s,
some one said, 'I wonder how Wilberforce voted last night:' on which
Lord Liverpool observed, 'I do not know how he voted, but of this I am
pretty sure, that in whatever way he voted, he repents of his vote this
morning.' Lord Sidmouth added, 'It was odd enough, that I had no sooner
returned to my office, than Wilberforce was announced, who said,--Lord
Sidmouth, you will be surprised at the vote I gave last night, and,
indeed, I am not myself altogether satisfied with it;'--to which I
replied, My dear Wilberforce, I shall never be _surprised_ at any vote
you give.'"

During this session the abolition of Negro slavery first seriously
attracted the notice of parliament. The conduct of it, in the House of
Commons, was intrusted to Wilberforce; but, in his absence, in
consequence of indisposition, Pitt, on the 9th of May 1798, moved the
resolution, "that the House would, early in the next session, proceed to
take into consideration the circumstances of the slave trade." In a
cause like this, the humane and magnanimous mind of Burke naturally
enlisted at once. But he was by no means of that school of humanity
which gains the race, only by riding over every thing in its way.
Red-hot humanity had no charms for the great philosopher; and,
philanthropist as he was, he could discover no wisdom in measures which
changed only one violence for another, pauperised the whites without
liberating the blacks; and, while it cost twenty millions sterling to
repair about third of the injury, left the unhappy African at the mercy
of avarice round the circumference of the globe.

A letter from Huntingford says:--"Dr Lawrence, our Winchester
acquaintance, called on me lately. He talked much on Mr Burke's ideas
respecting the slave-trade. I found by him that Mr Burke foresaw the
total ruin of the West-India colonies, if the trade were _at once_
prohibited. He is for a better regulation of the ships which carry on
that infamous commerce: he would lay the captains under restrictions,
and punish them with rigour for wanton severity or brutal inhumanity to
the slaves; and, when the poor creatures are purchased at the West-India
islands, he would have them instructed in religion; and be permitted to
purchase their own freedom, when by industry they should acquire a
sufficient sum for that purpose. For their religious instruction he
would erect more churches; and, to enable them in time to accumulate the
price of their ransom, he would enact tha