rges stung Stephen to
the quick. 'I would rather,' he exclaimed (June 15, 1810), 'be on
friendly terms with a man who had strangled my infant son than support
an administration guilty of slackness in suppressing the slave trade.'
'If Lord Castlereagh does not keep to his pledges,' he exclaimed (June
29, 1814, when Romilly spoke of the 'guilty silence'), 'may my God not
spare me, if I spare the noble lord and his colleagues!' The Government
declined to take up a measure for the registration of slaves which
Stephen had prepared, and which was thought to be necessary to prevent
evasions of the law. Thereupon he resigned, in spite of all entreaties,
accepting the Chiltern Hundreds, April 14, 1815.

Brougham warmly praises his independence, and wishes that those who had
spoken slightingly of his eloquence would take to heart his example.
Stephen had in 1811 been rewarded for his support of the Orders in
Council by a Mastership in Chancery. Romilly observes that the
appointment was questionable, because Stephen, though he was fully
qualified by his abilities, was not sufficiently versed in the law. His
friends said that it was no more than a fair compensation for the
diminution of the prize business which resulted from the new
regulations. He held the office till 1831, when failing health caused
his retirement. He lived for many years at Kensington Gore on the site
of the present Lowther Lodge; and there from 1809 to 1821 Wilberforce
was his neighbour. His second wife, Wilberforce's sister, died in
October 1816. After leaving Parliament, he continued his active crusade
against slavery. He published, it is said, four pamphlets in 1815; and
in 1824 brought out the first volume of his 'Slavery of the British West
India Colonies delineated.' This is an elaborate digest of the slave
laws; and it was followed in 1830 by a second volume describing the
actual working of the system. From about 1819 Stephen had a small
country house at Missenden, Bucks.[16] Here he was occasionally visited
by his brother-in-law, and a terrace upon which they used to stroll is
still known as 'Wilberforce's Walk.' Stephen had a keen love of country
scenery and had inherited from his father a love of long daily walks. I
record from tradition one story of his prowess. In the early morning of
his seventieth birthday, it is said, he left Missenden on foot, walked
twenty-five miles to Hampstead, where he breakfasted with a son-in-law,
thence walked to his off