ompletion, on its part, of the most
glorious measure, that had ever been adopted by any legislative body in the
world.

The amendment, now mentioned, occasioned the bill to be sent back to the
Commons. On the twenty-fourth, on the motion of Lord Howick, it was
immediately taken into consideration there, and agreed to; and it was
carried back to the Lords, as approved of, on the same day.

But though the bill had now passed both houses, there was an awful fear
throughout the kingdom, lest it should not receive the royal assent before
the ministry was dissolved. This event took place the next day; for on
Wednesday the twenty-fifth, at half past eleven in the morning; His
Majesty's message was delivered to the different members of it, that they
were then to wait upon him to deliver up the seals of their offices. It
then appeared that a commission for the royal assent to this bill among
others had been obtained. This commission was instantly opened by the Lord
Chancellor (Erskine), who was accompanied by the Lords Holland and
Auckland; and as the clock struck twelve, just when the sun was in its
meridian splendour to witness this august Act, this establishment of a
Magna Charta for Africa in Britain, and to sanction it by its most vivid
and glorious beams, it was completed. The ceremony being over, the seals of
the respective offices were delivered up; so that the execution of this
commission was the last act of the administration of Lord Grenville; an
administration, which, on account of its virtuous exertions in behalf of
the oppressed African race, will pass to posterity, living through
successive generations, in the love and gratitude of the most virtuous of
mankind.

Thus ended one of the most glorious contests, after a continuance for
twenty years, of any ever carried on in any age or country. A contest, not
of brutal violence, but of reason. A contest between those, who felt deeply
for the happiness and the honour of their fellow-creatures, and those, who,
through vicious custom and the impulse of avarice, had trampled under-foot
the sacred rights of their nature, and had even attempted to efface all
title to the divine image from their minds.

Of the immense advantages of this contest I know not how to speak. Indeed,
the very agitation of the question, which it involved, has been highly
important. Never was the heart of man so expanded. Never were its generous
sympathies so generally and so perseveringly excited.