In reference to an extract from the life of Sir William Jones, on the subject of the slave trade, he adds; “what a variety of feelings will the few lines thus rendered dear to us, my darling children, by the hand which treasured them up for us, excite in our minds. Every circumstance connected with this dreadful trade, every instance which has fallen under our own experience, the gratitude and reverence due to the noble and undaunted mind, which could first contemplate the plan, and finally obtain the splendid feat of emancipation, strengthen the conviction. On what a proud eminence has the consistent and persevering piety of Wilberforce placed him! How far above the most successful hero that ever became the idol of a nation! Here indeed we see the precepts of our Blessed Saviour brought into practice. Here we see a fellow creature ‘so letting his light shine before men,’ that we are naturally inclined with one voice to ‘glorify our Father which is in heaven.’ We must, if we steadily contemplate the life and actions of this most exemplary of our countrymen, feel a desire to imitate him. His actions have given such irresistible strength and persuasion to his writings, that we must be influenced by them. He has indeed built his house upon a rock; the rain may descend and the floods come; the winds may blow and beat upon that house, but it will not fall. From this delightful contemplation we must, however reluctantly, turn our eyes to that great portion of the human race still in bondage, whom the energy of our beloved country has not yet been permitted to reach, blessed as it has been with the Divine Protection; their hour is not yet come, but it may be reserved for us as the humble instruments of the mercy of our Creator and Redeemer to soothe, and alleviate the sufferings of numbers now in misery; and we may hope that at some future period, perhaps not very distant, we may be the means under a kind Providence of liberating not only their bodies, but their minds from the cruel captivity under which they are now suffering. The serious reflections which this subject must necessarily excite in our minds, will also produce another blessed effect. They will incline us to be kind and charitable to our poor fellow creatures, who although in the enjoyment of comparative liberty, are from adverse circumstances of poverty, sickness, and affliction, placed in a state of almost the same dependence upon us, as though they were our own property. The mind of your angelic mother was peculiarly alive to feelings of this description. The kindness, the mildness, the sweetness of her disposition, was as conspicuous towards her servants as towards her children. The natural consequence was, that they loved as well as respected her; her house was not only well regulated, but the abode of happiness to all who dwelt in it.”