mind, whilst you have been reading the last few lines of my letter, and which I therefore will not trouble you by reciting at large, are applicable to the provisional convention of which you speak, about which Mr. Pitt agrees with me in opinion. You see with how much frankness I write; it will at least afford you a proof that I give you credit for taking so warm and so sincere a part in this business, that you will wish all ceremony to be waived, and all reserve in the discussion of it.

66

"I gave the notice you suggest a few days before parliament adjourned, and Mr. Fox declared in his place that he had entertained thoughts of bringing the subject into public notice, and that he should be happy to cooperate with me in so good a work. I hear something of a society that has been set on foot in Paris. What are its objects, and is it respectable from the rank, character, and number of its members? I have some idea M. de la Fayette is one of its leaders.

"Once more let me repeat my earnest wishes that the negociation may be pushed forward with all practicable expedition. I am clear that much of our success in this country will depend on its being brought to a desirable issue before the decision of parliament be finally

taken.

"I shall always be glad to hear from you; and I remain, my dear Sir, very sincerely yours, “W.WILBERFORCE.”

"Mr. Wilberforce to Mr. Eden.

"London, 18th January, 1788. 'My dear Sir,-I think M. de Montmorin's memorial of the 5th of January suggests the very conclusion that you drew from his conversation, that the French cabinet is afraid of committing itself so far as not to be able to withdraw its pledge, though nothing should be done in this country. It seems also, as you say, to apprehend that our attempts will be ineffectual; but it is with the greatest pleasure I assure you that nothing is worse founded than this apprehension. The fire is kindled in various parts of the kingdom, and the flame every day spreads wider and wider. The papers I enclose will show you what has been done at Manchester, which, it should be remembered, is deeply interested in the African trade, both as its manufactures form one capital branch of export, and as many of its inhabitants (as is stated to me) have large concerns in shipping in Liverpool. At Birmingham, to which one of the preceding observations applies, a society is instituted for the abolition of the slavetrade, and a liberal subscription entered into. Another society, originally set on foot by a few Quakers in the City of London, has suddenly increased to the size you will see by the account I transmit you, and it is hourly increasing, and I am sure we shall agree, ought not to be diminished. Besides these demonstrations of the general spirit that has gone abroad, there appears an universal disposition in our favour in the house of commons, so far as I can judge during the recess. On the whole, therefore, assure yourself that there is no doubt of our success.

"If the French cabinet and M. de Montmorin are sincere in their professions of an earnest desire to relinquish their share of this infamous traffic, and are only deterred from speaking a more open lan

guage by the apprehension you have suggested, will not this representation of the state of things on this side of the water release them from the necessity of keeping back, and induce them to declare to you in plain terms that, provided Great Britain shall wholly abandon the slave trade, they will engage for France in doing the same? I place great dependence on the use you will make of the information I have given you, and on that regard for personal credit which will incline the French ministers, if they see a probability of their acceding to the measure at all, to adopt it in that way which will be most honourable to them; as if they cheerfully, at least pari passu with this country, stepped forward to obey the instructive suggestions of their own feelings, not as if they were dragged reluctantly into our train.

"The particular mode of our proceedings in the house of commons may be materially affected by the answer you obtain from M. de Montmorin on this head, and therefore you will have the goodness to press him with a hot fire, and as soon as possible communicate to Mr. Pitt, or myself, the result of your renewed attack. I will put up a copy or two of some of the tracts which have been circulated throughout England with considerable effect; they are not always strictly accurate in their statements, particularly that of Mr. Cooper; the other little one is more to be relied on.

:

"I am, dear Sir, yours very sincerely,

"W. WILBERFORCE."

