bring it under the notice of the house. But it was important that the trade should be abolished: it was also important that the subject should from time to time be discussed, until it was brought to a happy and final termination. Unfortunately it was again revived in various countries, some of which had at least nominally abolished it; and it became necessary again to address the crown, as well with a view to a practical abolition as to express a speculative condemnation of the trade. It was now carried on under various flags, even under that of America itself; and he feared much that American ships, American property, and American subjects were embarked in it. Since their settlements had been restored to France, the trade was carried on in them also. There was no doubt of its existence on the western coast of Africa, in Goree, and Senegal. He was not aware that it was carried on by any of the other powers who had agreed to its unconditional abolition. With respect to Holland, he had not heard of more than one instance, which occurred upon the Gold Coast. Nothing took place on the part of Denmark or Sweden. The evil arose chiefly from Portugal and Spain. Great sacrifices had been made by this country, to induce them to abolish the traffic in slaves along all the African coast north of the Line, but it was still carried on by them. In former times, Spain was, in a great measure, supplied with slaves by this country; but now that the trade was put a stop to here, the Spaniards, it seems, carried it on with increased exertion.

Mr. Wilberforce continued to state, that in a letter from Sir James Yeo, mention was made of one vessel of only 120 tons, which carried 600 slaves. This was without example in the former history of the trade. A gentleman engaged in this traffic, with whom he once held a conversation, told him that in a vessel of 250 tons, 400 slaves might be somewhat comfortable in the night, though they could not lie on their backs. He would mention a case that lately occurred. It was stated on oath by the lieutenant of his Majesty's ship the Humber. On the 15th of February last he went on board a slave ship, as prize-master: he remained there from the 15th to the 19th of the same month and assisted in landing them. He was told they had been all in good health when they first went on board, but thirty perished from inhuman treatment. On landing there were a hundred of them who were reduced to mere skeletons, and wore a most wretched appearance. All this happened in the short space of three weeks or a month, and must necessarily happen to any vessel so crowded. He knew an instance,

where, out of 540 slaves, 340 died on the voyage. Most of them were now carried to the Havannah or to Cuba. In the latter place 25,000 were annually imported for some years back. This was a greater number than had ever before been imported there. Spain not only carried on the trade for her own benefit; but her flag furnished a plea under which every other power might carry it on. They were sometimes stopped by our cruisers, but in most instances their seizure was decided to be contrary to law, as not being prize of war. If such was the law at present among nations, that it afforded no means of checking the progress of so great an evil, a system better and more conformable to common sense should be introduced.

Mr. Wilberforce then read the Address, which was very long, and nearly the same in substance as the speech. The principal point in it was, a desire that his royal highness the prince regent, in concurrence with the other powers of Europe, would adopt such further measures as might be effectual for the suppression of the Slave Trade; and to this end, that they would refuse to receive the colonial produce of any country which still persisted in its continuance.

Lord Grenville, in the upper house, remarked "that it had been maintained from the first, that if we abolished the trade, other nations would carry it on. To that argument he for one had always answered, that if not one human being less were to be torn from his home and his country, and exposed to all the horrors of the Middle Passage; if not one drop of blood less were to be shed in this commerce of cruelty, it was still the duty of Great Britain to abolish it, as far as this country was concerned; that it was the duty of Great Britain to wash from itself the stain of this execrable trade, and to provide that in future, at least, this guilt should not rest with the British Nation, and that this blood should not be required at our hands. But it was also our duty, not merely to cease to commit evil, but to endeavour to atone for that which we had committed. This was due from us as men and Christians, who are enjoined to exercise every act of mercy and humanity in our power; but it was, above all, due to the injured from the oppressor-to those who suffer from those who have been the cause of that suffering-to those who have been the victims of a crime from those who have perpetrated it. He entreated their lordships to bear in mind, that there never was, there never could be, a stronger claim than that which Africa had on this country. We had been among the foremost to commit wrong; it became us to be the foremost to re

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rior to her in eloquence, true judgment or wisdom, and that few were equal to her in charity towards men or piety towards God."

may

Nicholas, the third son of these worthy and Christian parents, was born Feb. 2, 1592, in Mark Lane, London; and, being of tractable disposition and lively parts, was sent to school at four years of age, and in a few months could read or repeat with great propriety a

FERRAR.

