WE doubt not, most of our readers are aware, that THOMAS CLARKSON has passed away from this life, full of years and full of honours. This really great and good man was born at Wisbeach, Cambridgeshire, on the 28th of March, 1760, and died at Playford Hall, near Ipswich, on the 26th of September, 1846. His lamp burned brightly to the last, his clear intellect continued unclouded until the hour of his departure, although his bodily weakness had, for some time previously, prevented him from taking an active part in the great work to which he had consecrated the best and noblest energies of his soul.

We do not intend to enter on a lengthened detail of his life or of his labours in the cause of the slave; but it would be scarcely pardonable in us, as public journalists, to neglect so obvious a duty, as that of placing upon record, in the pages of the Irish Unitarian Magazine and Bible Christian, an account, however brief and imperfect, of one of the noblest and most persevering philanthropists of the times in which we live. He is no longer the pioneer of liberty on earth; but, although dead, he will continue to speak to us in behalf of our oppressed fellowmen, urging us to give our souls to the work in which he so earnestly engaged the work of promoting justice and vindicating the rights of humanity throughout the world.

To Clarkson must be accorded the honour of having first attracted public attention, in these countries, to the fearful wrongs inflicted upon the sons of Africa. His own heart was awakened to the momentous subject in the following manner: In the year 1785, Dr. Peckhard, then the Vice-Chancellor of Cambridge, proposed the following question to the senior Bachelors of Arts, as the subject of a Latin prize dissertation," Is it right to make slaves of others against their will?". Clarkson, who was at that period twenty-five years of age, had gained a prize at the University in the preceding year; and, fortunately for the cause of freedom and humanity, he resolved to enter the lists as

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a competitor again. It was during the time he was engaged in studying the general question of slavery with a view to the prize essay, that the whole iniquity of the negro slave-trade was revealed to him. "It is impossible," he declares in his History of Slavery, "to imagine the severe anguish which the composition of this essay cost me. pleasure I had promised myself from the literary contest was exchanged for pain, by the astounding facts that were now continually before me. It was one gloomy subject from morning till night. In the day, I was agitated and uneasy; in the night, I had little or no rest. I was so overwhelmed with grief, that I sometimes never closed my eyes during the whole night, and I no longer regarded my essay as a mere trial for literary distinction. My great desire was now to produce a work that should call forth a vigorous public effort to redress the wrongs of injured Africa." Soon afterwards he completed and published his celebrated" Essay on the Slavery and Commerce of the Human Species." He obtained the prize, but the inferior motive of collegiate distinction was absorbed in the nobler hopes and purposes of philan thropy. His determination now was, not only to write, but also to work, for the deliverance of the African race. He made a vow of utter and eternal enmity to the trade in slaves, and from that day he resolved to devote himself, heart and hand, to the then apparently hopeless task of bringing "liberty to the captive."

He immediately engaged in the task of visiting many of the leading towns in England, in search of information, and to increase the number of his friends for the great enterprise. His motives were, almost everywhere, misrepresented, and his character calumniated. In Liverpool, he narrowly escaped with his life. It is recorded that a number of the merchants there surrounded him on the quay, and endeavoured to push him into the river. He visited France in the year 1789, where he remained six months in the prosecution of his object; and, after travelling thousands of miles in search of persons who could give evidence, he returned to England. His principal object, at that time, was to collect authentic statements respecting the means generally employed to obtain negroes on the coast of Africa. It is stated that he travelled upwards of thirty-five thousand miles, on these occasions, and kept up a correspondence, during seven years, with no less than four hundred persons. In addition to all this labour, he published a volume, yearly, on the subject of the slave-trade. Of his publications, the following are, perhaps, the most important: "History of the Abolition of the Slave-Trade," 2 vols; "Thoughts on the Necessity of abolishing Slavery;" "A Portrait of Quakerism," 3 vols.; "Life of William Penn," &c. &c.

Clarkson was powerfully and promptly assisted in his labours by other excellent men, among whom Wilberforce stood pre-eminent.

They were as brothers embarked in a holy enterprise which they had vowed never to abandon while life remained. And, assuredly, their lives have attested the fidelity with which they adhered to their solemn determination. Clarkson, and other friends to the negro whom he soon called forth, were originally impressed with the idea, that if the trade in slaves could be stopped, slavery itself would soon cease to exist. In this, however, they were wofully mistaken, and the mistake was so great as to render their unwearied and wonderful efforts almost fruitless. They naturally enough supposed, that by stopping the supply of slaves, in the different markets of the world, slavery would soon come to an end, and those engaged in the horrid traffic would be compelled to look out for some other means of amassing money. The reverse of this, however, seems to be nearer the truth. The demand for slaves must first cease, and then no supply would be required. This light afterwards broke in upon people's minds, when experience proved to them that all efforts, however well-timed and vigorous, for the suppression of the slave-trade, were unavailing so long as the demand for human flesh and blood continued. The efforts made for its abolition only served, indeed, to increase its horrors, by stimulating the ingenuity of traders, who ran, and still run, every risk-who perpetrated, and still continue to perpetrate, the most unscrupulous villanies, from the certainty of enormous gain, whenever a successful (!) voyage can be accomplished. Hence the necessity of assailing slavery itself of grappling with the hydra even in its own poisonous swamps -of dragging forth that frightful monster that has been preying so long, and so voraciously, on men, women, and children. Hence the truth and importance of William Lloyd Garrison's celebrated watchword, that Immediate emancipation is the right of the slave, and the duty of the master." The announcement of this great principle startled those friends of the slave who had been slumbering on their oars, or pursuing a less direct course for the attainment of negro emancipation. It has given a greater impetus, however, to the car of freedom within the last fourteen years, than it had received during the preceding half-century.

