208 Memoir of William Roscoe, Esq. 



and Gascoyne, he was placed at the head of the poll by a large 

 majority. 



His parliamentary career was of short duration, but he had 

 the satisfaction, in that short period, of declaring his sentiments 

 on several subjects in which he felt a deep interest. He spoke 

 and voted for Sir Samuel Romilly's bill Jbr rendering real 

 estates subject to simple contract debts ; he had the happiness to 

 lift his voice in Parliament for the abolition of the slave-trade, 

 and to see that great act of national justice triumphantly car- 

 ried ; he had an opportunity of advocating the claims of our 

 Roman Catholic brethren to an equality of political rights ; 

 and he delivered his sentiments with indignant energy on the 

 dismissal of the Whig administration in 1807, on their attempt 

 to redeem the pledge given by Pitt at the period of the Irish 

 Union ; a pledge by themselves always considered as just and 

 expedient. 



Mr Roscoe's chief parliamentary friends at that time, were, 

 Mr Whitbread, Sir Samuel Romilly, and Mr William Smith ; 

 but he never permanently attached himself to the ministry ; and 

 was by them regarded as a person who would rather act on his 

 own views of what was right, than enter into the trammels of 

 party. 



On the dissolution of Parliament, he received another requi- 

 sition to offer himself for Liverpool, and was escorted into town 

 by a very numerous and respectable cortege. His opponents, 

 however, had succeeded in prejudicing many of the populace 

 against him, especially on the ground of his vote for the aboli- 

 tion of the Slave-Trade — a traffic which they had been taught 

 to consider as essential to the commercial greatness of the port ; 

 and the rage of zealots was kindled against him for his speech 

 on the Catholic Question. The consequence was, that, on the 

 arrival of the cortege in Castle Street, a serious riot took place, 

 and Mr Roscoe was induced, from the fear of ihazarding the peace 

 of the town, to decline allowing himself to be again put in no- 

 mination. I have reason to believe that this determination did 

 not cause him much regret ; a distaste for parliamentary duties 

 was not unnatural to a man of his previous habits, entering on 

 a new career at a rather advanced period of life. These consi- 

 derations determined him to withdraw from the contest; but he 



