in the confidence of her Royal High ness than he had the honour to be. For his part, he knew nothing of her Royal Highness's intentions. All he knew was, that her Royal Highness had signified to one of his Majesty's ministers, in order that it might be communicated to the Prince Regent, her Royal Highness's intention to go to the continent. What the right hon. gentleman's motives had been in voting for the late addition to her Royal Highness's income he knew not; but he was persuaded that, in agreeing to that proposition, the House had no intention of imprisoning her Royal Highness in this country, or of preventing her Royal Highness from residing wherever considerations of her own pleasure or convenience might induce her to take up her abode."

This conversation, of course, led to no result; and, in a short time afterwards, the Princess of Wales repaired to the continent.

Thus ended, and let us hope for ever, the discussion of a matter painful and humiliating to all the well-disposed and reflecting part of the British public. It is one of the many disadvantages attending exalted rank, that those subjects of a delicate and domestic na ture, which men of inferior station contrive successfully to withdraw from public observation, are, in their case, dragged forward into light, and, like an ill-treated wound,'galled on all hands by the officious tampering of ignorant or designing intermeddlers. It is now vain to enquire whether prudence and forbearance might not have prevented the original quarrel from widening into a public breach; but when, unhappily, it became so, the result was easy to be foreseen. When a passage was opened to malicious tale-bearing and artful misrepresentation, when each word or line that passed upon a subject so painful was to go through the

ordeal of examination by those whose interest it was to discover matter of offence in it, the discord of the royal pair was no longer their own quarrel, but the food and maintenance of all who were willing, on either part, to court the temporary favour of the party on whose side they were arranged, by being loud, clamorous, and indignant in their behalf. We have no wish to recal to memory the humiliating circumstances which have attended this rupture,-the intrigues of knights and fair informers on the one side, or of hack-scribblers and ladies of honour on the other. Only thus far we must say, that much of the sympathy which the general feeling of the British nation attached to the situation of the Princess of Wales, while she bore with dignified silence a situation attended with many hardships, was lost so soon as the cry of party opened in her behalf. Men remembered who were the friends and confidants of the Prince Regent at the time when the celebrated enquiry into her conduct took place, and marvelled what new light rendered them so sensible, in 1814, to the wrongs which, when first inflicted, had neither received oil nor balm at their hands. The affectation of zeal and activity, with which these statesmen became suddenly animated, in a cause which, when they had better opportunities of defending it, they had regarded with supine indifference, had a suspicious air with every impar tial person above the mere mob, and occasioned it to be generally remarked, that the loss of the husband's favour, rather than the alleged wrongs of the wife, was at the bottom of this untimely clamour. We have little doubt that the royal personage, whose interest was assumed as the pretext for these discussions, must have become sensible, that, for the sake of her daugh ter, and of the nation over which she

is, in all human likelihood, destined to reign, it was fit to remove the possibility of their being renewed. Her departure for the continent was supposed to have been resolved without much previous communication with those who had been her late champions and advisers, and some of whom expressed no small displeasure at the last court-card, if it may be so called, being thus unexpectedly conjured out of their hand. If it was an unsuggested measure, adopted by her Royal High

ness's own reflection, it was a wise and generous one, and we hope will be rewarded by that family peace and concord to which she offered the sacrifice which her departure from Eng. land involves; and we sincerely trust that it has ended the painful necessity of recording discussions, gratifying only to that malignant curiosity which loves to dwell on those weaknesses that level rulers with their subjects, and diminish the wholesome respect due to those in lawful authority over us.

THE attention of parliament was directed during the present session, not merely to the great features of the policy of the British empire, but to questions in which the general principles of humanity and the common in terests of the species were deeply involved. The parliament had strenuously and faithfully maintained by its firmness the honour of the empire; and by its well-directed zeal in upporting the measures of the government, Great Britain, and with her the other states of Europe, had been rescued from the grasp of a relentless despotism. The task which parliament had already performed was great and honourable, but it had a mixture in it of that selfishness (if selfishness indeed it can be called) which forms the basis even of the virtue of patriotism. But it was now to shew itself resolute and ardent in defending not only the liberties of the British empire-not the independence of Europe alone-but the interests of justice and humanity all over the world. England, although more deeply interested than any other European nation in the supposed advantages of that nefarious traffic, which, to use the language of a celebrated orator, "kept down a great

continent in bondage, ignorance, and blood," had been the first to break the chains of the enslaved Africans, and to set an example to the world of the triumph of liberal and humane principles over blind and sordid cupidity; and her legislators were now determined that so far as her influence might extend over other nations, it should be exerted to put down for ever that disgraceful and scandalous system which had so long stained the character of the most enlightened nations of Eu

rope.