Clarkson's ingenuous mind and truth-loving disposition soon acknowledged the superior position taken by Garrison in reference to the whole question of slavery. An ardent and sincere friendship soon existed between them, and continued to the latest moment of Clarkson's life. The old man loved his young coadjutor, because he saw in him the wise and fearless exhibition of a mind fitted for lofty purposes; and the young man cherished a deep veneration for the aged and long-tried friend of humanity. Only a few weeks before Clarkson's death, William Lloyd Garrison arrived in England. As soon as the former heard of his arrival, he felt an anxious desire to see

him. Garrison, accompanied by George Thomson and Frederick Douglass, visited Playford Hall. That is likely to prove a memorable visit. After a delightful interchange of sentiment, and when they were about to take a final leave of the good old man, he placed a manuscript in the hands of Garrison, containing his "Last Thoughts on American Slavery." This will be regarded as a valuable document-valuable because of its testimony to the unbroken vigour of the writer's mind, but more especially so, on account of the admirable principles it advocates on the subject of slavery in the United States. Clarkson was, for many years, the honoured President of the British and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society. Since his decease, that Association have been careful to proclaim to the world, that "to the latest period of his existence, the committee enjoyed his full confidence, and that the measures which they pursued, in promoting the great objects of their Association, were in entire accordance with his mature judgment."

We believe Mr. Clarkson united heartily with that Society at its origin, and that he willingly co-operated with its members until the end of his life. But, that all their measures were in full accordance with his views, is, we apprehend, claiming a little too much for them. For it has been well known that the sympathies of the British and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society have been in unison with the acts of the American and Foreign Anti-Slavery Association-a Society of comparatively recent formation, arising out of a difference of opinion with the Old Organization Association, of which Mr. Garrison is the acknowledged head.

The London Society, and the New Organization body in America, offered a steady opposition to certain measures, or modes of action, pursued by Mr. Garrison, such as the full acknowledgment of women's equal rights with men in the Anti-Slavery movement-the exclusion of all subjects of a sectarian nature or tendency-the nonvoting theory-refusal to take office under a pro-slavery constitution, and, latterly, a determined agitation for a dissolution of the Union. It is not necessary for us to enter, at length, into these points of difference: this much, however, we can state, that Mr. Clarkson sympathized warmly with the Garrison party; and that, in the important document already mentioned, there is a full and complete acknowledgment of the wisdom of the course pursued by the Old Organization Society.

We would not infer, however, from these facts, that Mr. Clarkson dissented so much from the acts of the Society of which he was the President, as to prevent him from taking a deep interest in its proceedings: we only know, that for some years before his death, he ceased to take an active part in them (probably owing to infirmity of

body); and that, up to the close of his glorious career, his love for Mr. Garrison, and his approval of the course pursued by him and his friends, were unequivocally manifested.

In thus placing before our readers a faint, and, we would add, a very imperfect, outline of the life of Clarkson, our object was, not merely to record the name and actions of a good man, but also to encourage others, on whom the great duties of life still devolve, to live worthy the dignity of their nature, and the sanctity of the religion they profess. Let them remember, that, for more than sixty years of his life, that noble man devoted all his physical and mental energies to the great work of promoting the freedom and happiness of his fellow-men. "He is gone from among us; but his work, and the spirit in which he worked, live after him. The idea of the solitary and agonized student has grown into fact, and moved the world, and written itself ineffaceably in the codes of nations; and the faith in whose strength he worked and waited, may assure those who come after him, that the eventual universality of the triumph of justice and humanity is already decreed by a Providence who apportions the moral successes of nations, as of individuals, to the simplicity and fidelity of their allegiance to moral principle."

Almost all the sketches we have seen of Clarkson's life conclude with Wordsworth's beautiful sonnet, written on the final passing of the Bill for the abolition of the slave-trade, in 1807. We shall quote the great poet's words, uttered on another occasion, to describe the character and work of Clarkson::

"Thou hast left behind

Powers that will work for thee; air, earth, and skies—
There's not a breathing of the common wind

That will forget thee;-thou hast great allies;

Thy friends are exultations, agonies,

And love, and man's unconquerable mind."

A SCOTCHMAN'S APOLOGY FOR RENOUNCING TRINITARIANISM, AND RESUMING THE OPPOSITE AND ANCIENT FAITH, THAT "THERE IS BUT ONE GOD THE FATHER." "But this I confess unto thee, that after the way which they call heresy, so worship I the God of my fathers."-Acts xxiv. 14.

(To the Editor of the Irish Unitarian Magazine.)

DEAR SIR,-As you, along with some other friends, have been pleased to express, pretty strongly, a wish that I should write an account of my change of religious opinion, and the reasons that induced me to abandon the orthodoxy of human creeds, I now give the following statement in compliance with your wish; and I beg your readers will excuse me, while I am thus induced, for a little while, to play the part of an egotist.