forth your good offices in such a cause, I trust you will think that whilst I incur I also bestow an obligation.What I have to request is, that you will have the goodness to communicate to me such facts and observations as may be useful to me in the important task I have undertaken of bringing forward into parliamentary discussion, the situa tion of that much-injured part of the species, the poor negroes: in common with the rest of my countrymen, I have to complain, that I am under the necessity of betaking myself directly to you for the information I solicit: an application to my bookseller ought to have supplied it: but if there be some ground of charge against you for having failed in your engagements to the public in this particular, it is the rather incumbent on you to attend to the claim of an individual; consider it as a sort of expiation for your offence, and rejoice if so weighty a crime comes off with so light a punishment.-Though the main object I have in view is the prevention of all further exports of slaves from Africa, yet their state in the West Indies, and the most practicable mode of meliorating it, the effects that might follow from this change of system in all its extended and complicated connections and relations, both in Africa and the Western World, and this not only in our own case but in those of other European nations, who might be induced to follow our example; all these come into question, and constitute a burden too heavy for one of powers like mine to bear, without my calling for help where it may be so abundantly afforded: let me add also, that I should be extremely thankful for any intelligence respecting the institutions of the Jesuits in Paraguay, which, it has long struck me, might prove a most useful subject of investigation to any one who would form a plan for the civilization of Africa.-Allow me to add, that I shall wait to hear from you with anxiety, because the business must be brought into the House soon after the meeting. I will not waste your valuable time by excuses for VOL. I. this letter, if they are necessary, but once more I will venture to assure myself that you will not think them so. I have the honour to be, &c. W. WILBERFORCE. From Mr. WILBERFORCE to Dr. ROBERTSON. Sir, Hampstead, 20th February, 1788. I HAVE been honoured with your packets by the post, as well as with your Sermon, and return you my sincerest thanks for your very obliging attention to my request; I am fully sensible to the value of the favourable sentiments you express concerning me, and as one concession always produces a new demand, perhaps you will not be surprised at my now taking the liberty of intimating a hope that I may consider what has passed as constituting a sort of acquaintance between us, which it will give me particular pleasure to indulge an expectation of cultivating, when any opportunity shall allow. I remain, with great respect and esteem, &c. Dr. Robertson's second son is now Lieutenant-Colonel of the 92d regiment. His name is repeatedly mentioned with distinction in the History of Lord Cornwallis's Military Operations in India; particularly in the general orders after the siege of Nundydroog, where he commanded in the European flank company that led the assault. The following paragraph from Colonel Dirom's Narrative contains a testimony to his conduct on this occasion, which would have been grateful to the feelings of his father had he survived to peruse it. "The carnage which must have ensued in clearing the "fort of the enemy, was prevented partly by a number of "the garrison escaping by ropes and ladders over a low "part of the wall; but chiefly by the exertions of Cap"tain Robertson, who, seeing the place was carried, turned "all his attention to preserving order, and preventing the "unnecessary effusion of blood. To his humanity the "bukshey and killedar owed their lives; and of the "garrison there were only about forty men killed and "wounded." Dr. Robertson's youngest son is Lieutenant-Colonel of a regiment serving in Ceylon, and Deputy-AdjutantGeneral of His Majesty's forces in that island. An account of Ceylon, which he has communicated in manuscript to some of his friends, is said to do great honour to his abilities. NOTE Q. p. 135. This request was conveyed to Dr. Robertson by Mr. Dal zel, and was received by him with much sensibility, as a mark of the esteem and approbation of a society over which he had presided for thirty years. I neglected to mention in a former note the Latin discourses which Dr. Robertson pronounced annually before the University, in compliance with the established practice among his predecessors in office. The first of these was read on the third of February 1763. Its object was to recommend the study of classical learning; and it contained, among a variety of other splendid passages, a beautiful panegyric on the Stoical Philosophy. His second discourse (9th of February 1764) consisted chiefly of moral and literary observations, adapted to the particular circumstances of youth. My friend Mr. Dalzel, who has lately perused these Latin manuscripts with care, observes of this oration, "that the style is uncommonly elegant and "impressive, and possesses all the distinguishing charac"teristics of Dr. Robertson's English compositions." A third discourse was pronounced on February 14th, 1765; and a fourth on February 20th, 1766. The sub ject of both is the same; the question concerning the comparative advantages of public and private education. The execution is such as might be expected from the abilities of the author, exerted on a topic on which he was so eminently fitted to decide, not only by his professional situation and habits, but by an extensive and discriminating knowledge of the world. These annual discourses (which never failed to produce a strong and happy impression on the mind of his young hearers) he was compelled, after this period, to discontinue by his avocations as an author, and by other engagements which he conceived to be of still greater importance.It is indeed astonishing that he was able to devote so much time as he did to his academical duties: particularly when we consider that all his works were at first committed to writing in his own hand, and that he seldom, if ever, attempted to dictate to an amanuensis.—It may be gratifying to those to whom the literary habits of authors are an object of curiosity to add, that his practice in composition was (according to his own statement in a letter to Mr. Strahan), "to finish as near perfection as he was "able, so that his subsequent alterations were inconsi"derable." END OF THE LIFE. |