those of necessary rest, to this great cause of humanity and justice, and such only as we have mentioned, could form anything like a just estimate of the very great and important share he had in bringing about the Abolition of the Slave Trade and of Slavery. Yet so singularly did he retire from the public gaze, so wholly did nobler motives influence his mind, so justly did he appreciate at its true worth mere mob applause, that he seemed always to shrink from it, as derogatory to the great cause of truth, justice, and humanity, in which he was engaged.

"Mr. Macaulay, who was decended from an ancient and highly respectable Scotch family, was thrown upon the world at a very early age, and found himself, as we believe, when only in his nineteenth year, in that most trying and dangerous occupation,-the overseer of an estate in Jamaica. His conduct, even when thus young, was so marked by steadiness and sagacity, that he was soon promoted to the management of the property; and he remained at his unpleasant post for ten years, from 1782 until 1792.

"The benevolent principles inherent in his nature, are shown by the following passages in a letter written to a very intimate friend, dated 25th November, 1789. Speaking of an expected change in his employment in Jamaica, he says It is a situation in which I flatter myself I shall be able, from my freedom from controul, to alleviate the hardships of a considerable number of my fellow-creatures, and to render the bitter cup of servitude as palatable as possible.' And shortly after, he says There are on the estate between 200 and 300 negroes whose lives in a manner depend on my care and attention,-whose labours I am obliged to direct,-whose irregularities I must punish, and whom I must faithfully attend in sickness.' But we have often heard him say, that while he was thus engaged, his hardships and privations were only inferior to those of the wretched beings whose labour he superintended.

"During the whole of his West Indian residence, no deviation from the strict path of rectitude, however slight or venial, even once occurred. When in subsequent years, Mr. Macaulay became the object at which West Indian malignity vindictively threw its daily shaft, the treasures of Peru would have been lavished on the individual who could have exposed an error of his early days: ingenuity was taxed, and invention exhausted in vain endeavours to render this worthy man suspected by

the public: one newspaper in particular, (the John Bull,) selected Mr. Macaulay as the special object of its weekly abuse, and was driven to despair, in the hopeless attempt to fix him either with guilt or folly, or even with the minor charge of inconsistency, though its coarse and frequent reference to his West Indian engagement showed the strict scrutiny which was made into the history of his early life.

"In the year 1791, the Sierra Leone Company was established, under the auspices of Mr. Wilberforce, Mr. Henry Thornton, Mr. Granville Sharp, and other distinguished characters. The object of this company was to promote the civilization of Åfrica, by opening the field for commercial enterprise of a nobler character than the traffic in slaves. Mr. Macaulay, at the recommendation of his brother-in-law, the late Mr. Babington, formerly the member for Leicester, was, by the following resolution of the Board of Directors of the Sierra Leone Company, (September 18th, 1792,) appointed junior Member of Council, viz. Resolved, that Mr. Zachary Macaulay, who has left the West Indies to enter into the Company's service as a manager, in consideration of the general knowledge which he possesses, as well as his ability and zeal for the company's service, be appointed second in Council at Sierra Leone.'

"About the time of his quitting England for Sierra Leone, a letter which he then wrote to one of his friends, dated 16th November, 1792, leaves on record, that even before that period, he had written in the cause of philanthropy, and furnishes also a striking proof of that utter indifference to the value of mere human applause and vulgar popularity, to which we have already alluded. In this letter, alluding to the draft of a pamphlet which he had prepared on the Slave Trade, he says Mr. Thornton was pleased with my essay. He thought its title ought to be "Dispassionate Thoughts on the Slave Trade, and the Effects of an Abolition on the West Indian Islands," by, &c. He thought at first, that it ought to bear my name; in answer to which, I urged my situation with respect to him, Mr. Wilberforce, and the Sierra Leone Company, which would be made use of to prejudice the public mind, while no good effects that I could foresee, would flow from it. The principal end of publishing it, I take to be the drawing men's attention to a part of the question which has hitherto

