Editing William Wilberforce (section)

===Political and social reform===
Wilberforce was highly conservative on many political and social issues. He advocated change in society through Christianity and improvement in morals, education and religion, fearing and opposing radical causes and revolution.<ref name="Hague 2007 446"/> The radical writer [[William Cobbett]] was among those who attacked what they saw as Wilberforce's hypocrisy in campaigning for better working conditions for enslaved people while British workers lived in terrible conditions at home.<ref>{{Harvnb|Hague|2007|pp=440–441}}</ref> Critics noted Wilberforce's support of the suspension of ''[[habeas corpus]]'' in 1795 and his votes for Pitt's "Gagging Bills", which banned meetings of more than 50&nbsp;people, allowing speakers to be arrested and imposing harsh penalties on those who attacked the constitution.<ref name="Hind1987" /><ref>{{Harvnb|Hague|2007|pp=250, 254–256}}</ref> Wilberforce was opposed to giving [[workers' rights]] to organise into unions, in 1799 speaking in favour of the [[Combination Act]], which suppressed trade union activity throughout Britain, and calling unions "a general disease in our society".<ref name="Hind1987" /><ref>{{Harvnb|Hague|2007|p=286}}</ref> He also opposed an [[public inquiry|enquiry]] into the 1819 [[Peterloo Massacre]] in which eleven protesters were killed at a political rally demanding reform.<ref>{{Harvnb|Hague|2007|pp=441–442}}</ref> Concerned about "bad men who wished to produce anarchy and confusion", he approved of the government's [[Six Acts]], which further limited public meetings and [[sedition|seditious writings]].<ref>{{Harvnb|Hague|2007|p=442}}</ref><ref>{{Harvnb|Tomkins|2007|pp=195–196}}</ref> Wilberforce's actions led the essayist [[William Hazlitt]] to condemn him as one "who preaches vital Christianity to untutored savages, and tolerates its worst abuses in civilised states."<ref>{{Cite book| last = Hazlitt | first = William | author-link = William Hazlitt | title = The spirit of the age| place = London|page=185 | publisher = C. Templeton | year = 1825|url = https://books.google.com/books?id=t0wBAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA185}}</ref>

[[File:Sir Thomas Lawrence02.jpg|thumb|right|Unfinished portrait by [[Sir Thomas Lawrence]], 1828|alt=An unfinished oil portrait of Wilberforce. The face and shoulders are painted, while the rest of the portrait contains a sketched outline.]]

Wilberforce's views of women and religion were also conservative. He disapproved of women anti-slavery activists such as [[Elizabeth Heyrick]], who organised women's abolitionist groups in the 1820s, protesting: "[F]or ladies to meet, to publish, to go from house to house stirring up petitions—these appear to me proceedings unsuited to the female character as delineated in Scripture."<ref>{{Harvnb|Hochschild|2005|pp=324–327}}</ref><ref>{{Harvnb|Hague|2007|p=487}}</ref> Wilberforce initially strongly opposed bills for [[Catholic emancipation]], which would have allowed Catholics to become MPs, hold public office and serve in the army,<ref>{{Harvnb|Tomkins|2007|pp=172–173}}</ref> although by 1813, he had changed his views and spoke in favour of a similar bill.<ref>{{Harvnb|Hague|2007|pp=406–407}}</ref>

Wilberforce advocated legislation to improve the working conditions for chimney-sweeps and textile workers, engaged in [[prison reform]], and supported campaigns to restrict [[capital punishment]] and the severe punishments meted out under the [[Game law]]s.<ref>{{Harvnb|Hague|2007|p=447}}</ref><ref name="Devereaux2015" /> He recognised the importance of education in alleviating poverty, and when [[Hannah More]] and her sister established [[Sunday school]]s for the poor in [[Somerset]] and the [[Mendip Hills|Mendips]], he provided financial and moral support as they faced opposition from landowners and Anglican clergy.<ref>{{Harvnb|Pollock|1977|pp=92–93}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|last=Stott|first=Anne|title=Hannah More: The First Victorian|year=2003|place=Oxford|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-924532-1|oclc=186342431|url-access=registration|pages=103–105, 246–447|url=https://archive.org/details/hannahmorefirstv0000stot}}</ref> From the late 1780s onward, Wilberforce campaigned for limited parliamentary reform, such as the abolition of [[rotten boroughs]] and the redistribution of Commons seats to growing towns and cities, though by 1832, he feared that such measures went too far.<ref name="Hind1987" /><ref>{{Harvnb|Hague|2007|pp=74, 498}}</ref> With others, Wilberforce founded the world's first [[animal welfare]] organisation, the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (later the [[Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals]]).<ref name="Tomkins 2007 207">{{Harvnb|Tomkins|2007|p=207}}</ref>  He was also opposed to [[duelling]], which he described as the "disgrace of a Christian society" and was appalled when his friend Pitt engaged in a duel with [[George Tierney]] in 1798, particularly as it occurred on a Sunday, the Christian day of rest.<ref>{{Harvnb|Hague|2007|pp=287–288}}</ref><ref>{{Harvnb|Hochschild|2005|p=299}}</ref>

Wilberforce was generous with his time and money, believing that those with wealth had a duty to give a significant portion of their income to the needy. Yearly, he gave away thousands of pounds, much of it to clergymen to distribute in their parishes. He paid off the debts of others, supported education and [[Mission (Christian)|missions]], and in a year of food shortages, gave to charity more than his own yearly income. He was exceptionally hospitable, and could not bear to sack any of his servants. As a result, his home was full of old and incompetent servants kept on in charity. Although he was often months behind in his correspondence, Wilberforce responded to numerous requests for advice or for help in obtaining professorships, military promotions and livings for clergymen, or for the reprieve of death sentences.<ref>{{Harvnb|Hochschild|2005|p=315}}</ref><ref>{{Harvnb|Hague|2007|pp=211–212, 295, 300}}</ref>