The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1846-10-06 00:00:00

DEATH OF THOMAS CLARKSON

This illustrious philanthropist died at four o'clock on
Saturday morning week, at his residence, Playford-hall,
near Ipswich. He had attained the age of 86; but his
spirit burned bright to the last, and while he ceased not
to direct his thoughts to the great question of the eman-
cipation of the human race, he calmly looked forward to
" the crown of life" laid up in heaven for the faithful fol-
lowers of the cross. He was born at Wisbeach, in Cam-
bridgeshire, on March 28, 1760. Thomas Clarksrn was
the main instrument employed by God in the suppression
of the British slave trade, and in the emancipation of the
slaves in the West India Colonies, which was its legiti-
mate consequence.

In the yener 1785 Dr. Peckhard, the Vice• Chancellor of
Cambridge, proposed the follewing question to the senior
bachelors of arts, as the subject of a Latin prize disserta-
tion—" Is it right to make slaves of others against their
will? At this time Clarkson was a senior bachelor in the
university, and having gained a prize the previous year,
he resolved to enter the lists again as a competitor. While
studying the general question of slavery for the purpose
of the prize essay, the whole iniquity of the negro slave
trade burst upon his view. He obtained the prize; but
the inferior motives of the collegial.' were annihilated by
the nobler purposes of philanthropy. His aim now be-
came the deliverance of the African race. He made a
vow of eternal enmity to the slave trade, and to slavery in
every form and resolved to consecrate himself to this gi-
gantic and then apparently hopeless task.
In 1787 a friendship was commenced with Mr. Wilber..
force, and continued uninterrupted till it was put an end
to by that ruthless destroyer—death. From Mr. Clarkson
Mr. Wilberforce received an immense mass of evidence
and facts, to which constant appeals were made, and which
gave his speeches so much weight and power. In the same
year he became connected with a committee composed of
gentlemen from different parts of the United Kingdom and
America, most of whom were Quakers, for the abolition
of the slave trade ; he also made journeys to Bristol,
Liverpool, Manchester, &e., in order torocure informa-
tion on that subject, which was not obtained without
a great deal of difficulty and danger.
In May, 1788, he had interviews with Mr. Pitt and
Mr. Grenville (afterwards Lord Grenville) ; and the king
ordered a Privy Council to inquire into the truth of the
allegations brought by Mr.. Clarkson. The result of the
examination was the introduction of a bill to Parliament'
which, after considerable debate, passed both Houses.
In 1789 he went to Paris, to promote the cause to
which he had so earnestly devoted himself; where he vvaS
introduced to the Duke de la Rnehefoncauld, the Marquis
de Condorcet, MM. Petion de Villeneauve, Claviere, and
Borisot, and to the Marquis de la Fayette—the latter Of
whom received him with peculiar marks of attention. He
had also interviews with the king and M. Neker ; on the
latter of„, whom Mr. Clarkson waited, accompanied by s
deputation. While in Paris he was the object of many
reports of a mischievous character. Mirabeau also took
a favourable view of Mr. Clarkson's exertions, and can-
vassed the National Assembly with success, and Mr.
Clarkson was gratified by the intelligence that it had re-
solved upon a total abolition of all bounties in favour of
the slave trade. Mr. Clarkson, from 1790 to 1794, Wat
fully occupied in disseminating a knowledge of the ques-
tion, and in the latter year he was obliged to retire, on
account of the bad effect which incessant exertion had on
the state of his health. He had, during a period of seven
years, to maintain a correspondence with 400 persons
with his own hand, and some book or other to write an-
nually in behalf of the cause. In that time he had tra-
velled more than 35,000 miles in search of evidence, ands
great part of these journeys in the night. In 1805 we find
him again pursuing, with undiminished ardour, the path
be had marked out for himself, and making a journey
round the kingdom, which he had scarcely finished before
his great coadjutor, Mr. Pitt, died. The bill for total
abolition was carried in July, 1806, through the House of
Lords, and sent from thence to the House of Commons,
where it was amended and passed. During this year the
nation experienced a loss in the death of Mr. Fox, who
was an earnest advocate of the rights of humanity. From
the year 1807 to the present year Mr. Clarkson. though
not quite so publicly engaged, was fully occupied in pre;
moting the grand object of his long and useful life; and
we may affirm, that there are few, very few, who hall
departed from this vale of tears who have left behind
them such a character for enlightened benevolence and
fixity of purpose, through all the vicissitudes of this
as did the subject of this memoir. How sad, that the
last days of such a man should have been embittered Di
Ithe Sugar Duties' Act of 1846—a step in favour of that
which it had been his life's work to destroy