THE SUBSTANCE OF A SPEECH,

Delivered in the Wesleyan Methodist Chapel, Irwell Street, Salford, Manchester, (Eng) on Monday, August 13th, 1832: by George Thompson, Esq., being a Reply to Mr. Borthwick's statements on the subject of Slavery.

MR. GEORGE THOMPSON, who had been delivering lectures on Colonial Slavery in Manchester and the neighboring towns, appeared in the Wesleyan Chapel, Irwell street, on Monday, August 13, in order to give a reply, agreeably to advertisement, to Mr. Borthwick, a pro-slavery gentleman. The moment Mr. Thompson was recognised, walking along the aisle towards the vestry, a burst of applause immediately proceeded from the auditory. Precisely at seven o'clock he ascended the pulpit, accompanied by the Boroughreeve, William Hill, Esq.; Mr. Peter Clare, one of the Secretaries of the Anti-slavery Society, and by Mr. James Everett, one of the members of the Committee. To the latter was assigned the office of arranging and handing to the speaker the documentary papers requsite to support the great cause of humanity. The large and beautiful chapel was crowded with a highly respectable auditory; and never was a speaker more enthusiastically received more attentively heard-more feelingly responded to. Mr. Borthwick and his friends sat immediately below the speaker.

MR. HILL.-Before I introduce the gentleman who is to address you this evening I have one observation to make. A party of gentlemen have done me the honor to address a note to me, inquiring whether the discussion will be confined to the gentleman who is to address you. As I have not had the opportunity of a personal interview with these gentlemen, I beg leave to state, that the discussion here will be confined to Mr. Thompson alone, and if any gentleman has any thing to say, afterwards, I shall be happy to see him either in the vestry, or at my house. With these few observations I beg to introduce to you

George Thompson, Esq., the advocate of the Anti-slavery Society.

MR. THOMPSON here stepped to the front of the pulpit, and was again received with deafening cheers. As soon as these had subsided, he addressed his audience as follows:

I think I may assume that all here are fully acquainted with the circumstances under which we are met this evening. This is the fifth time I have had the honor of appearing before a Manchester and Salford auditory. For 11 months previously to my coming here, I had been rapidly travelling through the south-western and other parts of England, and I think I may safely leave it to you, whether or not I am a friend to the safe and immediate abolition of slavery. I came to Manchester humbly and zealously, but sincerely and upon Christian principles, to discuss the great, the momentous, the high moral question, whether slavery--whether British colonial slavery--shall continue, or whether there is humanity enough,-self denial enough,zeal enough, sufficient Christianity in British bosoms, and sufficient security in British arms and British religion, to do our duty, to open the door of the prison house, and 'bid the oppressed go free.' How I have discharged my duty you are all witnesses.

I have caluminated no man. When I opened my mission I simply contended that slavery was an evil in the sight of GOD, and that therefore it ought to be immediately and forever abolished. It has been laid to my charge that I have spoken of the absent. I confess it. I have spoken of the 755,000 distressed human beings who are absent, and cannot therefore plead their own cause; who are distant, and have no means of making their complaints heard across the wide Atlantic; who have no 60 or 70 members in the House of Commons to represent their interests, (cheers ;) who have no paid agents, (great cheering) in Berkley square, in Cavendish square, and in Whitehall place; who have no one that can drive down in his carriage to Downing street, and threaten the minister, if he do not do this or that, he will withhold his influence and support from him. (Cheers.) They have no friends like these. Their friends are they who are influenced alone by religion, by humanity, by a sense of duty,

and by a remembrance of that day which to all is fast approaching, when they will be called upon to say how they have conducted themselves towards these unfortunate beings. (Cheers.) The time is fast coming when, having crossed the river of death, there will be none whose sufferings you can mitigate, no sick to relieve, none to whom you can give advice and consolation; then for ever will the destines of man be fixed, and he who is unholy will be unholy still.'

But peradventure, with this good cause before us, we may not live in vain; we may perhaps still do something to relieve our country from the foul stain that avarice and despotism have brought upon it; and so discharge our duty, as to receive from the lip of our friend the approving words, Well done thou good and faithful servant.'