There are few biographical accounts more interesting or useful than those of men of learning and talents, who, having mixed much with the world, have at length perceived its vanities, and have retired from them to spend their remaining days in the immediate service of their God and Saviour. Among persons of this description the celebrated Nicholas Ferrar may be included; and though in reviewing his life we shall perceive a great mixture of austerity, and perhaps even of formalism and superstition, yet with all his peculiarities we cannot fail to discover a genuine though oftentimes mistaken piety, and may learn from his example not a few lessons of much practical importance.

- The father of Nicholas Ferrar was a merchant of considerable opulence in London; a man of respectable family, liberal manners, extensive charity, and earnest devotion. Of his mother, who was remarkable for personal beauty and great modesty of character, Bishop Lindsell was accustomed to say,

CHRIST. OBSERV. No. 188.

parents having always accustomed their children from their infancy to this sacred duty. His powers of memory, and his early proficiency in historical and classical learning, caused him to be removed at six years of age to EubornSchool, near Newbury in Berkshire, from which, by the especial recommendation of his tutor, he was admitted at Clare Hall, Cambridge, in his fourteenth year. From his infancy he united great diligence in study with natural talents of the highest order; but far from exciting envy, even among his youthful competitors, his amiable and cheerful tem per, combined with almost excessive modesty and delicacy of character, won upon their affections as much as it secured their esteem.

A circumstance which occurred in his sixth year evinces the religious sentiments which had thus early taken possession of his mind. Being one night unable to sleep, a fit of scepticism seized him, and gave him the greatest perplexity and uneasiness. He doubted "whether there was a God;" and if there was, what

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was the most acceptable mode of serving him." In extreme grief, he rose at midnight and went down to a grass plat in the garden, where he stood a long time sad and pensive; reflecting seriously upon the great doubts which thus extremely perplexed him. At length, throw ing himself upon his hands and face to the ground, and spreading out his hands, he cried aloud-" Yes; there is, there must be a God: and he, no question, if I duly and earnestly seek it of him, will teach me not only how to know but how to serve him acceptably. He will be with me all my life here, and at the end will make me happy hereafter." His doubts now vanished, and he returned to his apartment in tranquillity; but the recollection of the circumstance made him ever after commiserate persons in distress of mind on religious accounts, to many of whom in future life his advice and persuasions became eminently consolatory and instructive.

The early promises of his infancy began very soon to be realized at college. His tutor, Mr. Lindsell, wishing to elicit and exhibit his talents, or, as he himself expressed it," to see his inside as well as his outside," made such trials of his abilities as the Fellows thought quite unreasonable, urging that "it was a shame to spur a fleet horse, which already outwent the rider's desire, and won every race he put him to." In all these examinations young Ferrar succeeded beyond the highest expectations; and being anxious to continue the course of mental cultivation which he had thus auspiciously begun, he gave himself unintermittingly to his studies, so that it became a common remark, that his chamber might be known by the candle that was last extinguished at night and first lighted in the morning. His piety was equal to his learning, nor was any pursuit,, however interesting, ever suffered to interfere with the regularity of his attend

ance at the college chapel an example worthy of imitation by many junior members of our universities in the present day, who, with much clearer ideas, perhaps, of the general nature of Christianity, than were possessed by young Ferrar, might yet find in his scrupulous strictness of conduct and susceptibility of conscience, no unworthy subject of Christian emulation.

