A.D. 1787.] AGITATED STATE OF THE NETHERLANDS. the very tenacity with which the Flemings clung to ideas and practices which other nations had long abandoned, might have convinced Joseph, à priori, that they would not yield them up without a struggle. He commenced with suppressing a number of what he deemed useless monasteries, and turning out the monks. This not only alarmed the rest of the clergy, who feared their turn next, but created great discontent amongst the people at large. Perhaps, at this day, no people of the same numbers maintain so many priests. But, at that time, Joseph was in very ill odour with the Flemings, on account of his attempts upon the navigation of the Scheldt. The popular feeling next received a rude shock by his striking a great number of feasts and holidays off the calendar, and amongst them the favourite one of the Keremesse, which was the great annual festival of the people, when they gave themselves up to dancing, jollity, and getting married. Whilst the whole was in a state of indignant defiance on this head, the emperor, on the 1st of January, 1787, published several sweeping edicts, annihilating the most ancient municipal privileges, remodelling the courts of justice, and introducing a totally new system of judicature, in direct violation of a celebrated compact made by Charles V., called "The Joyous Entry." To complete the resentment of every class, he commenced a reform of the great university of Louvain. There was, in truth, much need of this reform, for no university of Europe lagged more behind the times. It still continued to teach the dogmas, and adhere to the forms of the middle ages. He commenced with the schools of theology, dismissed their monkish professors, and sent thither German ones far more enlightened, but, for that very reason, unwelcome to a community unprepared for them. Such reforms cannot be promulgated by imperial decree: they must be the result of continued and gradual enlightenment. 387 M. Hondt from Vienna. These assurances calmed the people, and the arms of the volunteers were laid aside; but when Joseph returned to Vienna, in July, he expressed his surprise and anger at the concessions of the governor. He summoned Belgioiso to Vienna to explain his conduct, and ordered that deputies should be sent to give an account of their proceedings. Joseph, who did not yet see how impossible it was to enforce his reforms, or how completely he was sinking his own authority, received the deputation sternly, and informed them that everything which he had ordered should be carried out. Troops at the same time were ordered to march into the Netherlands, and the Flemings, on receiving this intelligence, again resumed their arms and their hostile attitude. The populace and the imperial troops in Brussels actually came into collision; blood was shed, and the inhabitants of the country, arming themselves, were flocking from all quarters into the city. The consequences must have been dreadful, but for the prudence of count Murray, a gentleman of Scotch descent, who was acting as deputy-governor in the absence of Belgioiso, who calmed down the popular fury by assurances that all should be made right. This had taken place towards the end of September. The emperor's army of one hundred thousand men was now in full march for the Danube, to join Russia in her designs on Turkey, and therefore, for the present, his rash plans were suffered to slumber, and tranquillity for a time was restored. Parliament met, after the recess, on the 27th of November. The topics during the remainder of the year were of little importance. There was some dissatisfaction expressed at the treaty which had been made with Hesse Cassel to furnish a certain number of troops during the expectation of the interference of France in the affairs of Holland. That danger was now over; yet it appeared that the treaty had not been made contingent, but, to a certain extent, permanent, and we were under engagements to pay thirtysix thousand pounds a-year to the landgrave of Hesse for troops, for which we had no real occasion. There was also considerable murmuring at the promotions which had been made in the navy. It appeared that lord Howe, as head of the admiralty, had passed over a certain number of post captains, and placed them on the superannuated list, in making promotions to the rank of admiral. He had made sixteen new admirals during the year, and forty post captains complained that they had been unfairly passed over. By this combination of innovations, the whole country was in a state of the highest indignation. The new university remainded empty. It was in vain that the heads of the different religious orders were commanded to send their students there. An example was therefore made of the reverend father Godfrey Alost, the minister of the Capuchins of Brussels. As he disobeyed the command, he was ordered to quit both the city and the country. He at once became a martyr, and a most dangerous sympathy was excited on his behalf. Whilst this was at its height, a M. Hondt-- an eminent citizen of Brussels, charged with not duly fulfilling some government