Part 6

"Why mention duplicity to me? You know there is not a human being further from it; and I know you don't in your heart believe one word upon the subject. If you do, you have not the penetration the world gives you; for I can assure you with the firmest confidence you are most egregiously mistaken. It would be better for me if I had a little more of that detestable vice, or even the policy to conceal my sentiments, for I am convinced my enemies are the offspring of too much openness; far, very far, from that detested duplicity, or any of its hateful train. I never expressed an idea of you or your conduct that I did not express to yourself. It was the impulse of the moment; and I feel too independent of any man's power, however much I may choose to depend upon their good opinion and friendship, to suppress my sentiments when justly founded. For many years of my life my confidence in you was unbounded. You said you loved me with all the extravagance of passion; at the same time that respect, esteem, and veneration made you express sentiments that did you honour to feel and me to follow. You certainly did not act to my brother as I would have done to yours or to anyone you protected. What Mr. Pitt told you I could not tell him as a secret. You have often told me he has none from you. I do not doubt--I could not doubt--that the Duke and I were the persons on earth you wished most to serve, and yet my brother has met with the most cruel disappointments. In this, my good friend, there is no duplicity. Not even to your enemies did I express an idea that could lead them to think that I ever doubted your honour, your sincerity, or your talents as a statesman. No dark hints and half-sentences; but an open declaration of my friendship and a dependence upon yours. That your friends and that society was where we spent the happiest hours. However impolitic, I always openly declared my decided preference to those parties, and I don't doubt it but it made enemies of those that had felt and expressed very different sentiments--I know it did. But to gain one friend such as I could name, more than repaid a legion of such insipid triflers and ignorant puppies. When I wrote you my note from London I had resolved to obliterate all causes of complaint, and only remember with gratitude the pleasant parties we had enjoyed at your house; but your letter makes it necessary that I bring to your view from how many different sources any dissatisfaction on my part arose. The last cause--your conduct relative to our politics--I thought both impolitic as a statesman and unkind as a friend. You say you thought otherwise, and your kind proposal of the Duke's succeeding to Lord Marchmont's office will more than cancel his disappointment. This is a true picture of my mind. After eighteen years' acquaintance, you would have drawn a much more flattering one; indeed, till the last few months of my life, you certainly thought me all perfection--so no more duplicity, or I must attribute eighteen years of that most horrid vice to you, and only a few months' sincerity. So I know, whatever you may amuse yourself with writing, that it is still, and must be, your firm belief. I would not have said so much upon the subject, but I tremble for I don't know what. I had hints in London. I had forgot them, till your letter brings them with redoubled force to my remembrance. I could not believe them; for you had convinced me Mr. Pitt had some unfavourable impressions of me, and that you had removed them. For no one favour did I feel more grateful. But I shall never have done. I was happy to see all your family in Edinburgh well and happy; I found my little boy the most lovely creature I ever saw. My Duke is most sincerely yours; he cannot doubt your friendship, as that office had long been the object of his wishes and expectations. No one is better entitled and no one more worthy of it. Once more adieu. May the races afford you much amusement, and may the paths of Melville and Duneira be strewed with roses, without one care from public or private life to cause a gloom.

&c., &c., "J. GORDON."

The Duchess, in enclosing this correspondence, begs Wilberforce to be her defender if he hears her character attacked on the ground of "duplicity" or "inaccuracy;" his influence with Pitt was one reason for her troubling him with the subject.

Later on she writes to Wilberforce, who was gradually withdrawing himself from fashionable society, a note docketed "before 1800," to say:--

"Am I never to see you more? The Duchess of Leeds and her sister sing here Monday evening. Pray come; I shall be delighted to see you, and much mortified if you don't come.

"Ever yours most truly, &c., "J. GORDON."

After 1800 Wilberforce seems in great measure to have cut himself loose from society that he considered frivolous; and to have used the extraordinary influence he possessed over his friends to endeavour to induce them also to forsake the world of fashion. The long letter which follows is from Lord Calthorpe (a relation of Barbara,[29] Wilberforce's wife), who had been strongly advised by Wilberforce not to spend a Sunday with the Duchess of Gordon in Scotland. Lord Calthorpe writes in great chagrin at having neglected the good advice of his mentor, had found the warnings against her fascinations very necessary, and had had the mortification of seeing her go to sleep while he read Leighton's "Commentary" to her. It would be of interest to know what were the "full and useful directions for public speaking" for which Lord Calthorpe is grateful to Wilberforce.

_Lord Calthorpe to Mr. Wilberforce._

"KINRARA, "_September 2, 1801, Saturday_.

