurymen. The kingly office therefore is judicial as well as military; it is established to enforce the laws, as well as to defend the kingdom, objects of the last importance, and requiring extraordinary powers and abilities; the management and direction of all foreign concerns is likewise confided to the King, who, as the head of the government, maintains such relations and connections between the kingdom and foreign powers as he judges expedient: all these objects involve in their conse quences the lives and fortunes, the happiness or the misery, of the whole empire. Such is the nature of the kingly office; and one would think that its vital importance, with respect to the interests of the country, ought not to have permitted any de scription of men, particularly minis ters paid by the people, or parlia mentary delegates representing them, to throw it so completely in the back ground, as to escape notice, whilst all the attention of the public was sedulously excited to the personal misfortunes of the individual, rendered by an act of God totally unable to discharge those great duties. These persons seem to have considered the kingdom as made for the king, and not the king for the kingdom, and therefore were only anxious to preserve an object, which they thought contributed to his Majesty's gratification or amusement, ready for him, and at hand, whenever he might feel himself able again to wield the sceptre, however unsteadily he might wield it, or however incapable

be might be of that regular intellectual exertion so necessary for the occasion; as if that sceptre was a plaything that might be taken up and laid down again, when the party was tired of it, or when any great mischief was likely to happen, or had actally occurred from this capricious and uncertain way of bear ing it.

Suppose a judge upon the bench should, in the midst of his harangue to the jury, be seized with a sudden alienation of mind, and instead of explaining to them the law of the case, should enter into a grievous lamenta tion for the fate of London, in consequence of his taking it into his head that it had been under water for a fort night,* or suppose a general at the head of an army seized with a similar alienation should mistake water for dry land, and drown his men, or at least attempt to drown them, by ordering them to march into the sea, would not the world say that these persons, however worthy they might be in other respects, I mean with regard to their private virtues, were yet unworthy and unfit to fill those offices which they then exercised? Would any one think of giving as a reason for their continuance in functions in which so much mischief might be done by these interruptions of intellectual sanity, that they were good husbands and fathers, or mild masters, or devout christians? Would any man say that the cause should be suspended till the judge had a lucid interval, and was thereby enabled to resume his seat upon the bench, or that the army should halt till the return of the general's senses enabled him to distinguish dry land from water. I think, Mr. Editor, no man would say this,- -no man at the least who was not to the full as mad as either judge or general; but what I pray has been the conduct of minis

* See the account in a former Political Review, Vol. VIII. p. 340..

ters respecting a case of insanity of far greater consequence than that of either a judge or a general; of a person by whose approbation both generals and judges act, one on whose discretion depends life and death, peace and war, the happiness or the misery of millions? What has been these mens conduct, let me ask? have they regarded the people, or the due exercise of the office, instituted for the benefit of the people, or even the suspension of its most important functions? What have we heard of but regard to his Majesty's personal feelings, that he might find himself in the same state, and surrounded by the same attendants whenever a lucid interval enabled him to recognise himself?-That the office might await the bearer thereof, and the crown be found upon the royal pillow, when the royal sleeper awaked from his trance; that it might be the first thing he saw, ere his eyes were well open, and ready for him to put on his head, as one may say, between sleeping and waking. Thus different in all respects is the practice and the theory of our government and constitution; different in the palace, different in the senate, different even in every little borough town in the kingdom. Courtiers are an obsequious race of men in all countries, but it might surely be expected that they would be more independent under a free government, than under a despotic ones it might surely be supposed that a French courtier would not be surpassed by an English one in these mean and abject arts, yet this we are told was the case in the time of Lord Bolingbroke, and it will not I presume be said by any man, that we have changed for the better since his time. His lordship was well qualified to judge in this matter; he lived in both countries, and he assures us that he had seen more abject servility at St. James's, than ever he beheld at Versailles, or, adds he, "than I believe was ever known