portance to confer distinction upon
any parliamentary session. One of these is entitled "an act for the
better administration of justice in His Majesty's privy council"; a
second, "an act for the abolition of slavery throughout the British
colonies, for promoting the industry of the manumitted slaves, and for
compensating the persons hitherto entitled to the services of such
slaves"; a third, "an act for the abolition of fines and recoveries, and
for the substitution of more simple methods of assurance"; a fourth, "an
act to regulate the trade to China and India"; a fifth, "an act for
giving to the corporation of the governor and company of the Bank of
England certain privileges, for a limited period, under certain
conditions"; a sixth, "an act to regulate the labour of children and
young persons in the mills and factories of the United Kingdom". Not one
of these salutary measures was forced upon the legislature by popular
clamour, every one of them represents a sincere zeal for what has been
ridiculed as "world-bettering," and the parliament that passed them must
have been thoroughly imbued with the spirit of reform.

Foremost of these measures, as a monument of philanthropic legislation,
will ever stand the act for the abolition of colonial slavery. No class
in the country was concerned in its promotion; the powerful interests of
the planters were arrayed against it; and humanity, operating through
public opinion, was the only motive which could induce a government to
espouse the anti-slavery cause. Stanley had not occupied his new office
many weeks when on May 14 it became his lot to explain the ministerial
scheme in the house of commons. Its essence consisted in the immediate
extinction of absolute property in slaves, but with somewhat complicated
provisions for an intermediate state of apprenticeship, to last twelve
years. During this period negroes were to be maintained by their former
masters, under an obligation to serve without wages for three-fourths of
their working hours, and were to earn wages during the remaining fourth.
All children under six years of age were to become free at once, and all
born after the passing of the act were to be free at birth. The
proprietors were to receive compensation by way of loan, to the extent
of L15,000,000, and additional grants were promised for the institution
of a stipendiary magistracy and a system of education.

Several resolutions embodying the scheme were carried, w