"MY DEAR SIR,--I have just evinced a proof of want of vigilance and self-discipline which vexes me so much that I am endeavouring to find relief from my vexation by telling it to you, as it is a satisfaction to me to think that you will pity me, in spite of the neglect of your advice, which I have betrayed. After having had the carriage at the door to leave this place (the Duchess of Gordon's) in order that we might spend to-morrow quietly, about twenty miles off, I have suffered myself to be persuaded to stay here till Monday. O how subtle are the devices of the enemy of our peace, and how weak our natural means of defence; the real cause of my falling into this temptation is now plain enough, but the shadow of delusion that for a moment imposed upon me was the idea of having some serious conversation with the Duchess, when we were likely to be almost alone, and which company has hitherto given me but little opportunity for; and this I was weak enough to indulge in spite of more sober convictions and the advice of Mr. Gorham and other objections, and I am just awakened to see the extent of my folly, conceit, and wilful depravity, by finding that we are to have no chance of having my imagination gratified, as Sir Wm. Scott has written word that he is coming to-morrow, and the delight with which the Duchess welcomed the intelligence has opened my eyes to my sottishness in thinking her sincere in her wish that I might pass a Sunday with her. I cannot conceive a scene more calculated to excite feelings of devotion and to expose worldly vanities than this spot, which is quite lovely, yet here I have found how strongly the world may engage the affections; there is something in the Duchess that pleases, although against the judgment (perhaps a little in the way of Falstaff), and makes her entertaining even when she is the subject of melancholy reflections; indeed, I feel how necessary your warnings against her fascinations were; she talked a great deal about her friend Wilberforce, and threatens you with a letter about me, and told me all my faults which she intended to report to you; I have not spent a Sunday (for it is now over) with so much self-reproach since I came into Scotland. She seems to be on the same kind of terms with religion as she is with her Duke, that is, on terms of great nominal familiarity without ever meeting each other except in an hotel or in the streets of Edinburgh. She fell asleep on Sunday while I was reading to her part of Leighton's Commentary and awoke with lively expressions of admiration at what she had not heard; she talks of setting off for Ireland in a few weeks and of going to London afterwards, so I hope that she will do no harm at Edinburgh next winter. I left Kinrara on Monday and got to Blair at night; I found there more of ancient stateliness than I have yet seen, and I think the Duke of Athol is fond of keeping it up; he has some very fine scenery about him there, and his other place Dunkeld, which is twenty miles off, is perhaps more beautiful although less wild and magnificent. Sir W. Scott (whom I never see without thinking of you) is on a visiting tour, and went from Blair with Lord Frederick Campbell to Lord Melville's and from thence goes to the Duke of Argyle's and Montrose's back to Edinburgh; he was very tortuous and amusing. I have written this by scraps, and am ashamed to have been so long about it. Many thanks for your last letter, and especially for your kindness in giving me such full and useful directions for acquiring a talent for public speaking; I will endeavour, as far as I am able, to do justice to them, and I expect to find your technical lines of great service to me. I believe that the plan of religious reading which you mention is the best, and surely I have no small encouragement to pursue it, and when I am so great a gainer by its beneficial effects in your case. I spent yesterday at Lord Mansfield's, at Scoone, where the Kings of Scotland used to be crowned; the old palace has been pulled down, and a very large Gothic house built upon its site. I hope you are enjoying health and quiet where you are, and every other blessing. Give my kindest remembrance to Mrs. W.

"Believe me, my dear sir, "Affectly yours, "CALTHORPE.

"You shall hear from me again."

Wilberforce's influence with Pitt was also known to Maria, Duchess of Gloucester.[30] It will be remembered that Henry William, third son of George II. (created Duke of Gloucester in 1764), married Maria, Dowager Countess of Waldegrave, in 1766. This lady writes to Wilberforce, hoping that through his "mediation with Pitt" a regiment of dragoons may be given to her son Lord Waldegrave.

_The Duchess of Gloucester to Mr. Wilberforce._

"GENOA, _February 4, 1786_.

"SIR,--Although you did not succeed in one of my requests to Mr. Pitt, you were more successful in the other; and for that I return you my thanks. I did not very much flatter myself that Mr. Pitt would add a place to what Lord Waldegrave at present possesses, indeed a regiment is almost the only addition he is likely to gain; and as Mr. Pitt has expressed his satisfaction in the marks of favour already received from the King, may I hope, through your mediation, that Mr. Pitt will be so good as to remind His Majesty how very acceptable a regiment of dragoons will be to Lord Waldegrave. If Lord Waldegrave was distressed from his own extravagance I would not trouble Mr. Pitt, but my daughter's father left his brother a clear estate which is now encumbered as much as if the late Lord Waldegrave had come to the title and estate, at twenty-four, instead of forty-four. The Duke of Grafton's reconciliation with his son is now so old a story that I only mention it as a fact that I am sensible gives you pleasure? Mr. Pitt is so much attached to Lord Euston, that I must take part in an event that I know gives him so much pleasure. I hope Lord Lucan will suffer the match to take place, but till it is over I shall have my doubts. If Mrs. Wilberforce and your sister are in town will you give them my best compliments. Sophia and William are both as tall as yourself.

