DIGITISED MANUSCRIPTS

disabilities. But, though beaten on these points he succeeded, with the aid of Wilberforce, in abolishing the slave-trade, with its indescribable horrors; he narrowed the power of the Crown, and deprived the Sovereign of much of his personal influence; he effected the union with Ireland, and raised the tone of English political life by the high example set in his own character. We cannot refrain from reflecting on the strange customs of those days, when many of the vices of former ages still survived. Drunkenness, so far from being regarded as reprehensible, was considered the natural close to a dinner. Even Pitt, the ‘blameless Pitt,’ as he was called, indulged in the prevalent abuse of port wine. He and his friend Dundas one day put up at an inn on their way to Walmer Castle. Next morning, when they were leaving, the waiter said to the painter Stothart, who was staying there, ‘Do you see those gentlemen ?’ ‘ Yes,’ replied Stothart ; ‘and know them.’ ‘ Well, Sir,’ continued the waiter, ‘can you guess how much wine they drank last night? Seven bottles, Sir!’ Profligacy and immorality were still practised by men of the highest standing, but these relics of a barbarous age were gradually disappearing before the march of civilisation. The facilities of communica-