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to subside, in view of such a delusive scheme, all would have been lost. He and his supporters acted wisely in maintaining their ground; but they erred most fatally in leaving the system of slavery to grow up in the British Colonies without molestation, without directing the attention of the people to its nature and consequences, and without seeking its immediate and utter annihilation. Had they done so, long ere this, in all human probability, the foreign slave trade would have received a mortal wound, and every slave would have received his freedomwhereas now both the slave-trade and the slave-system are more extended and cruel than ever. Clarkson and Wilberforce have seen and now deeply lament the omission, and they seem determined by superior exertions to retrieve all that has been lost.

And this leads me to glance at the state of things in England, in relation to the abolition cause. More heads are at work, more hands employed, more tracts and petitions printed and circulated, more funds raised, in one month, to effect the liberation of 800,000 British slaves, than have been in this country since the Declaration of Independence, to emancipate the two millions of slaves in our slave States. The recent passage of the Reform Bill through Parliament is the certain forerunner of the speedy triumph of the anti-slavery cause, and the liberation of all those held in servitude by England. The value of the slaves in the Colonies, in consequence of the prospect of their emancipation, has already been reduced at least one half. The planters are either setting them free, or selling them for a mere trifle, and abandoning the islands. They perceive that the same cloud is gathering which annihilated the slave trade-the same indignation is kindling in the breasts of the same people' —and they know that whatever the people of England are resolved to accomplish, they will accomplish. As a specimen of the intense sympathy which is felt for the slaves among all classes, it is only necessary to state that Lord Brougham lately presented to Parliament a petition containing one hundred and thirty-five thousand names, praying for the immediate and entire emancipation of all the slaves in the Colonies-one hundred and thirty-five thousand names! the whole population of this city more than twice told, on a single petition! Do you think that

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slavery can long exist where there is such a sentiment at this? No! the huge system is tottering to its base, as if it were rocked by an earthquake, and down it must speedily fall. The British people are holding to the planters in the Colonies far different language from that which is held by the Colonization Society in this country to the southern planters. They do not slander the free colored inhabitants, and represent them as more degraded and miserable than the slaves. They do not urge them to hold their slaves in bondage for a longer period. They do not indulge in the foolish dream of educating the slaves for freedom. They do not insist upon dragging them to the coast of Africa, as the terms of their freedom. But they tell the planters, plainly, that they are robbers and men-stealers; that they must release their iron grasp; that the danger lies not in doing right but in doing wrong, in treating the slaves like cattle, and not in treating them like men; that it is their duty this day, this very hour, to break every yoke, and to let the oppressed go free; and that nothing short of a speedy and unconditional emancipation will satisfy the people of Great Britain.

It is really refreshing to contrast the sentiments of the noblest minds in England with those of the craven apologists of slavery in this country, who are perpetually crying out against us, 'fanatics-madmen,' &c. I regret that I have not time to give them at length, but you shall have a few specimens, extracted from the speeches of eminent individuals.

His Royal Highness, the Duke of Gloucester, said-' After what had passed, it was impossible that the evil could last much longer. It was impossible that Englishmen could tolerate that system of slavery which was so incompatible with the British Constitution. He was sure that if the public voice, raised in its favor, should be heard by Parliament, they would certainly attain their object. His family had been brought to this country for the protection of the rights and liberties of its subjects; and as a member of that family, he should not be discharging his duty towards them if he did not recommend the sacred principles of freedom by every means in his power.'

Lord Milton said- For the sake of humanity and justice, for the sake of the character of the country, for the sake of the

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West Indies themselves, he trusted that an end would soon be put, and for ever, to so odious and unwise a system.'

Sir James Mackintosh remarked-' He felt the most zealous wishes for the success of the cause, because he considered its success indispensable to acquit the consciences and clear the honor of the British people; and because, in sincerity of soul, he believed its success would, more than any other measure, contribute to the safety and welfare of the European inhabitants of the colonies; and lastly, and above all, because he thought it would raise a million of human beings to the condition of men.'

Mr. Canning said—' Trust not the masters of slaves in what concerns legislation for slavery! However specious their laws may appear, depend upon it they must be ineffectual in their application. It is in the nature of things that they should be so. Let, then, the British House of Commons do their part themselves. Let them not delegate the trust of doing it to those who cannot execute that trust fairly. Let the evil be remedied by an assembly of freemen, by the government of a free people, and not by the masters of slaves.'

