Page:Public School History of England and Canada (1892).djvu/173

 more was needed. Nelson, against the advice of his friends, exposed himself fearlessly to the French marksmen, one of whom shot him down while standing on the deck of his own ship, the Victory. He lived long enough to know that the battle was won, and that all danger of a French invasion of England’s shores was at anend. The English people rejoiced at Nelson’s last and greatest victory, although the price at which it was bought brought sorrow and mourning into every household.

Soon after this, Napoleon, who had turned away from England to attack Austria, met and defeated the armies of Austria and Russia at Austerlitz, December 2, 1805, and the news of this disaster killed Pitt. At the early age of forty-seven, in January 1806, this worthy son of a noble sire passed away, full of sorrow and anxiety for the country he had served so well.

9. Abolition of the Slave Trade,—It had been Pitt’s wish, when he returned to office in 1804, to have the aid of Fox in his Government, but George III. would not hear of it. Now, after Pitt’s death, Fox was taken in, for all parties were united in fighting England’s battles against Napoleon. It was hoped that Fox would, on account of his known friendliness to France, be able to bring about a peace, but this was not realized, and Fox soon followed his great rival to the grave, dying in 1806. It was at this time, 1807, that England took her first step in ridding herself of the curse of slavery. Hver since the revival under the Wesleys and Whitfield, a deep interest had’ been taken in the poor, the ignorant, and the oppressed. In 1773, John Howard was drawn into the work of visiting English jails and prisons, and his reports of their wretched and filthy condition, and of the vice and misery that prevailed in them, led Parliament to take steps to reform some of the more glaring abuses. In 1788, Clarkson, Wilberforce, and Zachary Macaulay, began a crusade against the slave trade between Africa and America, and against slavery itself. Pitt and Fox sympathized with the movement and lent it their aid, but the strong opposition of the merchants of Liverpool and others who made gain by the wrongs and sufferings of the poor negroes, prevented Parliament from doing justice until 1807, when the slave-trade was made piracy, and abolished.

10. The Berlin Decree.—The Battle of Trafalgar had taught