"Sir, "I remain yours, &c., &c., "MARIA."

The next letter is from the same lady, thanking Wilberforce for having written "so full an explanation of what so few people understand" in his work on "Practical Christianity."

"GLOUCESTER HOUSE, "_April 14, 1797_.

"I received your inimitable book the day before I got your letter, and had read a good way in it. I have continued to read in it with the greatest satisfaction, and beg of you to accept of my thanks for having written so full an explanation of what so few people understand. I hope and trust it will be universally read, and that with attention, as then the good it will do will be infinite. Mrs. H. More was with me last night; she is so exalted by your book that she almost forgets humility is one of the Christian requisites.

"I remain, dear sir, "Your _very_ much obliged, &c., "MARIA."

Let us turn to the more serious friendships of Wilberforce's middle age. So much of his correspondence with Hannah More has been published that it is only lightly touched on here.

In 1809 Hannah More wrote to Mr. Wilberforce: "Oh, if I could have had the benefit of your assistance in Cœlebs![31] but I could not be such an unfeeling brute as to ask it. 'Tis not to _make a speech_ when I say that _you_ are the _only being_ whose counsels would _in all points_ have exactly fallen in with my own ideas from your uniting a critical knowledge of the world in its higher classes with such deep religious feelings--either of these I might have found in a very few, but not both in any."

Hannah More and her friends had apparently unfortunate experiences with regard to the spiritual help to be obtained from the higher ranks of the clergy at that time, as she writes: "I have had many interviews with Ladies Waldegrave and Euston. They told me that, though acquainted with several bishops, they never could get a word of seriousness or profit from any of them." Whether it was the "critical knowledge of the world in its higher classes" joined to "deep religious feeling" mentioned by Hannah More, or the "indulgent benevolent temper, with no pretension to superior sanctity or strictness," of which Maria Edgeworth writes,[32] certain it is that Wilberforce became a guide of the religious life of many of his friends. For instance, Mr. Eliot, the brother-in-law of Pitt, writes from Burton Pynsent a letter, marked "very pleasing and serious" by Wilberforce, in which he says in answer to Wilberforce, who "hoped he had been going on in a regular, steady way," that he had been "endeavouring to work a good will into a good habit, that so the habit may come in turn to the assistance of the will, which, as you very truly say, I am sure (except under the special favour of God's grace), will flag and waver in its best pursuits and firmest intention. My chief reading for the month has been Warburton."

Mrs. Elizabeth Fry writes to Wilberforce to say:--

"When thou hast leisure, advise with me as with a child if thou hast any hint to give me in my new circumstances. I look before long once more to entering the prisons. The cause is near my heart, and I do not see that my husband, having lost his property, should, when he and my family do not want me, prevent my yet attending to these duties; in this I should like to have thy advice."

In 1801 the question of Irish Union divided educated opinion. Dr. Burgh,[33] a well-known man at this time and friend of Wilberforce, takes one side, and Lord Hardwicke, Viceroy of Ireland, the other.

_Dr. Burgh to Mr. Wilberforce._

"YORK, _February 9, 1801_.

"MY DEAR WILBER.,--I sincerely thank you for the communication you have made to me, and assure you that you may rely upon my profoundest silence. The cruel and corrupt means that were adequately resorted to, in order to effect the revolutionary Union which has subverted the prescriptive constitution of both these kingdoms, have so entirely infected the sweetness of affiance in my bosom, that whatever systems or changes are adopted my eye sets instantly to search among all possible motives in order to find the worst of issues. Can I see Addington climb upon the stooping neck of Mr. Pitt, and not believe that it is done in hostility, or in a masked confederacy? If the former, how am I to estimate the man who comes in? If the latter, what judgment can I form of the man who goes out? Is a retiring administration to be allowed, in a temporary agreement with opposition, to support the claims of Irish Popery, and by carrying their point in their new character, to exonerate the Cabinet of the charge; and are they to re-occupy their posts when there are no farther measures to be carried by them in their unresponsible situations? All this I foresaw, though not perhaps in the detail; and, indeed, it required no prophet's eye to foresee it, when hints which bind not were conscientiously substituted for promises in order to purchase a momentary calm. The downfall of the Church of England is still involved, and however the Papists of Ireland, on merging the two kingdoms into each other, may be considered as outnumbered by the Protestants, it is not by the Protestants of the Establishment, who will, on the whole, be outweighed by the incorporated force of the Protestant Dissenters with those of the same description in Ireland, who will derive the most unqualified assistance from the Romish body. Show favour to Popery, and the Dissenters' claims will be abetted by millions who will only infer a kind of right against all anticipation of consequences; or, on the other hand, deny the demands of Popery, and you instantly and directly unite the two denominations against the Church of England. I know but one mode to prevent all these, and ten thousand other unconsidered evils; at once declare the impracticability of carrying conditions into execution, and dissolve this ill-starred Union, from which no benefit will ever flow, but every evil that imagination can picture.