In his second year Ferrar became a Fellow-commoner, his parents having deferred this privilege till he had proved that he deserved it; and in 1610 he took his first degree in Arts, and the same year was elected a Fellow of his college. His literary acquisitions, as well as his personal character and influence among his friends, had by this time become so conspicuous that Mr. Lindsell was accustomed to exclaim, " May God keep him in a right mind; for if he should turn schismatic, or heretic, he would make work for all the world. Such a head! Such power of argument! Such a tongue, and such a pen! Such a memory withal he hath, with such indefatigable pains, that all these joined together, I know not who would be able to contend with him."

But the rising genius and virtues of Ferrar could not exempt him from the ordinary afflictions of humanity; among which he had to enumerate a feminine and sickly temperament of body, visibly ag gravated by his severe studies, and which, though it could not abate his own courage, began greatly to excite the alarm of his friends. His faithful and affectionate physician being apprehensive that his valuable life was near its close, and his friends in general thinking it impossible for him to survive another winter in England, he was prevailed upon to retire to the Continent, where by the course recommended for his adoption, his medical adviser predicted that his life might possibly last to thirty-five years, beyond

which he had no hopes that it could, under any circumstances, be prolonged. The heads of the university, as soon as they were informed of Mr. Ferrar's intention, and that he was about to join the retinue of the princess Elizabeth, who was proceeding to the palatinate with the Palsgrave her husband, procured him, by special favour, his Master's degree, for which he had already performed the previous exercises, though he was not of sufficient standing to receive it in the ordinary course. His written farewel to his family has been preserved, in which he dwells upon the importance of preparing for death; exhorts his brothers and sisters to piety, unity, and love; consoles his parents with the thought, that " if he should be soon dead to them, he was yet alive to God;" implores their for giveness if at any time he had displeased them, and adds, "It was God that gave me to you; and if he take me from you, be not only content but joyful that I am deliyered from the vale of misery. This God, who hath kept me ever since I was born, will preserve me to the end, and will give me grace to live in his faith, to die in his favour, to rest in peace, to rise in his power, and to reign in his glory." At the present moment, when, after a long disruption from all continental intercourse, a general eagerness for foreign travel has seized upon all ranks of our countrymen, it may not be useless or uninteresting to learn the principles and intentions with which a youth of Mr. Ferrar's character, and who with all his acquisitions was but in his twenty-first year, commenced his undertaking. The utility of a continental tour, especially for men who are to move in public life, has for many hundred years been a settled maxim in England; and if, during the last two or three years, the public feeling seems to have somewhat changed upon this subject, it has been chiefly on ac

count of the moral contagion which is known to exist in various parts of the Continent, in conjunction with the unfavourable effects lately produced, or supposed to have been produced, upon the agriculture, manufactures, and general prosperity of our own country, by concentrating into the space of a single summer the ordinary portion of travelling allotted to several years. The mischiefs, however, of the prac tice would not so often have prepon derated over the benefits, had all our junior travellers commenced their expeditions with the same enlightened and religious views as the subject of the present remarks, The above-mentioned Lindsell expressly declared, that "he knew that in all virtue Nicholas Ferrar was an old man; and that the stock of learning, wisdom, and religion, which he carried out with him would be increased at his return." It should also be remembered that Ferrar was fully aware of the moral danger to which he might be exposed; but he believed it to be his duty to take the step, so that, to use the words of his biographer, "he was armed beforehand against whatever might occur, and relied humbly upon the mercy of God to protect him."

By the kind attention of Dr. Scot, who had succeeded to the mastership of Clare Hall, Ferrar was presented at court, and, having changed the gravity of his scholastie dress for a garb more suited to his new appointment, set sail with the courtiers for Flushing, where on his arrival he found that the sea air, as his physician predicted, had removed his intermittent fever, and produced the most favourable effect upon his constitution. Accompanying the princess Elizabeth from city to city, he minutely investigated and recorded the manners, religion, manufactures, government, and charitable institutions, of the Dutch, paying especial attention to their modes of preaching, their rites and ceremonies, and whatever