e first
agitation of the question by the British parliament; and may, therefore,
be fairly presumed to have been suggested by that movement."

"Quick at the call of virtue, freedom, truth,
Weak withering age, and strong aspiring youth,
Alike the expanding power of pity felt;
The coldest, hardest hearts began to melt;
From breast to breast the flame of justice glowed--
Wide o'er its banks the Nile of mercy flowed;
Through all the isle, the gradual waters swelled,
Mammon in vain the encircling flood repelled
O'erthrown at length, like Pharaoh and his host,
His shipwrecked hopes lay scattered round the coast."

Through the labours of Wilberforce, Clarkson, and other philanthropists,
the slave-trade was therefore abolished: it remained for future
philanthropists to emancipate those on whose naked limbs the shackles
were fastened. On the day after the abolition bill had been carried,
Lord Percy moved to bring in a bill for the gradual abolition of slavery
in the West Indies. This motion was negatived; but it showed that the
subject of their entire freedom would one day or other follow that of
the abolition of the slave-trade.

BILL FOR REMOVING THE DISABILITIES OF THE ROMAN CATHOLICS.

With the present administration, the catholic question was made a
subject of paramount importance. It was made a matter of discussion in
the cabinet; and although, in consequence of Lord Sidmouth's aversion to
the measure, and some interviews held by Lords Grenville and Howick with
his majesty, the subject was for a time abandoned, yet about this time
it was partially renewed by a bill for allowing promotion in the army
and navy to Roman Catholics, as well as to other dissenters from the
protestant establishment. This bill which had received the reluctant
acquiescence of his majesty, was read a first time on the 5th of March,
and was ordered to be read on the twelfth of the same month. In
the meantime the king's sentiments underwent a material change; his
coronation-oath would not, he said, allow him to give his royal assent
to such a measure. The bill was postponed from the 12th, in consequence
of this communication, to the 18th, during which time ministers sought
to remove the king's scruples. This, however, was a task which they were
not able to perform, and they were at length compelled to consent to
withdraw the bill altogether.

DISMISSAL OF MINISTERS.

The introducti