When the session of 1832 commenced, the nation was shaken to its centre by the closing struggle on the Reform question. Some may be disposed to wonder that Mr. Buxton, at such a crisis, did not take an active part in the exciting discussions of the day; but though warmly interested in the subject, and constant in giving his attendance and his vote, the incessant occupation arising out of the abolition question, prevented him from coming prominently forward on other occasions. His attachment to the cause which so deeply interested him,

“Had killed the flock of all affections else That lived in him;”

and his best exertions were needed to prevent the pressing questions of the day from engulphing all remembrance of the far distant slave. The attention of all parties was, however, for a time recalled to the subject; first, by the violent irritation expressed in the colonies at the declaration of Lord Althorp in the preceding year, that he would “insist on the enforcement “of ameliorating measures, and at the consequent order in council issued, with a despatch from Lord Goderich, in November; and, secondly, by the news of an alarming insurrection among the Negroes in Jamaica, in consequence of the refusal of their usual Christmas holidays.