a single exception on the side of prerogative and power, and against every proposal for the advancement of freedom.  He was a strenuous supporter of the wars and coalitions against the principles of liberty abroad; he has been equally zealous in urging or defending every act and infringement of the Constitution, for abridging it at home:  he at the same time opposes every amelioration of the penal laws, on the alleged ground of his abhorrence of even the shadow of innovation:  he has studiously set his face against Catholic emancipation; he laboured hard in his vocation to prevent the abolition of the Slave Trade; he was Attorney General in the trials for High Treason in 1794; and the other day in giving his opinion on the Queen’s Trial, shed tears and protested his innocence before God!  This was natural and to be expected; but on all occasions he is to be found at his post, true to the call of prejudice, of power, to the will of others and to his own interest.  In the whole of his public career, and with all the goodness of his disposition, he has not shewn “so small a drop of pity as a wren’s eye.”  He seems to be on his guard against every thing liberal and humane as his weak side.  Others relax in their obsequiousness either from satiety or disgust, or a hankering after popularity, or a wish to be thought above narrow prejudices.  The Chancellor alone is fixed and immoveable.  Is it want of understanding or of principle?  No—­it is want of imagination, a phlegmatic habit, an excess of false complaisance and good-nature ...  Common humanity and justice are little better than vague terms to him:  he acts upon his immediate feelings and least irksome impulses.  The King’s hand is velvet to the touch—­the Woolsack is a seat of honour and profit!  That is all he knows about the matter.  As to abstract metaphysical calculations, the ox that stands staring at the corner of the street troubles his head as much about them as he does:  yet this last is a very good sort of animal with no harm or malice in him, unless he is goaded on to mischief, and then it is necessary to keep out of his way, or warn others against him!

Mr. Wilberforce is a less perfect character in his way.  He acts from mixed motives.  He would willingly serve two masters, God and Mammon.  He is a person of many excellent and admirable qualifications, but he has made a mistake in wishing to reconcile those that are incompatible.  He has a most winning eloquence, specious, persuasive, familiar, silver-tongued, is amiable, charitable, conscientious, pious, loyal, humane, tractable to power, accessible to popularity, honouring the king, and no less charmed with the homage of his fellow-citizens.  “What lacks he then?” Nothing but an economy of good parts.  By aiming at too much, he has spoiled all, and neutralised what might have been an estimable character, distinguished by signal services to mankind.  A man must take his choice not only between virtue and vice, but between