contracts-was sent, under a military escort, to Vienna, to take his trial there, though the suit against him was already in progress in Brussels. This put the climax to the public ferment. There appeared a resolve, on the part of the emperor, to sweep away every trace of ancient right and privilege. The people flew to arms; volunteers assembled all over the country, and drilled dili-just as brave and able as any of the sixteen promoted. Lord gently. The public voice pronounced a determination to stand or fall with the ancient institutions. Joseph was at Cherson, on the Black Sea, concerting with Catherine of Russia an invasion of Turkey; and count Belgioiso, the governor, alarmed, issued a proclamation, declaring that the edict contrary to "The Joyous Entry" should be revoked, with all the other innovations. He recalled Alost, the Capuchin, and promised to exert himself for the return of Soon after the meeting of parliament, after the Christmas recess, the business of the year 1788 was opened by lord Rawdon reverting to this subject. He complained that many valuable officers had been passed over, and, indeed, the friends of these disappointed officers endeavoured to make it appear that every one of these forty captains was Howe replied that he had acted according to the best of his judgment; that he left it to the house to consider whether it was for the service of the country that every man should be taken in such a promotion according to his seniority; whether the qualifications for effective command were not to be the first requisite. Many captains, he said, were brave men, amply capable of commanding a single vessel, but by no means capable of commanding a fleet. That such as were not made admirals, according to their seniority, were placed on the half-pay of rear-admirals. He assured the house that he should be most thankful to be exempt from the unpopularity of his position, for that the promotion of one captain out of every twenty was certain to wound and offend the nineteen, and not so certain of pleasing the twentieth. Lord Sandwich, who had held for a long time the same post, supported lord Howe, and suggested the idea, in raillery, of the patronage being vested in the house of lords. If the house of lords, he said, were to take upon themselves the promotion of admirals, one noble lord would rise in his place and say, "Pray don't pass over my brother; make him an admiral!" another would intercede for another relation. The lords, when at home, would be besieged to use their influence, and the house knew the fascination of the ladies; they would catch hold of a peer's hand, clasp it with ardour, and say, "My dear lord, you must get my cousin made an admiral!" As for the house of commons, he saw nearly equal inconveniences, were the patronage shifted there. They had their relations too, and constituents to please into the bargain. In short, the delicate function must be placed somewhere, and it seemed to him that an officer of the wellknown naval knowledge and distinction, both for moral and professional character, of lord Howe, was the best to discharge it. The motion was rejected in the lords, but immediately taken up in the commons by Mr. Bastard. He declared that the so-called yellow, or superannuated list, was not intended for such officers as were capable of active service, yet such names as he mentioned were to be found there, while men more really superannuated, but who had friends in the right quarter, were put over their heads. He was supported by Fox, who, though he did not suppose any man passed over was capable of doing more service, was of opinion that some of the promotions had been most scandalously unjust. Several officers of the navy, amongst them Sir Peter Parker and Sir George Osborne, took the same side. But both this motion and a second by the same individual were rejected. Lord Howe, disgusted with his treatment, soon after resigned his office; and he complained amongst his friends that he did not find Pitt himself so importunate for the promotion of his supporters, but that Dundas never could be satisfied with obtaining places for any number of his Scotch relations and connections, and was continually carrying his murmurs of disappointment at the conscientious resistance of Howe to his demands. Pitt's elder brother, the earl of Chatham, a most unfit person, was, however, put into the place of lord Howe, a proof that Pitt himself, though probably much more disinterested than Dundas, looked also to the interests of his kin. the 25th of February, asked leave to bring in a bill declara. tory of the meaning of that of 1784, which he contended really gave such a discretion to the government. This measure was strongly resisted by all the influence of the India House, both in the lords and commons, but was carried through both houses. This was, in fact, conferring on the government the very powers which Pitt and his party had so strongly objected to in Fox's proposed bill in 1783. In this session the first step was won in one of the greatest achievements of humanity which adorn the name of England. It was the grand preliminary