been little attended to, and of course making it a subject of discussion, and still more of inquiry in the course of the examination of witnesses in the House of Lords. I conceive it to be, as if I were to furnish to the public a set of queries to be put to the witnesses who appear at the bar of the House of Lords. The matters of fact they can only reply to in one way, if they be not either grossly ignorant, or wilfully false. And as to the conclusions I draw from these facts, if they are fairly deducible, they will not of course require the junction of my name to produce conviction. Mr. Thornton thought, that to obviate any objection that might be made, on the score of my present situation, there ought to be a reference to my letters to you on this subject, written long before the Sierra Leone Company had an existence. But you will easily perceive the tedious details and painful egotism into which this must necessarily lead; indeed, he seemed to be convinced at last, that it might be ranked among his questions of comparison, and ought to be made a subject of serious consideration at Yoxall Lodge (The Rev. T.—since Preb.-Gisborne's). To myself, I state the question in this way: In one case, there is a deal of useful and novel information laid before the public, which, with my name prefixed, I flatter myself would make an impression on those to whom I am known; but against that, may be placed the peculiar disadvantages of my situation, as connected with the abolitionists and Sierra Leone. In the other, there is the same information, and from that information must result the same advantages, as if it were not anonymous; for in either case it would serve no end but that of attracting attention and exciting curiosity; while in the latter, people are prevented from straying from the question at issue, and are not hindered from inquiring into the truth of the allegation, by an inquiry after the planter, who had had boldness enough to advance such assertions, and whose present situation, (Member of the Council at Sierra Leone,) when discovered, would, in minds whose idol is interest, weigh considerably against his arguments. I confess I am exceedingly anxious that that course should be taken, which would the least frustrate and best promote the end in view, the calling and fixing, the calm attention of West Indian planters to the real question at issue, as well as suggesting queries to the House of Lords. But I know not that any thing would more effectually operate in prejudice of the work, or in

preventing that calmness which ought to precede the perusal of it, (I mean in the breasts of West Indians,) than knowing that it came from the school of Thornton, Wilberforce, and Gisborne: my connexion with all of whom, they would certainly discover. To many of them, indeed, it is already well known. Do write me about this matter.'

"Mr. Macaulay's devotion to the cause of abolition, and the little desire he had of showing off as a champion, may be gathered from the following extract of a letter addressed to Mr. Wilberforce in 1793, in which he says

but should your hope of gaining evidence from any other quarter be disappointed, I shall certainly feel myself bound to obey your summons, when you may think necessary; you know the peculiar situation in which I stand, and though I think I grow daily more indifferent to the world's good or bad report, yet I certainly should not wish to overlook it; it would be more agreeable to me on the whole, not to be called, but, in such a case, I should hold no parley with my own feelings.'

But while Mr. Macaulay was in. different to the applause or censure of the common herd, he by no means undervalued the opinion of the wise and the good. In a subsequent letter he says: However, I am ambitious of your "well done," and of that of some of our common friends; but how poor is even that, compared with His approbation who seeth in secret! I know it to be a high degree of piety, which will enable us to set the fear of God above the fear of men, and it may cost a man years effectually to attain to it. I console myself, however, on my journey to that lofty pinnacle, with reflecting, that the men whose favour I am ambitious of, and whose disapprobation I dread, will prove like steps, whereby my ascent will be made easier to that height, where God will be all in all.'

"The state of the Slave-trade question detained Mr. Macaulay in England till the close of the year, when he sailed. He arrived in the colony early in the succeeding January, and immediately became first in Council, and shortly after succeeded to the Government. He soon discovered that the duties of the post to which he had been appointed, required exertions of no ordinary character, and entailed labours and privations of the heaviest and most distressing nature. The colony, at the time of his arrival, was in a very deplorable and critical state;

badly supplied with provisions; in fact a famine must have ensued had any accident delayed the arrival of supplies from England, an event very likely to have happened during the war; the dry season was half over, and no comfortable dwellings had been erected for the people previous to the rains. The colonists were turbulent and disorderly, and the colony exhibited constant scenes of lamentable riot and licentiousness. We cannot however go into the history of the Sierra Leone Colony; we will therefore merely observe, that all the difficulties and dangers incident to this unhappy state of affairs, did not overcome Mr. Macaulay's fortitude, nor damp his zeal, nor lead him to despair of ultimate success. More than a year afterwards (October 16th, 1793,) alluding to the preservation of the Colony, he writes thus:To mention a few of the more discernible providences during these last nine months, though almost totally neglected by the Court of Directors, continually in the jaws of famine, often with not a week's provision in the colony, succour has still come from some unexpected quarter, and recovered our fainting spirits. Exposed at times to the fury of a rabble, goaded on by an artful incendiary, we were enabled to avert its force, until now by a happy concurrence of circumstances the storm is laid; unanimity reigns among the Company's servants; few murmurs are heard from the settlers, and the authority of the law is respected. Entangled in a palaver on account of H. G. Naimbanna, which threatened to stain our colony with blood, God was pleased to turn the hearts of the natives, and even to make our old enemy King Jamie our chief friend; while war is pouring its fury on the other quarters of the world, we are free from its ravages. Though in want of many necessaries, the rains, which have fallen with uncommon severity, have passed over us almost innoxious. And, as if God meant to give a still more striking proof of his kindness, the war, and the failure among Guinea merchants, have removed the slave-trade in a great measure from our neighbourhood, though we are unable from want of goods to avail ourselves of that circumstance.'

