ship; and the planters afterwards agreed to surrender it on the 1st of August, 1838. "The Apprenticeship is abolished," writes Mr. Buxton, "thank God for that."

"I bless God for the event," he says in a letter to Mr. Sturge: "I bless God, that He, who has always raised up agents such as the crisis required, sent you to the West Indies. I bless God, that during the Apprenticeship, not one act of violence against the person of a white man has, as I believe, been perpetrated by a Negro, and I cannot express my grateful exultation that those, whom the colonial law so recently reckoned as brute beasts, the fee simple absolute whereof resided in their owners,' will so soon be invested with the full rights of man. * * Let none of us forget that those who are emancipated will be assailed with many an attempt to curb and crush their liberty; nor that two millions of human chattels in the East Indies require our protection; nor that the Slave Trade, of all evils the monster evil, still defiles and darkens one quarter of the globe. May that same public voice, which has now been so happily exerted, and under the influence of that same gracious Lord, who has wrought its present victory, never be hushed while a taint of slavery remains!"

To the Hon. Mrs. Upcher.

"Athenæum, May 23. 1828.

"I must write a line to tell you that Sturge and that party, whom we thought all in the wrong, are proved to be all in the right. A resolution for the immediate abolition of the Apprenticeship was carried by a majority of three last night. The intelligence was received with such a shout by the Quakers, (myself among the number,) that we strangers were all turned out for rioting! I am right pleased."

CHAP. XXVI,

429

CHAPTER XXVI.

1838.

NEW PLAN FOR THE SUPPRESSION OF THE SLAVE TRADE.

ON quitting Parliament, Mr. Buxton had looked forward to a period of repose; but this expectation was not realized. Even before that time, an idea had suggested itself to his mind, the development of which proved more than sufficient occupation for all his remaining years.

"I well remember," writes one of his sons, "the commencement of that long train of toils, anxieties, and sorrows. While my father and I were staying at Earlham, in the beginning of the summer of 1837, he walked into my room one morning, at an early hour, and sitting down on my bedside, told me that he had been lying awake the whole night, reflecting on the subject of the Slave Trade, and that he believed he had hit upon the true remedy for that portentous evil.”

Two years before this time, he had moved an address for making our treaties on this subject with foreign powers more stringent, and the penalties of the crime more severe.

The idea that now struck

him so forcibly, was this, that "Though strong

external measures ought still to be resorted to, the

deliverance of Africa was to be effected, by calling out her own resources."

For some months he was compelled to defer the following up of this new train of thought; but on reaching home at the fall of the year, he addressed himself to the pursuit with all his heart and mind, and never was his character shown more clearly than in his conduct of this great affair. The exquisite sympathy with suffering, the long investigations and deep thought before action, the intense and untiring energy when the work had once begun, the largeness of his plan, the care bestowed upon its smallest details, the hearty trust in Providence, joined with the solicitous choice of means, the patient faith with which disappointment and calamity were borne; - all these qualities had been apparent in his previous undertakings, they now stood forth in still bolder relief. Nor was there less of the same ardent and exclusive devotion to the one work before him, which had characterised his earlier years. Having struck out the idea, it did not slowly fade away again, like the visions of less effective men. Nor was he content merely to lay his views before the public, satisfying himself with an undefined hope that some one else would carry them into practice. He at once applied himself to the subject, and throughout the winter, he was incessantly revolving it in his mind, reading every book that could assist him, and inquiring wherever information could be gained, until at length the whole idea was fully developed in his mind.

1838.

SUPPRESSION OF THE SLAVE TRADE.

431

His task was twofold: -on the one hand, he had to prove the magnitude of the evils now existing, in the human traffic, and consequent condition of Africa :— on the other, he had to point out the capabilities of Africa, and thence to deduce the possibility of her becoming peaceful, flourishing, and productive, by the force of legitimate commerce.

While he himself was occupied in elaborate calculations drawn from official documents, respecting the extent and desolating effect of the trade, he set others to work in collecting proofs of the productiveness and commercial resources of Africa.

To Edward N. Buxton, Esq.

"Northrepps Hall, Feb. 1838.

"Andrew Johnston and I are working like dragons at the Slave Trade-a task as interesting in its prosecution, and promising to be as important in its results, as any that I ever had the honour to be engaged in. I only wish that the number of the hours in each day were doubled, and the number of minutes in every hour quadrupled."

To John Jeremie, Esq., in Ceylon.

"My dear Jeremie,

"Northrepps Hall, Feb. 27. 1838. "I wonder that I have not written to you long ere this, and especially that I have not answered your very welcome letter of the 14th of August last. But procrastination, always an insidious enemy, makes foreign letters its especial prey. They may perhaps sail as soon, if written next week, as if sent off to-day, and therefore are postponed: and I have no lack of good excuses. Though perhaps I ought to be at leisure, now that I am released from the harness of Parliament, I still find every day more than supplied with its work. Your long letter I have not now before me, as I

left it with Dr. Lushington. He has promised to read it attentively, although as usual overwhelmed with business.

My principal occupation is the consideration of the Slave Trade. I am quite convinced we are all on a wrong tack about it, and that we never shall do good, or at least effectual good, by pursuing only our present plan. The scheme therefore that I am now meditating is, to represent to all powers the immense field for commerce, which is closed by the Slave Trade. When I am thoroughly master of the subject I shall lay it before the Government.

"You will not doubt, my dear friend, that all you tell me about yourself and your own state of mind is very interesting to me. I do indeed trust that you may more and more taste of the knowledge of that, which can above all else, satisfy the mind and heart, and lead into the way of peace. What I have learnt of this has been at the price of heavy sorrow, but I can say it is worth its price, and it is my chief and settled desire for myself, and all who are most dear to me, that above all prosperity, all knowledge, all success or honour, we may know and partake of the riches of Christianity. By this I do not merely mean morality, even of the highest tone; I mean the knowledge of Christ as a Saviour, which knowledge brings the heart to humility, love, gratitude, and all that is good, as well as all that is happy. I can desire nothing better for you, my dear friend, than that you and yours may be led on and taught the fulness of these things, of which may we all know more and more!"

To Miss Gurney, Northrepps Cottage.

"Hampstead, April 28. 1838. "I can't say how mean I appear to myself for not having acknowledged the paper on African commerce. Acknowledged it I have a hundred times, but never in a letter to you. You do not know, nor did I till two days ago, how important it is. I now find that either the observations, which I made in a conversation with Lord Palmerston some time ago, or, which is much more likely to be the case,