So far the Corporation of this great metropolis has done its duty in vindicating the fame of the veteran benefactor, not only of the people of Africa, but of his country and the whole human race. It is not as a matter of personal gratification to a gentleman whom we have never happened to see in our whole life that we rejoice at this. But being lovers of that true liberality of which justice is the foundation-and knowing that recent attempts, equally unjust and ungenerous, have been made to deprive the ORIGINATOR of the great plan of slave-trade abolition of the well-earned laurels of his virtuous enterprisewe rejoice that the testimony of a great public body, like the London Corporation, has been thrown into the scale of truth in vindication of the claims of modest virtue.

It is under such circumstances that the tribute offered to CLARKSON by the city of London has a value far beyond what attaches to a mere memorial of personal regard, or even of public veneration. As the decision of contemporary judges, it becomes a historical testimony to guide and determine future opinion. It is a proceeding which puts upon national record evidence of a truth which some parties have disputed, and which, if not vindicated in the most open and public manner before some contemporary tribunal, might hereafter be supposed, by many who take up impressions without examining the grounds of controversy, not to be so much a matter of certainty as it has been proved to be. Public memorials contemporary with facts have always been considered great collateral helps to the elucidation of historical truth.

We have seen that in a popular assembly composed of men of various parties, political and religious-conservatives, whigs, radicals, churchmen, and dissenters-a resolution was passed, without one dissentient voice, proffering a tribute of honour to Thomas CLARKSON, as one "who had the merit of originating and has the consolation of living to witness the triumph of the great struggle for the deliverance of the enslaved African from the most oppressive bondage that ever tried the endurance of afflicted humanity." Now the notice of such a proposition being about to be moved in the Common Council of London had been before the public eye in our columns, and those of

other journals, for some time. The word "originating" appeared in all the published reports of the notice, although some were incorrectly given in another respect. If, then, the party that have set up the claims of Mr. WILBERFORCE, (whose memory we greatly venerate,) in opposition to those of Mr. CLARKSON— and whose statements are at this moment circulating through all the reading-rooms and subscription-libraries in the kingdom-felt confident that their cause would bear the breath of free discussion, how has it happened that not a single person came forward in the Corporation of London to protest against the validity of Mr. CLARKSON's claims as the originator of the great plan of African emancipation, or to disturb the enthusiastic unanimity which prevailed on the subject? By the public notice, all the world was challenged to dispute the peculiar merits attributed, by the terms of that notice, to the venerable person named in it—but nobody answered that challenge.

In his judicious and able speech on introducing the motion, Mr. Sheriff WOOD happily remarked that the circumstance which induced Thomas CLARKSON, at the age of twenty-four, to contemplate the mighty project of abolishing the slave trade, strongly illustrated the good effect of imprinting just and sound moral principles upon the youthful mind. That circumstance, as we stated yesterday, was the Latin theme on slavery, proposed by the Vice-Chancellor of Cambridge for a prize essay, and in the competition for which, the youth who was destined to lay the foundation of African liberty distanced all rivalry.

The following is the simple and interesting account which Mr. CLARKSON himself gives, in his History of the Abolition of the Slave Trade, of the influence which his labours for the prize essay had in directing his mind towards some practical means of extinguishing the abominable traffic, which inflicted on the Christian civilization of England the worst stain of pagan barbarism :

"As it is usual," he says, "to read these essays publicly in the Senate-house soon after the prize is adjudged, I was called to Cambridge for this purpose. I went and performed my office. On returning however to London, the subject of it almost wholly engrossed my thoughts. I became at times very seriously affected while upon the road. I stopped my horse occasionally, and dismounted and walked. I

frequently tried to persuade myself in these intervals that the contents of my essay could not be true. The more, however, I reflected upon them, or rather upon the authorities on which they were founded, the more I gave them credit. Coming in sight of Wades Mill in Hertfordshire, I sat down disconsolate on the turf by the roadside and held my horse. Here a thought came into my mind, that if the contents of the Essay were true, it was time some person should see these calamities to their end. Agitated in this manner I reached home. This was in the summer of 1785."