"The early losses suffered by the Company, seemed to have led the Directors to adopt a most ruinous system of economy. During the whole time the colony was in their hands, there was at no period of it a sufficient number of hands employed for the perCHRIST. OBSERV. No. 24.

formance of the necessary duties; a circumstance perhaps not much to be wondered at, when it is considered that for many years the salaries offered to clerks varied from only 30l. to 907. per annum, whilst those given to officers of a higher grade were also in the same miserable proportion. About this time, Mr. Macaulay writes thus to the Court of Directors, (March 4, 1793) :—' If you mean to carry on trade to any advantage in this part of the world, you must have active and methodical agents. You cannot imagine the want of proper people, not only to fill up that department, but every other. Mr. Dawes and myself are not simply in the capacity of governor and counsellor, but we are commercial agents, paymasters, judges, and clerks.' And in another letter he says, "I am obliged to perform the duties of chaplain; to marry people, and to deliver sermons.' These representations seem to have had no great effect, for more than a year afterwards he again writes:My own constitution will require a visit to England sooner than I expected, if the Directors do not find people to help us. My confinement to the desk injures my health considerably. What do you think of my being obliged to undertake the detail of the commercial department, and even the arrangement, reduction, and posting of all accounts in it, since the beginning of the colony?'

"Notwithstanding all these difficulties and severe labours, Mr. Macaulay about the end of the year, (December) writes thus: I am now in better health, and considering every thing, in spirits: my attachment to Africa has diminished nothing by a twelve months' residence it. It is on the whole a pleasant country; few of the insects which infest us so much in the West Indies: ants are far from troublesome, and the heat tolerable; the smokes are over in four or five days. The soil here is poor, but does well for provisions, coffee, cotton, &c. On the Bullom shore, the soil is exceedingly rich. My hopes rise daily on the subject of African improvement. My avocations, however, are so numerous at present, and so urgent, that I dare not let my

*He little thought that in twenty years he should become the Editor, and in part writer, of Family Sermons, which would be read in numerous households, and (in substance) in not a few pulpits in England, 5 E

pen slip into it. I think, had I nothing to do with the government, I could do much in Africa, but God knows best. Our schools are a cheering sight: three hundred children fill them, and most of the grown persons who cannot read, crowd to the evening schools. We have made a schoolmaster of almost every black man in the colony who reads or writes well enough, and the business of instruction proceeds so rapidly within the colony, that in the course of a year or two, we expect there will be few within it who will not be able to read their Bibles.'

"Great exertions were made by the governor and council to establish good order; peace officers were appointed, and rules and regulations were adopted, with a view to enforcing and maintaining order; but the discontent which existed in the breasts of the colonists, and which had been long fomented by a set of the worst characters in the colony, most of whom had suffered under the law, at length, in the month of June, 1794, broke out into acts of open rebellion, and Mr. Macaulay's life at one period of it was placed in great jeopardy, and the colony appeared to be on the eve of destruction; but by his judicious measures and great firmness of mind the evil was averted, and the Company's property saved from destruction. At a Court of Directors, held on the 25th of September, 1794, they passed the following resolution, viz. :—

"That the thanks of this Court be given to Mr. Macaulay, their acting governor, for the zeal and resolution with which he maintained the laws of the settlement, and protected the property of the Company; and that he be assured that this Court do highly approve of his general conduct on that occasion.'

"In the envelope of a letter giving an account of his proceedings, in quelling the insurrection, he writes thus,

66 6 After I had shut the inclosed, it occurred to me, that what I had said would bear too much the appearance of self-confidence and boasting; but God is my witness that I have on no occasion felt more the need of his help; and what a poor, miserable, insignificant, blind, naked, and helpless object man is without him! What I bless him for above all, is, the collectedness of mind he has given me throughout the whole business; he made my way so clear, that I scarce felt an embarrassment; he has also blessed me with unusual health, although I expect from some

symptoms I now begin to feel, that I may have an attack of fever ere long, -be it so, He is able to deliver me from that also.'

"The colony had scarcely recovered from this insurrection, when it was attacked by a French squadron, consisting of one two-decker, two frigates, two brigs of war, and two other armed vessels. This squadron, which arrived off the colony on the 28th of September, 1794, was piloted into the river by an American slave captain of the name of Newell. This ruffian, inflamed by private revenge against Mr. Macaulay, came to him, attended by half-adozen Frenchmen, and foaming with rage, presented a pistol to his breast, with many oaths demanding instant satisfaction; to which demand Mr. Macaulay, with his usual calmness, replied, that since he was no longer master of his own actions, he (the slave captain) must now take such satisfaction as he judged equitable.' Newell did not fire, but threatened to do so, and was so outrageous, that Mr. Macaulay thought it prudent to request a French guard for his house, and a safe conduct on board the commodore's ship; on his arrival there, he expressed to this officer his surprise at the proceedings which had taken place, and complained that the colony had been dealt with in a manner which he believed unusual, except in places taken by storm. Have you removed any property?' was the answer. Mr. Macaulay replied that he had not. Be careful of what you say to me; for if I should find after this, that you have removed any thing, I shall make you suffer, and there shall not be a hut left in the place.' Mr. Macaulay repeated his assurance, and the commodore then gave him a promise that the pillage should be stopped; declaring, however, in the same breath, that if the seamen and soldiers were disposed to plunder, he could not prevent them; and adding, that it was his intention to burn every house in the place belonging to Englishmen.'

