During this session, Mr. Wilberforce pleaded ably for the abolition of West Indian slavery, though to very little advantage. Some excesses of an unhappy description were practised by the Duke of York; but they were passed over without any public punishment or parental rebuke, although a family of high respectability suffered the loss of their only daughter, a most beautiful and accomplished girl, nearly twenty years of age! She was a victim of the duke's sensuality, and destroyed herself by poison soon afterwards,--such were the extreme sentiments of honor and virtue entertained by her. Some of her family yet live to mourn her loss and regret the privileges of royalty! In this year a revolution broke out in France, and innumerable lives were lost. The opposite views which Burke and Fox took of this event dissolved the friendship that had so long existed between them. In February, 1790, the printer of "The Times" newspaper was fined ONE HUNDRED POUNDS for a libel on the Prince of Wales, and the like sum for a libel on the _equally-illustrious_ seducer, the Duke of York. If a verdict had been given otherwise, royalty would have been humbled! In this year, also, a most remarkable occurrence transpired. A very respectable clergyman was induced to marry two persons upon an extreme emergency, without their obtaining a license or the publishing of banns. The clergyman was tried at Leicester for this offence, and sentenced to be _transported for fourteen years_! Many appeals were made, in a quiet and peaceable manner, to the judge. Expostulations upon the disproportion of the punishment were also made by various classes of society; but, alas! _the happiness of the subject was destroyed_, while the higher authorities remained not only unimpeached, but defended! During this session, the House was solicited to supply extra sums for the expenditure of the _secret service_, to which, however, many voices were raised in opposition. The prince and his former friends and companions were now apparently in a state of disunion, as each one appeared dissatisfied with the other. Mr. Fox proved the most unremitting member of the House in the discharge of his duties, opposing the increase of the national debt, and the imposition of new taxes. The salary of the speaker of the House of Commons, however, was advanced to six thousand pounds, remonstrance proving of no avail.