REFORM AND DEMOCRACY 71 



rationalizing of municipal government, our con 

 cern is too slight for more than passing men 

 tion. Other legislation, however, had a defi 

 nite bearing on relations with the United States. 

 In 1833 an act was passed abolishing slavery 

 in the British West Indies, by a process that 

 became actually complete five years later. In 

 1835 the ancient methods of impressment in 

 recruiting for the navy were practically ended 

 by legislation regulating the procedure and at 

 the same time encouraging voluntary enlist 

 ment by bounties and pensions. 



The abolition of slavery in the West In 

 dian colonies marked the triumph of a long 

 agitation, begun by Wilberforce and continued 

 by the Quakers and Buxton. The African slave- 

 trade had been prohibited by Parliament, largely 

 through Wilberforce s efforts, as early as 1807, 

 only a year before a like prohibition was enacted 

 by the Congress of the United States. British 

 and American vessels were thus excluded from 

 a very lucrative business, but the humanitarian 

 purpose of the legislation was not in any large 

 measure achieved, for the trade continued to 

 flourish. Under the continuous pressure of the 

 Abolitionists the British Government sought 

 to arrange by treaty for the co-operation of 