The scene which Freetown now exhibited, was in every respect distressing. All the houses were filled with Frenchmen, who destroyed whatever they found in them which they could not convert to their own use; while several other parties were scouring the town in quest of live stock, of which the destruction on this and the following day was extremely great. The books of the Company's library were scattered about and defaced. The dwelling-house of the botanist was pil

laged, and his collections destroyed: in the accountant's office all was demolished in the search for money; the copying and printing-presses also were destroyed; all the telescopes, barometers, and thermometers, and an electrical machine, were broken to pieces. A sentinel, who had been set to guard the governor's apartment, served only to retard the pillage of it.*

In the reports of the Sierra Leone Company (the earlier series of which from the foundation of the colony in 1791 to the year 1801-now very scarce, but containing valuable matter for history is in our hands,) there is a full detail of the capture and pillage of Sierra Leone under the French revolutionary squadron. There is a similar detail, but with additional particulars, in Mr. Prince Hoare's memoir of of Granville Sharp. That part of the volume was furnished by Mr. Macaulay as the portion relative to Sharp's Biblical criticisms was by Bishop Burgess. It shewed the character of the miscreants who conducted the French revolution, and committed so many crimes in the name of liberty, that one of their earliest hostile operations was against a colony planned solely to deliver Africa from the horrors of the slave-trade, and to promote its best welfare; and that French "citizens' confederated with American slavetraders to blast this hopeful germ of African emancipation. The Abbé Gregoire, and other "friends of the Blacks," alleged that there was some mistake in the matter; and that the French government did not intend this barbarous invasion; but the affair was never cleared up. The feeling of hatred to England is shewn in the intention expressed of burning every house belonging to Englishmen ; and we may add, that when Mr. Macaulay had disproved the false and malicious statements made to the French commodore by the American slave-traders, the reply was, "Citizen, that may all be very true; but still you are Englishmen. In Mr. Macaulay's account of the facts both in Sharp's life, and in his original letter to the Company, a characteristic circumstance is mentioned which is omitted in the narrative now before us, though it forms part of the sentence above quoted. Mr. Macaulay says, "The books of the Company's library were scattered about and defaced; and if they bore any resemblance to Bibles they were torn in pieces, and trampled upon.' The narrator, in the abundance of his materials,

"The settlement being thus completely at the mercy of the invaders, and Mr. Macaulay believing his remonstrances with the commanding officer to be the only service he could now render to his people, demanded permission to remain on board the commodore's vessel, where he was permitted to lie in the cabin, but without being able to obtain so much as a sheet to throw over him. To add to our distress,' says Mr. Macaulay, 'near one hundred and twenty English prisoners were put ashore at the settlement the day before the fleet sailed, without their having any visible means of subsistence; and this prospect, of itself sufficiently gloomy, was rendered still darker by our uncertainty of being able to procure a supply of food for ourselves, and by the almost total want of medicines.' (Vide Narrative in 'Memoirs of Granville Sharp.')

In a private letter dated 15th Nov. 1794, Mr. Macaulay says

During their stay, which was for fifteen days, the Harpy' arrived, and fell into their hands. None of us received any personal injury from them; but they plundered us of every thing, even to our wearing apparel, and destroyed whatever they could make no use of. I underwent a good deal of severe fatigue during this period, and was much exposed to every vicissitude of weather, but my health was miraculously preserved, nay, it was even improved. Since that time, however, I have had a more tedious attack than usual, which confined me near a fortnight, but from which I am now recovered. I must refer you as usual for particulars to Mr. Thornton, whe will be in possession of a great many. I

has also not noticed the fact, though more worthy of record than the destruction of the philosophical instruments, that "the Church was pillaged, the books torn, and the pulpit and clock broken to pieces," though the commodore had promised that the church should not be damaged. And very likely he intended this; but we remember a significant remark in a letter from M. Afzelius, a scientific gentleman attached to the colony, in a letter to the Swedish ambassador in London, that " the officers had no authority, and the sailors did what they pleased;" and that these "citizens" were "in general miserable men, in great want; cruel, and living like wild beasts by devouring their prey.' Such were the French chartists of 1794.