embodied in various Orders in Council. The first was made on
January 7, 1807, by the Whig Government before they left office and a
more stringent order followed in November. The last was drawn by
Perceval, the new Chancellor of the Exchequer. Perceval was a friend of
Wilberforce and sympathised both with his religious views and his hatred
of the slave trade. He soon became intimate with Stephen, to whose
influence the Orders in Council were generally attributed. Brougham, the
chief opponent of the policy, calls 'War in Disguise' 'brilliant and
captivating,' and says that its statement of facts was undeniable. I
cannot say that I have found it amusing, but it is written with vigour
and impressive earnestness. Brougham calls Stephen the 'father of the
system'; and, whether the system were right or wrong, it had undoubtedly
a great influence upon the course of events. I fear that my grandfather
was thus partly responsible for the unfortunate war with the United
States; but he clearly meant well. In any case, it was natural that
Perceval should desire to make use of his supporter's talents. He found
a seat in Parliament for his friend. Stephen was elected member for
Tralee on Feb. 25, 1808, and in the Parliament which met in 1812 was
returned for East Grimstead.

Stephen thus entered Parliament as an advocate of the Government policy.
His revolutionary tendencies had long vanished. He delivered a speech
upon the Orders in Council on May 6, 1809, which was reprinted as a
pamphlet.[14] He defended the same cause against the agitation led by
Brougham in 1812. A Committee of the whole House was granted, and
Stephen was cross-examining one of Brougham's witnesses (May 11, 1812),
when a shot was heard in the lobby, and Perceval was found to have been
murdered by Bellingham. Stephen had just before been in Perceval's
company, and it was thought, probably enough, that he would have been an
equally welcome victim to the maniac. He was made ill by the shock, but
visited the wretched criminal to pray for his salvation.

Stephen, according to Brougham, showed abilities in Parliament which
might have given him a leading position as a debater. His defective
education, his want of tact, and his fiery temper, prevented him from
rising to a conspicuous position. His position as holding a Government
seat in order to advocate a particular measure, and the fact that
politics in general were to him subsidiary to the one great end of
abolishin