editable to the author of the affectionate and familiar letters of
Wilberforce to Clarkson than their discrepancy with the charges now
urged against him? It is due to the memory of this venerable man, now
gone to his rest, to say that no one who knew him, ever so slightly,
could believe in the possibility of his holding one language to his
friend and another to his children: far less of his bequeathing to them
anything like materials for the attack upon one to whom he professed the
most warm and steady attachment. But if such be the conclusion of all
who knew the man, assuredly in arriving at it they have derived no help
from the lights afforded by his family.

The vindication of Thomas Clarkson has been triumphant; the punishment
of his traducers has been exemplary. His character stands higher than
ever; his name is lofty and it is unsullied; they have a character to
retrieve,--a name which they have tarnished since it descended upon
them, they have to restore by their own future deserts.

The astonishment of the world was at its pitch when the champion of
Abolition, the steady ally of Thomas Clarkson and Granville Sharpe, the
_Edinburgh Review_, was seen attempting to rescue these parties, and
taking part against the injured man, the patriarch of a cause defended
by that celebrated Journal during a brilliant period of much above
thirty years. The boldness displayed in its pages on this occasion was
excessive. As if feeling that the weak and indefensible part in the
assault was the publishing of the letters, it had the confidence to
affirm, that this proceeding was called for in justice to Wilberforce's
memory. So daring an attempt upon the integrity of facts has not often
been witnessed. What! The publication of these letters, which had no
possible connexion with Wilberforce's character, (a character, indeed,
that no one had assailed,) letters which were absolutely foreign even to
the question of priority in the abolition cause,--the publication of
these necessary to the defence of Wilberforce? Then, upon what ground
necessary? How had he been attacked? Where was he to be defended? But,
if attacked, how did the letters aid,--how connect themselves
with,--how, in any manner of way, bear upon the defence, or any defence,
or any portion of Wilberforce's character and life? They showed him to
have contributed towards the payment of a debt he had contracted to
Clarkson. But who had ever charged him with refusing to pay his