The French revolution broke out: Mr. Eden returned home, and from this point the correspondence, though still interesting, becomes less important. There are pictures of English and Irish life, sketches from by-standers of men, events, and conversations, which have now become substantial parts of history the trial of Warren Hastings; the prince of Wales, his debts and his depravity; Pitt and Fox; the bons mots of George Selwyn; and Lord George Gordon's conversion to the Jewish faith, after he had led on the anti-popery mob which nearly succeeded in burning down London a second time. As we glance from page to page, the impression deepens upon us that England, at least in its higher circles, was heartless and irreligious. The shock of the French revolution, at a cost only less extravagant in blood and treasure to us than to themselves, was wanted to bring us to our senses; and happily it had this effect: England was not hardened beyond compunction; profligacy became unfashionable, and frivolities sank into disgrace.

Then we find Mr. Eden our ambassador in Spain. The filial respect of our great statesmen to their parents deserves not to be forgotten. Mr. Canning never failed to write to his mother once a week; and Mr. Eden kept a journal of the events of each day, and sent it to his mother; it displays his own character in a very favourable light. The ambassador, laden with the cares of state, finds time to note down from day to day, for the gratification of a grandmother, how the English bambino is caressed by the Spanish princesses; how the children prepare a

surprise for their mamma, on her birthday, previously, of course, intrusting their profound secret to every member of the household; and how they pay their respects indiscriminately on "auld fool's day," the frolicsome first of April, both to servants and superiors. The follies of children we can tolerate, those of the Spanish court arouse no other feeling than loathing. That disgusting brutality, the battue, seems to have been imported from Spain; for Mr. Eden describes a royal one to which he was invited, "a grande battida, which in plain English is a beating of the woods for game":

"It was necessary to present himself in a uniform similar to the king's, which is not unlike what I have seen in many pictures of about fifty years ago. Thus prepared, and after being well ridiculed by my girls, I proceeded to the prince Kaffaldael's, &c. . . . In about half an hour his catholic majesty and the prince arrived, and we walked out to receive them; after which there was about an hour's conversation, before signals were made of the herds of deer approaching. In the meantime there was a great noise, in the hills behind us, of guns and trumpets, and boys screaming and men hallooing; all which is managed in such a direction, and by planting people in different places, so as to force all the game to pass by the building. This lasted near two hours. About 2000 deer passed, and two foxes, and one wild boar. The king and prince selected only the fat bucks, and avoided killing the does as much as possible, though in the crowds which passed, some of the latter necessarily suffered. The fineness of the day, and the noise of about 20,000 people who were employed, and the largeness of the herds, made it certainly an interesting sight; but in other respects it was piteous enough, for in front of the place, and within a few yards of us, the dead and the wounded were all lying, either bleeding or struggling, some only with legs broken, &c. At last it finished, and then the chasseurs ran in, and soon put all the poor beasts out of pain that had any life remaining; in order to do this, however, dogs were also necessary as to several."

But even this is tolerable in comparison with what occurs upon the next page :

"There has been a comedy here every night for some time There was a bull fight introduced, and the bulls were acted by calves, and all killed upon the stage, except one which jumped into the pit, where he was despatched by scissors and penknives."

Thus nations perish in the midst of wealth and with all the materials of prosperity. Between the two extracts we have just made, there is a third of some significance:

"The king of Spain to-day showed to us some immense pieces of silver which are just arrived, in their crude state, from a newly-discovered mine in Peru. Among the rest there was one which weighed 300 lbs., and which he reserves for his cabinet of natural history. It looked like the scrap of a rock, but on striking it with metal it sounded like solid silver, and is supposed to be of the value of £1200 sterling."