towards annihilating the accursed trade in man. The kidnapping and trade in Africans had been originally introduced on the plea of humanity. Having destroyed whole nations of aborigines by their oppressions in America and the West Indies, the European natives had been taught by the preaching of Las Casas that it would be a measure of mercy to import negroes from Africa-men of a stronger constitution, and well calculated to toil under a tropical sun, to spare the failing energies of the Caribbean races. Under this false plea of substituting a distant people for one destroyed by cruelty and overtoil, a trade monstrous beyond all former conception or experience had sprung up. The natives of Africa were hunted down in their native woods by man-stealers, and were excited even to kidnap and betray one another, by bribes, and were then carried over to the warmer regions of America and the West Indies, and there sold into perpetual slavery to so-called Christian masters. Amongst the first to denounce and renounce this diabolical violation of human rights were the members of the Society of Friends in America, and the names of John Woolman and Anthony Benezet stand earliest and most prominent amongst these genuine followers of Christ, who could tolerate no sale of their brethren, of whatever colour, under any pleas which selfishness could invent. The perception of the unchristian character of this traffic soon pervaded the whole society in America. The liberation of all slaves by its members was strongly recommended by the yearly meetings there, and adopted to a man. The Friends of America not only liberated their own slaves, but called upon their country to do the same. They were not contented that the trade only should cease, but that the possession of slaves should cease, as utterly inhuman and unchristian. The spirit was communicated to their brethren in England, and the duty of assisting to put down this great evil and scandal of the Christian world became one of their most zealous and fixed doctrines from the year 1754. The spirit of revolt against this odious trade had been gaining rapidly from other sources in the English mind. One of the earliest stabs given to it was by the pathetic story of Incle and Yarieo, in the "History of Barbadoes," The business of India was resumed in the commons. The by Lygon, which was taken up and amplified in the ministers had proposed to send four additional regiments to "Spectator," and afterwards elaborated into an effective India, when there appeared a probability of hostility with drama by Colman. The versatile but essentially philanFrance, and the court of directors were quite agreeable to thropic mind of Defoe, Dr. Johnson, Warburton, in his the measure; but that danger being over, the India House "Divine Legation of Moses," and in his sermons so early as declared it unnecessary to send the troops, for which they 1766, Voltaire, and other writers, had diffused a strong and were expected to pay. But Pitt was desirous of establishing sound feeling on the subject. It had been early attempted a royal army in India, as a control over the company, and to establish the legal maxim, that a slave cannot breathe in yet that the company should pay this force. On this the England; but in 1729 this had been positively pronounced court of directors and ministers came to issue, and Pitt, on against by Talbot and Yorke, then the highest legal autho A.D. 1788.1 EFFORTS TO ABOLISH THE SLAVE TRADE. rities. But a more successful essay was made by Granville Sharpe in 1772, in the case of James Somerset, and the principle was established, that the moment a slave set his foot on English ground he became free. In 1782 the Friends presented a petition to parliament for the abolition of the slave trade. In 1785 Thomas Clarkson, then a student at the University of Cambridge, competed for and won the first prize for an essay on "The Slavery and Commerce in the Human Species," and this, which was undertaken as an academical exercise, led him to devote himself to the great work of the utter extinction of this evil. Mr. Ramsay, a clergyman of Kent, who had lived in St. Kitts, published a pamphlet on the same subject. The friends of Ramsay, lady Middleton and Mrs. Bouverie, became zealous advocates of the cause, and finally Wilberforce resolved to make it the great object of his life. A society was now established in London, consisting only originally of twelve individuals, including the benevolent Mr. Thornton, and having Granville Sharpe for its chairman. The members, however, were opulent merchants and bankers, and they raised funds and set agents to work to collect sound information on the subject. The feeling rapidly spread; committees were formed in Manchester and other provincial towns for co-operation. They adopted a seal, having for its impress a negro kneeling and fettered, with the motto, "Am I not a man and a brother?" 