"I will trouble you no farther now except to desire that you will not charge me with defective candour; the things that are already done will surely too clearly justify whatever inference I have drawn from them.

"May every happiness attend you and yours--in opposition to prospects I say it; but if a few good men may not save a nation, they yet may save and purchase favour to themselves.

"I am ever, my dear Wilber., "Most fervently yours, "W. B."

_Lord Hardwicke to Mr. Wilberforce._

"_September 30, 1801._

"I think the alterations made by the Union are in some respects likely to facilitate the conduct of public business in this country with a view to the public benefit. I have hitherto had great reason to be satisfied with my reception. The city of Dublin, I mean the leading part of it, is extremely loyal and attached to Government, but they still consider the Union as having affected in some degree their local interests, and it will be some time before this feeling is entirely removed. There can however be little doubt that when they see the United Parliament as attentive to Irish as they have been to British interests, and disposed to promote them by the same liberal encouragement, that whatever partial dissatisfaction may remain will gradually wear off. If the French do not succeed in landing a considerable body of troops in this country we shall certainly continue to enjoy tranquillity, but if the enemy effect a landing in force, we must expect rebellion to revive."

The state of Ireland at a later date after the Union is alluded to in the next letter from Lord Redesdale,[34] who was apparently much aggrieved at the treatment which he had experienced in giving up the Lord Chancellorship of that country. The letter is marked by Wilberforce "Lord Redesdale shamefully used on being turned out of Chancellorship."

_Lord Redesdale to Mr. Wilberforce._

"ELY PLACE, DUBLIN, "_March 5, 1806_.

"MY DEAR SIR,--I rely upon your letter, desiring to know whether there was any establishment in this country by contribution to which you could forward its civilisation, for excusing my sending you 'observations on the necessity of publishing the Scriptures in the Irish language,' by Dr. Stokes, of the College, who is engaged in such a work, without any view of emolument, but merely to promote the civilisation of the country, and the propagation, as much as possible, of the Christian religion in its purity. He is supported by contribution of the college, and some private contributions; but such is the temper of the Irish that even their charities, liberal as they frequently are, are more the result of pride and vanity than of any of the true feelings of the charitable mind. I think Dr. Stokes's work will be very useful; and that in spite of all the arts of the priests, the circulation of the Scriptures will prevail amongst the lower orders, and must reform even the Irish Catholic Church, which I take to be the most corrupt now remaining of all the members of the Church of Rome. It will also have the effect of enabling the Protestant clergy of the Establishment to perform their duty; namely, to endeavour to instruct those who do not understand the English language; and I think it will also enable the gentlemen of the country to gain so much of the Irish language as will give them some intercourse with their poor neighbours, where the English language is not spoken; and I think it will also contribute to diffuse the English language, which I think is a most important advantage. I have thought it my duty to subscribe ten guineas for the encouragement of Dr. Stokes, and I believe a few subscriptions with what the College proposes to give him, will encourage him to proceed with activity; as I have strong assurances that he seeks for nothing but indemnity and desires no compensation for his time or his labour. I yesterday gave up the Great Seal, in consequence of Lord Spencer's having thought fit to advise His Majesty, after he had signed a warrant for Mr. Ponsonby's appointment, to sign another for putting the Great Seal in commission, and then to send it _by express_, directing the Lord Lieutenant to _lose no time_ in procuring the Commission to pass the Seal. This has been done in so much hurry that I have great doubts of its regularity; and if it had been the case of any man but myself, I should have refused to put the Great Seal to the patent, without further consideration; and I find the Lords Commissioners are very much puzzled how to act. But this I feel principally as a marked and gross personal affront to me, and through me to the Lord Lieutenant.