proposed, which plan would be continued for twenty years, during the
last ten of which no additional taxes would be required. This plan
after repeated discussions was agreed to, and the funds rose so high in
consequence, that the chancellor of the exchequer was able to negociate
a loan on advantageous terms to the public.

THE SLAVE-TRADE QUESTION.

Wilberforce seems to have placed his main dependence upon Fox, in the
great question of the abolition of the slave-trade; but on the death of
that minister, Lord Grenville took up the matter with greater zeal than
he had manifested. On the 2d of January he introduced a bill for the
total abolition of that inhuman traffic, and this bill was read a first
time and printed. Counsel was heard at the bar of the house against it
on the 4th of February; and next day, after an elaborate speech, Lord
Grenville moved the second reading. He was warmly supported by the Duke
of Gloucester, the Earl of Selkirk, Lord King, the Earl of Rosslyn, Lord
Northesk, the Bishop of Durham, Lord Holland, the Earl of Suffolk, and
Lord Moira; and as warmly opposed by the Duke of Clarence, the Earl
of Morton, the Earl of Westmoreland, and Lords Sidmouth, Eldon,
Hawkes-bury, and St. Vincent. On a division, the bill was read a second
time by one hundred against thirty-six; and on the 10th of February it
was read a third time, and ordered to be sent to the commons for their
concurrence. In the commons the reading was moved by Lord Howick; and
so great had been the progress of philanthropic sentiments among British
legislators that only sixteen ventured to oppose it; two hundred and
eighty-three raised their voices in favour of it. The bill was read a
third time on the 16th of March, and on the 18th it was carried back to
the lords. Some amendments had been made in the commons, and these were
assented to by the lords; and on the 25th the bill received the royal
assent by commission. The bill enacted that no vessel should clear out
for slaves from any port within the British dominions after the 14th of
May, 1807; and that no slave should be landed in the colonies after the
1st of March, 1808. Thus this dark spot in the English annals was
wiped out, and a noble example was set to the nations around who still
trafficked in human flesh. It has, indeed, been justly observed that
"almost all the mild and benignant laws, enacted for the benefit and
protection of the negro slave, were of subsequent date to th