Lord Nugent said- The slave trade finds no one bold enough now to defend even its memory. And yet, when we hear the slave trade reprobated, and slavery defended by the same persons, I must own I think the slave trade unfairly treated. The abuse of defunct slave trade is a cheap price for the abettor of living slavery to pay by way of compromise. But we cannot allow the Colonial party on these terms to cry truce with us, by stigmatizing the slave trade. There is not one general principle on which the slave trade is to be stigmatized, which does not impeach slavery itself.'

Dr. Lushington said—' It was never given by God to man to hold his fellow man in bondage. Every thing short of a total abolition of slavery he considered as unsatisfactory, and ending only in disappointment and discontent. The supporters of the abolition of slavery took their stand upon the eternal principles of truth and justice, and it would be next to blasphemy to doubt their success.'

Lord Brougham said- Tell me not of rights-talk not of the property of the planter in his slaves. I deny the right-I

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acknowledge not the property.' 'Go on we must, and go on we shall, for the entire abolition of Colonial slavery.'

The Rev. Dr. Thompson said- Slavery is the very Upas tree of the moral world, beneath whose pestiferous shade all intellect languishes, and all virtue dies. It must be cut down and eradicated; it must be, root and branch of it, cast into the consuming fire, and its ashes scattered to the four winds of heaven. It is thus you must deal with slavery. You must annihilate it, annihilate it now, and annihilate it for ever.'

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This is the language uniformly held by the most illustrious men in Great Britain, whose minds form one great constellation in the heaven of intellect, the light of which is almost co-extensive with the sun's. These are the men, or rather those in this country who adopt their sentiments, who are stigmatized as madmen and fanatics by senseless brawlers and prating ignoramuses-condemned by individuals whose obtuseness of mind is such as to defy the keenest strokes of satire and the most ponderous blows of truth; who, perhaps, have never devoted five minutes to the investigation of this subject, although they affect to be Gabriels in wisdom, in relation to it.

And now, we will take our leave of Great Britain, with an exulting spirit, well assured that the cause of eight hundred thousand slaves is safe in the hands of her people-we will leave her noble men and her noble women (I do not mean noble by birth, but by virtuous action) to pour their petitions before the eyes, and to clank the chains of the slaves in the ears of Parliament, not doubting of their speedy triumph, and come to our own land, in which are pining in bondage not eight hundred thousand slaves merely, but more than two millions! And what is doing here? Why, there is a mighty combination at work, all over the land, not to expose and enforce the guilt of slaveholders-not to protect the free people of color or assist in elevating them here—but in fact, though not avowedly, to perpetuate the system of slavery, and hunt down every free man of color, and having caught him, to fling him across the ocean into Africa, as if he were a reptile. It professes to be able to work almost miracles. Some of its members and managers are very great men -they own more slaves than the King of England. They are

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very wise men they are going to liberate all the slaves by telling the masters they are benevolent in keeping them in bondage, and by transporting yourselves and your free brethren in other places to Liberia. They are very consistent men they give you all a very bad name, call you a miserable and villanous class, and yet they wish to employ you as missionaries to evangelize Africa—they think you are peculiarly qualified for such a mission. They are very active men: they have carried away in sixteen years about two thousand souls, little more than a hundred each year; whereas the increase of the colored population, during the same time, has been only six hundred thousand souls, and is now only two hundred a day! They are very humane men they have such a regard for the happiness of the slaves that they think it is better to flog them with the whip, hold them as cattle, sell their wives and children, give them no instruction, and steal all that they earn, than to give them their freedom now, pay them for their labor, and treat them like rational beings. They cherish the tenderest regard for your temporal and spiritual welfare, and love you so affectionately-but before I tell you how much they love you, I wish to illustrate the strength of their attachment by first reading two Proclamations which I have before me, and then', by way of contrast, by reading some of the kind expressions and charitable remarks of colenizationists respecting yourselves. These Proclamations were issued by Gen. Jackson during the last war, when the enemy was coming in like a flood-when the aid of the free colored population at the south was deemed essential to the safety of the country-and when the government, so far from suspecting their loyalty or fearing their desertion, gave them arms and ammunition to defend themselves and their country.

HEAD QUARTERS, SEVENTH MILITARY DISTRICT, MOBILE, SEPT. 21ST, 1814.

To the Free Colored Inhabitants of Louisiana:

• Through a mistaken policy, you have heretofore been deprived of a participation in the glorious struggle for national rights, in which our country is engaged. This no longer shall exist.

'As Sons of Freedom, you are now called upon to defend our most inestimable blessings. As Americans, your country looks with confidence to her adopted