389 forced on his attention by the evidence before the privy It was resolved to make the first attack only on the trade in slaves, not on the whole gigantic subject, with all its widely The slave merchants of Liverpool and London immeramified interests. Nay, it was deemed prudent by the com-diately demanded to be heard against even this degree of mittees, seeing well that the abolition of the monstrous practice of slave-holding must be a work of many years, in the first place to limit their exertions to the ameliorating of the sufferings of the negroes, in their passage from Africa to the scenes of their servitude. Numerous petitions had now reached the houses of parliament on the subject of the trade in and the sufferings of slaves, and a committee of the privy council was procured to hear evidence on the subject. This commenced its sittings on the 11th of February of the present year (1788). Before this committee were first heard the statements of the slave merchants of Liverpool. According to these gentlemen, all the horrors attributed to the slave trade were so many fables; so far from instigating African sovereigns to make war upon their neighbours and sell them for slaves, the oppressions of these despots were so horrible that it was a real blessing to bring away their unfortunate vic-inches in length, and sixteen inches in breadth; that the tims. But very different facts were advanced on the other side. On the part of the Liverpool merchants was the most palpable self-interest to colour their statements; on the other, was disinterested humanity. Amongst the gentlemen brought forward to unfold the real nature of the African traffic was Dr. Andrew Sparrman, professor of natural philosophy at Stockholm, who had, with Mr. Wadstrom, been engaged in botanical researches in Africa. This information put to flight the pleasant myths of the Liverpool traders, and produced a profound impression. interference. On the 2nd of June counsel was heard on their behalf at the bar of the house of commons. These gentlemen endeavoured to prove that the interest of the merchants was the best guarantee of the good treatment of the slaves; that the statements to the contrary were malicious falsehoods; and they called witnesses to prove that nothing could be more delightful and salubrious than the condition of slaves on the voyage; that they bad plenty of room; that there were very few deaths indeed; and that the negroes passed their time most charmingly in dancing and singing on the deck. But, on cross-examination, these very witnesses were compelled to disclose one of the most revolting pictures of inhuman atrocity ever brought to the light of day. It was found that no slave, whatever his size, had more room during the whole voyage than five feet six It was resolved to bring the matter before parliament. Wilberforce gave notice of motion on the subject, but falling ill at Bath, Clarkson applied to Pitt and Mr. Granville, and was strongly supported by Granville Sharp and the London committee. Pitt had not considered the subject till it was floor of every deck was thus densely packed with human beings; between the floor and the deck above were other platforms or broad shelves packed in the same manner! The height from the floor to the ceiling seldom exceeded five feet eight inches, and in some cases not four feet. The men were chained together two and two by their hands and feet, and were fastened by ringbolts to the deck or floor. In this position they were kept all the time they remained on the coast often from six weeks to six months. Their allowance was a pint of water daily and two meals of yams and horse-beans. After eating they were ordered to jump in their irons to preserve their health, and were flogged if they refused; and this was the dancing! When the weather was wet they were often kept below for several days together. And this was the condition in which human Liverpool, Captain Parry, who had been sent by Pitt to Liverpool to examine some of the slave ships, brought the directest proofs that the representations of these witnesses were most false, and the accommodation for the slaves most inhuman; Sir William Dolben himself had examined a slave-ship then fitting out in the Thames, and gave details which horrified the house. This bill went to prohibit any ship carrying more than one slave to a ton of its register; the only matter in which the house gave way was that none should carry more than five slaves to every three tons, and a very few years proved that this restriction had been the greatest boon to the dealers as well as the slaves in the preservation of the living cargoes. So much does selfishness quickened their exertions, and the numbers who thought with them daily and rapidly increased. During this session a piece of justice was done to lord Newburgh, the grandson of Charles Radcliffe, who was beheaded in 1746 for his concern in the rebellion of 1715, in which his brother, James Radcliffe, the third earl of Derwentwater, was also engaged, and who suffered in 1716. As the estates of the Scotch rebels had been restored, it was now agreed to grant lord Newburgh two thousand five hundred pounds a-year out of the estates of his grandfather and great uncle. The estates themselves had been conferred on Greenwich Hospital, or they would undoubtedly have been wholly restored. |