he saw it for the first time in print.

Then, the attempt was made to represent this pure, and valuable, and
disinterested man as a mendicant philanthropist, who, for his exertions
in the cause of justice, stooped to the humiliating attitude of
collecting a remuneration from his friends. The words of William
Wilberforce, and other Abolition leaders, prove that he had expended a
very considerable portion of his own small patrimony in the cause, and
that the subscription was to pay a debt,--a just and lawful debt; not to
confer a bounty, or reward, or remuneration for services performed. It
is also proved, that after being reimbursed to the amount of the sum
contributed, or rather levied on those for whom the poorest of their
body had advanced his own money, he remained out of pocket far more than
others had ever given, after their share of the repayment was credited
to them, in this debtor and creditor account.

But this is not all: Mr. Wilberforce himself, then a man of ample
fortune, and Member for Yorkshire, had in 1807, published a pamphlet in
the cause. The Minutes of the Committee for 6th June, 1811, contained an
entry of an order to pay 83_l_. out of the subscription funds to Mr.
Cadell, being Mr. Wilberforce's share of the loss sustained by that
publication. There had been no mention at all of this in his life, by
these reverend authors, who scrupled not to print the garbled letters,
with the manifest design of lowering the character of their father's
friend, by ranking him among venal stipendiary pretenders to
philanthropy, and jobbing mendicant patriots.

Wherefore, it may be asked, was this matter at all dragged forth to
light, except to effect that unworthy purpose, and to give pain to a man
as eminently as deservedly respected and beloved? The false pretext is,