gence, candour and becoming ardour. Not a word of rancour fell from the lips of the most impassioned. We have only to appeal to the people to find a warm. and generous response. The mother of the noble McLaren will not want a home. We can answer for it that the land of Guthrie and McLeod will not be the last to succour the "childless, homeless and starving" people of Jamaica. We shall hear ere long that the British army and navy do not pride themselves on the slaughter in cold blood of unresisting fugitives and in the massacre of women and children. Men in high places will soon understand the claims of humanity as distinctly as the common people who have so promptly obeyed the instincts of the conscience and of the heart, and in some form or other the heart-broken widows and orphans will learn that the Queen has not left them. What is done should be done quickly, universally and continuously. Let us gird ourselves anew to this sacred task, with a single aim-self-oblivion and hearty co-operation with all who are interested in the object. The blessing of those who are ready to perish will come upon us-and in life we shall find there are few blessings that are richer.-W. THE CONNECTION OF ENGLISH PROSPERITY WITH AMERICAN SLAVERY; A MOTIVE TO ELEVATE THE EMANCIPATED SLAVE. WHILE American slavery was continued, the labour extracted by the lash of the task-master from the oppressed bondman was employed to a very considerable extent in cultivating the cotton fields, whose produce found its principal market in England. In this production the merchant realized the great agent of commerce, the manufacturer the material for the construction of all cotton fabrics, and great multitudes of the inhabitants of the northern districts ready and remunerative labour which supplied their homes with ample and numerous comforts. Nor was there a family throughout our country or colonies, but was clothed to a considerable extent by the labour of the American slave. That these results of slave labour on English prosperity are not exaggerated, will appear when we consider the immediate effects of the closing the southern ports of America, to our commerce, consequent on the American war. Trade in the manufacturing districts at once experienced an universal collapse. The lofty chimneys of the mills ceased to pour forth their smoke; the rattle and roar of mighty machinery was hushed; the light tread of the operatives to the scenes of cheerful labour was no longer heard; and as the result pining want nurtured disease and excited discontent throughout the population. The northern counties of our country became one vast poor-house, and the inhabitants were supplied by the voluntary humanity of the entire country. Nor is all this surprising when we consider that this form of our national prosperity was the fruit of a long series of great injustice to four millions of our fellow-men; and though this prosperity appeared at the time as the goodly Babylonish garment our national the shekels of silver and the wedge of gold to Achan, yet as then so now, it produced trouble through the entire camp; for in the long run prosperity was visited by a national calamity at once extensive, severe and paralizing. But amidst the sufferings of England and the horrors of the American war, God has said to the bondmen in a most sudden and wonderful manner" Go free," and the manacles which have bound them for ages are entirely universally and for ever broken to pieces. But though blessed with liberty they are in a state of great necessity. They require dwellings to protect them from the weather, clothing to cover their nakedness, and food to supply their hunger. Beyond this they need to be taught the first principles of general knowledge, and the great truths of religion. Thus to fit them for liberty they must receive the help of those who have always been free. For this purpose mercy has addressed an earnest appeal to English benevolence and the sum of £60,000 has been contributed. Justice now adds its plea to that of mercy and addresses the merchant and manufacturing prince, and asks, Has not your prosperity been built to a considerable extent on the labour and sufferings of the American slave? Should you not therefore give back for their elevation a portion of that large wealth which some of you have derived from their hard and unjust bondage? Justice also pleads with the northern operatives and enquires, Should not your humbler contributions be freely bestowed for the benefit of a people, whose FORCED labour for so many years has furnished you and your fathers with the means of FREE labour, by which your homes have been filled with unnumbered blessings while they were suffering the curse of slavery? Further justice extends its plea throughout the entire land and says to all, Should you not be prepared to unite for the elevation of the emancipated negro while you consider how his condition as a slave has furnished yourselves and families during your lives with the material from which your comfortable clothing has been constructed and thus your health and happiness promoted. BRITISH AND FOREIGN GREAT MEETING AT EXETER HALL. BENJAMIN SCOTT, Esq., F.R.A.S., Chamberlain of London, in the Chair. On Thursday, February 15th, 1866, a public meeting was held in Exeter Hall, under the auspices of the above Society, to commemorate the Passing of the Constitutional Amendment by which Slavery is abolished for ever in the United States of America. The Meeting was attended by several thousands of persons, and the proceedings were characterised by the utmost unanimity and enthusiasm. A large number of Members of the House of Commons had promised to attend and take part in the Meeting, but were prevented by the pressing nature of the public