Private Papers of William Wilberforce

The Project Gutenberg eBook, Private Papers of William Wilberforce, by William Wilberforce, Edited by Anna Maria Wilberforce


WILLIAM WILBERFORCE, M.P. FOR THE COUNTY OF YORK.

Private Papers
William Wilberforce
Collected and Edited, with a Preface, by A. M. Wilberforce
With Portraits
LONDON 1897

William Wilberforce is remembered on account of his long and successful efforts for the Abolition of the Slave Trade. In a House of Commons that counted Pitt, Fox, Burke, and Sheridan amongst its members, he held a front rank both as a speaker and debater. Of one of his speeches in 1789 Burke said, it equalled anything he had heard in modern times, and was not, perhaps, to be surpassed in the remains of Grecian eloquence. And Pitt said, Of all the men I ever knew Wilberforce has the greatest natural eloquence. But an even greater power than his oratory was perhaps the influence that he acquired over all ranks of society. Friendship is often the means by which influence is gained, and Wilberforce's friendship with Pitt, beginning long before his anti-Slave Trade days and continued till the end of Pitt's life, was no doubt the source of a strong personal influence.