6 CONTEST AGAINST [1808. 



able success ; but yet neither as a debater nor as a 

 speaker could he be classed as of a high order. He 

 had not the correct taste which is acquired by the 

 habit of frequenting refined society, and the practice 

 of addressing a fastidious audience. 



He held upon political subjects very decided opin- 

 ions, and at all times was ready to assert them with 

 the most determined and uncompromising spirit. He 

 was strong upon the slave question, and felt this as 

 above all others sacred, not only from his strong 

 religious feelings, but from his near connection with 

 Wilberforce, whose sister he had married ; and upon 

 this subject he published many valuable works. * 



That the enthusiasm of his nature warped his better 

 judgment, is shown by a remarkable pamphlet he pub- 

 lished early in 1807, ' On the Dangers of the Country/ 

 in which he actually argues, that all the misfortunes 

 inflicted upon Europe by the wars with France were 

 a punishment inflicted by Providence, because England 

 had more than once rejected the measure for the aboli- 

 tion of slavery ! a somewhat unfair appreciation of the 

 justice of Providence, seeing that so many of the Con- 

 tinental countries which had suffered most from Napo- 



* Among these were the ' Crisis of the Sugar Colonies,' the ' Life" of 

 Toussaint L'Ouverture,' the 'Opportunity,' ' The Slavery of the British 

 West India Colonies, delineated as it exists both in Law and Practice, 

 and compared with the Slavery of other Countries, ancient and modern ;' 

 ' Englaud Enslaved by her own Slave Colonies.' In reference to Stephen 

 and the Orders in Council, see in Lord Brougham's ' Contributions to 

 the Edinburgh Review,' ii. 81, the article " On Foreign Affairs," review- 

 ing, among other pieces, ' The Speech of James Stephen, Esq., in the 

 Debate in the House of Commons, March 6, 1809, on Mr Whitbread's 

 Motion relative to the late Overture of the American Government, with 

 supplementary remarks on the recent Orders in Council.' Stephen died 

 in 1832. His son, Sir James, long Under-Secretary for the Colonies, 

 was an author, and a contributor to the ' Edinburgh Review/ 