business, and by what is denominated as a "whip." recently carried in the United States should be read to you by Dr. Tomkins. And as a mark of respect we request that you will rise, and remain standing whilst that Constitutional Amendment is read to you. DR. TOMKINS reading, the meeting standStates of America, December 18th, 1865. ing:-" Abolition of Slavery in the United Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States or any place subject to their jurisdiction." (Loud cheers.) This article has been ratified by the Legislatures of the States of Illinois, Rhode Island, Michigan, Maryland, New York, West Virginia, Virginia, Ohio, Missouri, Nevada, Indiana, Louisiana, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Vermont, New Hampshire, Tennessee, Arkansas, Connecticut, South Carolina, Alabama, North Carolina, and Georgia, in all twenty-seven, and since the time that this was written, in New Jersey, making twenty-eight states. (Renewed cheers.) The following were among the gentlemen present:--Rev. Hugh Allan, D.D., rector of St. George's, Southwark; Samuel Garratt, M.A., incumbent of Trinity Church, Lincoln's Inn Fields; Henry Killick, M.A., rector THE CHAIRMAN:-Ladies and gentlemen, of St. Clement Dane's; W. Brock, D.D.; those who have done me the honour-and I Newman Hall, LL.B.; Alex. King; Dr. Hol- conceive it to be a very great honour-to prebrook, of New York; Alex. Hannay; W. K. side on this occasion, have two main objects Rowe; Alex. MacKennall, B.A.; R. Ashton, before them in convening this meeting. The Secretary of the Congregational Union of first object is to commemorate worthily one England and Wales; E. G. Cecil, J. J. of the grandest events that has yet been written. Sinclair, W. Morton Mather, J. Bligh, Philip on the page of history, the complete, final, Coter, J. Bidwell, J. Curwen, Aspinall Hamp- and irrevocable abolition of slavery in the son, T. Barker, R. E. Forsaith, J. Waddington, United States. (Cheers.) The other and second D.D., W. Shaen, M.A., Professor Leone Levi, object is to commend to public attention the Dr. Fred. Tomkins, Dr. Thomas Hodgkin, urgent necessity-the very pressing necessities J. Hodgkin, Esq., of Lewes, Handel Cossham, of four millions of human beings who are now F. W. Chesson, W. Tweedie, J. H. Estcourt, in the transition state between slavery and Stafford Allen, J. W. Probyn, J. Carvell independence. We are not here to-night, Williams, E. T. Smith, T. A. Burr, James to discuss the recent war in America, either M. Macrum (Pittsburg), Mason Jones, Dr. its cause, or the conduct of that war; we Sandwith, C.B., of Kars, William Willis, Esq., have to do with a great fact which stands LL.D., &c., &c. facing us, the consequence of that war. Slavery has fallen! (Loud cheers.) Mortally The Rev. Samuel Garratt, M.A., offered up wounded by the sword-drawn first by the prayer. THE CHAIRMAN:-It has been arranged by the Committee that previously to the speaking the Constitutional Amendment which has been slave-owners themselves—it has fallen by the sword; and as you have heard just now, by legislative enactment of twenty-eight states out of thirty-six it has been consigned to a deep grave from which there is no resurrection. a hand mightier than man's and a wisdom more profound, even the hand and the wisdom of Him who is "wonderful in council and excellent in working," who rules and whe overrules, who maketh the folly as well as the wrath of man to praise him, and the remainder of which He restrains. Neither are we come together in a spirit of selfcomplacency to welcome our sister across the Atlantic because she has put away her sin; the sin is ours as well as hers; let us not forget that we carried slavery to America, and we kept it there as long as we had power to do so. (Hear.) We can I trust to-night hold out the hand of cordial congratulation to the American people without uttering one word of crimination or sanctimonious self-laudation. (Cheers) There is no doubt a great and glorious future for the American people, a future of which perhaps the most far-seeing amongst us can form no conception. We trust and believe that there is a great future for ourselves and henceforth we can go forward in the march of progress side by side, the laws of these two great nations having been now fundamentally assimilated. We realise to night what was formerly a vision of one of the American poets, that great people sitting in the councils of the free nations, (Hear, hear.) We are not come together to forth to them, by the resolutions passed in this attribute this grand result to the wisdom of this great meeting, the right hand of a hearty, man, or the valour of that-we might perhaps cordial congratulation. (Cheers.) It may find a divided sentiment on that subject; I be objected by our critics-and they are think we shall be all agreed, however, that many-that this is sentimental and not practhere is apparent in this great accomplishment tical. I deny that; sympathy is a practical thing; and it is time that sympathy were extended openly and manifestly by the people of this country to the suffering and the oppressed everywhere. (Hear.) I for one wish we had held a meeting of this kind some few years ago when the Emperor of Russia decreed the freedom of twenty-five millions of serfs; and when the Dutch Government freed the slaves in the Dutch Colonies (hear); and I could have wished that friends had seen with me the propriety of coming together, so far as we couldin our aggregate capacity, to express our gratification to those who had accomplished those great ends. I think that if we had then expressed our sympathy as we might have done, in kindly words to the Emperor of Russia-such words as we could then have used with great appropriateness