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I have done all in my power to induce this feeling, and I have been well received; but it was reserved for me to visit Manchester before I found out my real importance. Here I found myself of such consequence as to be visited by three hired advocates from the West India planters, who came, strangely came, with West India money in their pockets, to do what? To be convinced, forsooth. (Laughter.) This is a strange occurrence, than which I never met with a stranger, that they should send their three principal agents to be convinced by George Thompson. But it is hard to find the way to a man's understanding through his breeches pocket; it is like a man's coming to be convinced, who, if he be convinced, shall have his rations stopped. However, if it should come to pass that they are convinced, and that they write to St. James' street, and say they are converts to the opinions of the vast majority-do I speak truly or not?-(cheers,) of the 90 out of 100, or of 999 out of 1000; why then, I say, it would be noble; and let them trust for their porridge to the mercy of Providence, or trust to the eleemosynary bounty of mankind for means to prevent the necessity of their having occasion to do such dirty work, as to endeavor to perpetuate the system of negro slavery. (Applause.) But this was not sufficient; by some hocus-pocus, I suddenly find myself visited by an old friend from Nottingham, in the character of a West India planter, and by the merest accident,' no doubt, by two or three gentlemen from Liverpool,

who, with most stentorian lungs, made a very beautiful and hearty chorus, by calling out, ever and anon, ‘hear, hear, hear, hear.' (Laughter.) I say by the strangest accident,' by the strangest combination of circumstances that ever I met with, I suddenly find myself visited by the Secretary of the West India Association; by two other gentlemen, by a planter from Nottingham and by several gentlemen from Liverpool, but how many deponent sayeth not. However, thanks to the railroad, these gentlemen hear of my lecture in Manchester, and, by the power of steam, are here in a pig's whisper. (Laughter.) Then come the eventful scenes of the lecture night, and I am asked by Mr. Borthwick, If there be any thing in your address to which I object, may I have the liberty to reply ? '—to which I answered, 'I had no objection; but I said that the room was engaged, and the meeting called for a specific purpose.' I said, however, that, he had power to do as I had done, if he could find friends to meet him.' Well, I delivered that lecture, and received an intimation that a reply would be given; that my lecture was not liked ; and that the individual would really, and truly, and clearly make a reply to it. But out of the nine distinct portions of that lecture one only was touched upon and the rest forgotten. Certainly in this age of accidents this was very natural, particularly when the gentleman had come all the way from London, one hundred and seventy miles, to deliver a speech which had been retailed there, I don't know how many times. But the great charge against me was, that I dared to caluminate absent individuals, the West India planters, the merchants and the mortgagees of West India property. I call upon all who heard me then, to say if that charge be true. I stand here not to calumniate a single individual, not to vituperate a single individual; but I stand here to discuss, without animosity to any man, the great question of British Colonial Slavery. However, in defiance of truth, it was assumed that I had calumniated absent individuals, and that he would not else have been there. Is that charge true? I merely took the position, that slavery is an evil in the sight of GOD, and ought to be immediately and forever abolished. To this no distinct reply was given. You all remember the theoological portion of his discourse. I shall shortly come to

speak of him as a theologian. The next position I took was, that we ought to love our neighbor as ourselves; that we ought to apply the golden rule, of doing unto others as we would that others should do unto us;' and that we ought to remember those that are in bonds as bound with them.' Has this been replied to? It has only been glanced at; and you will perceive, that by the merest accident,' all the rest of my discourse was forgotten. There was no reply; yet REPLY was the largest word in his placard calling the meeting. There was also a quotation of scripture on his card. I like the gentleman's going to the Bible for quotations. His quotation is: He that is first in his own cause seemeth just; but his neighbor-cometh and searcheth him.' Why then did he not do his duty? I charge him with a gross dereliction of his duty, he has not searched me; would that he had, instead of delivering those stale and trumpery arguments in palliation of slavery, which have been delivered from time immemorial, and endeavoring to render our industrious artizans discontented by allusions to the four parlors and the saloon' of the negro. However, we will forgive this if he will mend his manners, and go on with his duty of searching me. If he chooses to go to Proverbs I could remark that we were not the first in the cause. No, it was the man stealer, the blood-thirsty money-getting British merchant. They were the first; and we are come to search them. However, I will make no further comment upon that portion of scripture, but refer him to another in the same book, Proverbs, 1st chapter 10th to 16th verses :—

My son if sinners entice thee, consent thou not.

If they say, Come with us, let us lay wait for blood, let us lurk privily for the innocent without cause:

Let us swallow them up alive as the grave; and whole, as those that go down into the pit:

"We shall find all precious substance, we shall fill our houses with spoil: Cast in thy lot among us; let us all have one purse.

My son, walk not the in the way with them; refrain thy foot from their path:

For their feet run to evil, and make haste to shed blood.'

Well then, the conclusion I drew, from the premises already stated was, that if there was in our minds any recognition of the authority of the scriptures, and in our hearts any disposition to adopt them as principles of human conduct, then all worldly considerations ought to sink