But the Lord of the Indies amidst his hoards was as helpless as Belshazzar at his feast. A court abandoned to dissipation is the real hotbed of a revolution. It is not in the crowded factory or amongst the desperate population of the faubourg that revolutions take their origin. The head must be sick, and the heart faint, before the members are benumbed. The madness of the people is always frightful; nor are we amongst the number who maintain that it always has a just excuse. On the contrary, there have been periods in our own, as well as in foreign history, in which it seems to us to have been an epidemic, a popular insanity. But we believe the records of history will be searched in vain for an instance in which it was successful. No really good government, whether constitutional or absolute, was ever subverted except by its own misconduct; for government is of God, and He puts such honour upon His own institutions, that He protects it from violence so long as it continues to fulfil His purposes and to "rule in righteous

The value of such a work as this depends in some measure upon the reader. To a careless reader, the volumes are merely an entertainment; to a reflecting one they are, as Lord Bacon would have said, full of the seeds of things. In such private notes and confidential letters, the literary gossip finds indolent recreation; the thoughtful reader sees the germ of history; the student of human nature explores the anatomy of man; and the Christian, inquiring more deeply still, the slow development to the purposes of the Righteous Governor of the universe.

CHRISTIAN UNION.

To the Editor of the Christian Observer.

"By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another." (John xiii, 35.)

DEAR SIR,-The manifestation of brotherly love amongst the followers of Christ occupies a position peculiar to itself, as having been selected, out of all other Christian graces and duties, to be the distinctive mark whereby Christians should be known. What could give it a stronger claim upon our earnest attention ?

Amongst the many important aspects of this subject, there is a long-neglected one, which is now happily being forced upon our notice, and which you would, perhaps, not think unworthy of a place in the Christian Observer. I refer to the attitude which members of different evangelical churches ought to maintain towards one another.

It may seem superfluous to assert, that, if they believe one another to be disciples of Christ, they are not merely to "love one another,"

but to let "all men know" that they do so. The mark is not only to be there, but to be visible, or it misses one of its specific objects. But there are two considerations which make it peculiarly incumbent, in their case, to let this badge be seen broadly and distinctly.

In the first place, this is a matter with regard to which, in the opinion of the world around us, every man is held guilty, until he proves himself innocent. The alienation, if not positive antagonism, which so often subsists between different churches holding the same great fundamental truths, has given the world but too much excuse for the taunting proverb, "See how these Christians hate one another." Knowing, then, the existence of this feeling, we surely ought not to be satisfied merely with the consciousness of our own personal innocence; but should make every possible effort to remove the impression, and compel men to acknowledge that we do love one another as Christians, in spite of our differences as churchmen.

Secondly, the greater our differences, the better opportunity we have of proving the genuine character of this brotherly love. For, as I lately heard it well put by the Rev. T. Binney, in proportion as the man I love is a reflection of myself, am I exposed to the suspicion of merely loving myself in him; but if all his peculiar views and preferences are opposed to mine, and we agree in nothing but in loving and serving our common Master, then it becomes manifest that it is on that account alone I love him.

For these reasons, therefore, it seems to be our duty to make even greater efforts to manifest our love to members of other churches than to members of our own; both because the world is less ready to believe it, and because, when plainly proved, it is calculated to produce a greater effect.

But now, to come to the point which demands our consideration. How are we, as members of a national church, practically to carry out this principle towards those Protestant evangelical dissenters whose differences with us cannot for a moment be supposed to affect their discipleship to Christ, or, consequently, our duty of letting all men see that we love them as brethren ? * Let us suppose a case, which is, thank God, of much rarer occurrence than formerly, but still far too common. An evangelical clergyman and an evangelical dissenting minister live and labour for years together in the same place. They are serving the same Master, and doing the same work. Their one grand object, directly or indirectly, is to bring sinners to Christ, and afterwards to build them up in their most holy faith. They preach the same gospel; ask from the same Father the gift of the same Spirit to bless their preaching'; administer the same sacraments, though in different forms; appeal to the same book as their standard of faith and practice; hope to spend an eternity in the same blessed home,and yet have very little more personal intercourse with one another, and give the world very little more proof of all this unity and community, than if one of them were a Mohammedan or a Brahmin. All that meets the eye of the world is, that they invariably worship in different buildings, stand on different platforms, sit on different committees, support different societies, are backed up by different news* See this argued out in a sermon, entitled, "Forbid him not," published at Seeley's.