to him, he might have been disposed to listen to us with regard to unhappy Poland, but the time is past. Indeed, to go back to an earlier period, in 1854, we let slip the opportunity of speaking our sympathies before this great nation and before America. In that year I attended with a deputation, accompanied by the Rev. Ringold Ward (a black clergyman from Canada) to submit to Earl Russell the names of twenty British subjects who had been taken from ships at Charleston and Savannah, and sold into slavery. On that occasion the Foreign Minister told us plainly that there was little or no help to be expected, and I shall never forget the words, the looks, the gestures of unmitigated scorn when Mr. Ward addressed us as we left the audience chamber, and he closed his remarks by say. ing, "Now go and sing your Rule Britannia, Britons never will be slaves." (Cheers.) I, for one, felt that I could not comply with that request of his, and I never have complied with it, or remained in any room in which that song was sung since those British subjects were left to pine without a word of pity or of protest, in slavery. We can sing Rule Britannia now, for although that poetry was a piece of harmonious hypocrisy from the days of Dryden, Not challenging the nations round afford a healthful impulse to all those movements, that we may do something commen. surate with the great needs of this suffering people. There are many thoughts which crowd upon me on this occasion, but there is no time for their expression. I feel that it is my duty, occupying the chair to-night, that I should inculcate by my example and in my person a lesson of brevity of statement, which I shall have to inculcate upon others. (Cheers.) when it was written, down to 1864, I believe across the Atlantic to aid these suffering freednow it can be said that no British subjects men. We to-night hope that this meeting will are slaves. (Cheers.) (A voice: "Jamaica") They are not slaves in Jamaica, they may be oppressed, but I say that no British subjects are in slavery. My opinion is, I state it humbly, that if there had been more expression of public sympathy upon these matters before the great British public, there would also have been less of cruelty in the world, and possibly the Jamaica tragedy might never have been enacted. That however is past; let us learn by the past how to act in the future, and I congratulate you HANDEL COSSHAM, Esq.:- Mr. Chairman, my friends upon this great meeting, and it will ladies, and gentlemen, the resolution which I not be without its results. We still-although have been asked to move, and to which I it is very unfashionable so to believe-we still hope I shall have-as I expect to have-your do believe in the words of the ancient book-unanimous consent is as follows:-"That this words which reverberated about the old meeting reverently, and gratefully acknow. Galilean Lake and re-echoed from Mars' Hill ledges that in the good providence of God, the at Athens-that God has made of one blood crime, and withering curse of chattel slavery— all the nations of man to dwell on the first introduced by England into her transatface of the earth. (Hear, hear.) We be-lantic colonies, and then perpetuated by the lieve that if God has made men of diffe- fundamental constitution of the United States rent colours, he has made them of one heart, of America" (which you have heard read toone blood, one soul, one spirit, and we night) "has by the recent adoption of the believe that Christianity teaches us that Constitutional Amendment, been rendered God, our great Father, is no respecter of per- illegal, and for ever hereafter prohibited sons, and that we his children likewise ought throughout those United States. And this to be no respecters of persons. If there meeting tenders cordial congratulations to the is any difference to be made, that difference friends of freedom in America upon the occamust be in extending the greater amount of sion of this gratifying and signal triumph of sympathy and the larger amount of protection the course of righteousness and humanity, to those who are the humblest and the most recognising in this auspicious assimilation of oppressed. (Cheers.) That is our creed, and the fundamental laws of the United States, we are not ashamed to own it; it may not be and of Great Britain a new and enduring bond the fashionable creed, but we know this, it is a of union between the two nations." (Cheers.) creed that will prevail in the carth. (Hear, Such is the resolution which I have to-night hear.) And now, with reference to the British to submit for your approval, and I quite and Foreign Freed-Men's Aid Society. That endorse the sentiment with which the ChairSociety has been labouring for more than man opened his valuable speech, when he said, eighteen months under the name of the Freed- that we are met to celebrate one of the greatman's Aid Society, before it made its ap- est triumphs, and one of the most glorious pearance here. We are not here to-night to events of modern times. I venture to say in originate any movement for the poor freed-men your hearing to-night, there has been no such who are struggling into independence in event since the time when Moses marched out America: they have collected either in clothing of Egypt at the head of two millions of Freedor in cash about £12,000 Other societies, men, in the history of the world, in connection of which I cannot speak officially, have been with this humanity of ours (excepting of doing the same good work quietly and unoscourse the coming of our Lord to redeem the tentatiously, and probably at this moment up-race) there has been nothing like it in the wards of £60,000 has been already remitted history of this world. My only wonder Sir, |