In the November of that year, he resolved to operate upon the public mind by translating and enlarging his Latin essay. He began that work in November of the same year. This work was his "letter of introduction" to members of parliament and other persons of influence, whom he wished to interest in the great object he had in view. It was by this means he became acquainted with Mr. WILBERFORCE, and proposed to him to become the parliamentary leader in the enterprise, which he undertook in the year 1787. The Society of Friends" had at that time a committee on the subject, which Mr. WILBERFORCE joined. From that Society, commonly called "the Quakers," emanated the first petition ever presented to parliament against the slave trade. The second was from Bridgwater, and originated in a suggestion to the mayor of that borough by the Rev. George WHITE, who like Mr. CLARKSON, was a clergyman of the established church.

"

That the person who first contemplated the abolition of the slave trade as a practical question, should have lived to witness not only its extinction, but that of slavery itself, is an instance of a life-time embracing events such as are not often crowded into the experience of a single generation. But many generations will it take to unfold all the mighty advantages, social and moral, which not Africa alone, but England and civilization itself will ultimately derive from the Christian triumph, that is yet to call forth on the vast African continent the resources and energies of legitimate commerce, and to open the desert itself to the footsteps of civilized intercourse.

When the news of the illustrious FRANKLIN having finished his earthly pilgrimage reached France, MIRABEAU thus announced the event in the National Assembly:" FRANKLIN is dead! The genius that emancipated America, and poured a

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copious stream of knowledge over Europe, has returned to the bosom of the DIVINITY:-classic antiquity would have erected altars to the memory of such a man." In the course of nature it cannot be long before the venerable CLARKSON goes to receive a brighter and better reward, than any which human gratitude can bestow. He will then be spoken of as the man that emancipated Africa, and began that work by pouring “ a copious stream of knowledge over Europe," to convince his countrymen and all civilized people of the awful criminality of the slave system, in all its forms of cruelty and revolting horror. FRANKLIN emancipated America more by his pen, than WASHINGTON by his sword:--but America, unthankful to a beneficent PROVIDENCE for the freedom which it bestowed, continues to keep the chains of degrading slavery riveted upon a large portion of the human race-and amidst her republican institutions, violates without remorse or shame the sacred and inalienable rights of man. The noble and generous example of England is lost upon a land where, on the very altars erected to “equal liberty," the chains of captives are forged and human victims sacrificed!

Character of the Rt. Hon. Wm. Conyngham PLUNKET,† as an Orator.-Written in 1820.

IN that great style of public speaking which is equally logical and authoritative, and which gives the noblest idea of what may be called legislative eloquence, Mr. PLUNKET attracts peculiar admiration in the British Senate. Naturally of a grave, investigating mind, but educated to public life in a school of violent, though intellectual contention, he has retained so much of its ardour, as gives him an impressive earnestness in debate, without any liability to unadvised excitement. The spirit of his eloquence appears to be the emanation of an intellect vigorously framed, and cultivated on the principle of an elegant and severe ambition. It combines in the happiest manner discretion and boldness; exercising the philo

Afterwards Lord PLUNKET.

sophical faculty of profound thought, and the popular one of clear illustration-it is that virtue of the intellect which is graced, but never enervated, by communion with refinement.

Capable of the most scrutinizing analysis, he developes principles like one whom the nicest moral distinctions could not elude, nor the most complex propositions obstruct. The comprehensiveness of his mind takes in the whole of his subject, and its vigour and penetration overcome its details. Full of an equable animation, he never sinks into lassitude nor rises into extravagance, but possesses always the happy and rare faculty of intensely occupying the attention, even when demonstration is least relieved by the lighter graces of rhetoric; while in his most imaginative efforts, the substance of instruction is never neglected for display. In his abstruse exercise of the analytical faculty, he is as clear as he is profound-in the midst of complicated principles, the love of order, the power and habit of discipline, transcend the difficulties that surround him. The force with which he arranges his ideas, like the quick forecast of a powerful mind, glances away obscurity and dispels confusion.

His logic is not that of the Schools, formal, pedantic and conceited-nor that of the Bar, contriving, pragmatical and evasive. It is the logic of erudition and eloquence, partaking of the solidity of the one, and the liberality of the other. Its train of deductions, while concealing art, discovers the greatest regularity of method, and flows with that easy and noiseless course which imperceptibly bears the hearer along the current of its clear conviction. Without singularity, and free from all affectation, he gives to political questions, which have been so often agitated as to appear exhausted, a novelty of argument, a splendour and versatility of position, which renew their interest, and restore the living principle by which they once more enchain the attention, or disturb the passions. His mode of examining his subject, proves his love for truth-his desire to satisfy his own mind, while he instructs the minds of others. When he advocates a question, he goes directly to the stamina of its merits. In doing this, he throws