It was well known to the enlightened advocates for the abolition of the slave trade, that the restoration of peace among the nations of the continent would inevitably lead to the revival of the slave trade, unless some effectual measures were taken to avert so dreadful a calamity. Mr Wilberforce, therefore, on the 2d of May, made the following motion in the House of Commons, "That an humble address be presented to his Royal Highness the Prince Regent, to assure his Royal Highness, that this House, relying with perfect confidence on the solemn assurances received by parliament in 1806 and 1810, that his majesty's government would

employ every proper means to obtain a convention of the powers of Europe for the immediate and universal aboli. tion of the African Slave Trade, beg leave humbly and earnestly to represent to his Royal Highness, that the happy and glorious events which promise the general pacification of Christendom, the present union and assembly of its greatest sovereigns, and the great and generous principles which they proclaim as the rule of their conduct, afford a most auspicious opportunity for interposing the good offices of Great Britain to accomplish the above noble purpose, with the weight which belongs to her rank among nations, to the services which she has rendered to European independence, and to the unanimous and zealous concurrence of her parliament and people

"That we feel ourselves authorized, by our own abolition of this trade, of the guilty profits of which we enjoyed the largest share, by the fellowship of civilization, of religion, and even of common humanity, to implore the other members of the commonwealth of Europe to signalize the restoration of its order and security by the prohibition of this detestable commerce, the common stain of the Christian name, a system of crimes by which the civilized professors of a beneficent religion spread desolation and perpetuate barbarism among helpless savages, whom they are bound, by the most sacred obligations of duty, to protect, to instruct, and to reclaim :

"Humbly to represent to his Royal Highness, that the high rank which this kingdom holds among maritime and colonial states imposes a very serious duty upon the British government at this important juncture; and that, unless we interpose, with effect, to procure a general abolition, the practical result of the restoration of peace will be to revive a traffic which we have prohibited as a crime, to open

the sea to swarms of piratical adventurers, who will renew and extend, on the shores of Africa, the scenes of carnage and rapine in a great measure suspended by maritime hostilities, and the peace of Christendom will kindle a thousand ferocious wars among wretched tribes, ignorant of our quarrels and of our very name :

"That the nations who have owed the security of their navigation to our friendship, and whom we have been happy enough to aid in expelling their oppressors, and maintaining their independence, cannot listen without respect to our voice raised in the cause of justice and humanity; and that, among the great states, till of late our enemies, maritime hostility has in fact abolished the trade for twenty years, no interest is engaged in it, and the legal permission to carry it on would practically be a new establishment of it, after the full developement of its horrors:

"That we humbly trust, that in the moral order by which Divine Providence administers the government of the world, this great act of atonement to Africa may contribute to consolidate the safety and prolong the tranquillity of Europe, that nations may be taught a higher respect for justice and humanity by the example of their sovereigns, and that a treaty, sanctioned by such a disinterested and sacred stipulation, may be more profoundly reverenced, and more religi ously observed, than even the most equitable compacts for the regulation of power or the distribution of territory."

In support of this motion, this great advocate of the principles of humanity observed, "that in rising to make the motion which he now intended to propose, he felt gratified in reflecting that it would not be necessary to take up the time of the House, by detailing, at any length, those considerations which

rendered such a step advisable. The House had already recognized and acted upon them in 1806 and 1810, when they consented to an address to the throne, similar, in effect, to what he now wished them to adopt. It was impossible for any one to open his eyes, and look abroad upon the world, without feeling that there never was a period when the general circumstances of all nations were more favourable to such a motion than the present, and when there existed such powerful motives for them to accede to its object. It was something to have an occasion like this presented, when all the great powers of Europe were assembled in congress to consider and discuss the very elements, as it were, of their own political rights; it was something to have such a moment presented for urging the consideration of the wrongs of Africa. When, indeed, he reflected upon these circumstances, and when he recalled to memory that extraordinary succession of providential events which had placed the world in its present state of hope and security, he could not but contemplate in them the hand of the Almighty stretched out for the deliverance of mankind. And what more acceptable token of gratitude could be displayed towards heaven what more acceptable proof of our delight and thankfulness for such mercies, than a measure like the one he now meant to propose? It might be truly said, that the great continental powers had been acting in its very spirit and effect; and when, too, were considered the provocations that all of them had received, and some in particular, and the glorious revenge they had taken, saving from ruin instead of inflicting it; the recognition of the principles he was about to recommend was so plain, that it afforded a sure ground and confident hope that they would be acknowledged, in all which he now wished to obtain, as a sequel

merely of what they had so nobly begun. There was but one objection that he had ever heard made against the proceeding he meant to recommend; and that was, when he had been talking of the continental powers acceding immediately to a general abolition of the slave trade, the reply had been, why we ourselves did not abolish it till after eighteen or nineteen years of enquiry, and how can we expect that they should do it precipitately? But this was not the fact. When the features of that trade were truly developed, when its character was fully known, when its effects were thoroughly understood, we got rid of it directly. It was on its trial during that time, and its sentence followed immediately upon conviction. When the whole system was unfolded, every one acknowledged that we were bound to abolish it, as a traffic inconsistent with every feeling of justice, religion, and humanity. When the question was first entered upon, no one properly understood its details; by degrees, however, the light broke in upon that den of serpents; and when it did so, and it was seen in all its hideous deformity, there existed but one opinion among men of any sense of duty, or any feelings of humanity. It should be remembered too, that great and powerful interests were opposed to it. It was said, our commerce would be destroyed, our marine would be destroyed, and that our settlements in the West Indies could not subsist at all without a regular importation of slaves; while in Africa they would continue to be brought down to the coast, and when no market was open for them they would be murdered. Thus it was foretold, that nothing but disaster would take place in Europe, in the western hemisphere, and in Africa itself, by the abolition; yet all these predictions proved fallacious; and therefore, in soliciting other coun