The Express.
London, England, 1851-08-02 00:00:00

ANTI-SLAVERY SOIREE.

A public soirtx was held last night at the Hall of
Commerce, Threadneedle-street, to celebrate the anniver-
sary of West Indian negro emancipation and welcome Mr.
George Thompson en his return from America. The large
hall was well filled by a most enthusiastic assemblage of the
friends of the anti-slavery cause—ladies us well as gentle-
men. The chair was occupied by Mr. WILLIAM Wrtts
Bnowx, a fugitive slave, and on the platform were: Mr
George Thompson, M.P.; Sir F. Knowles, Bart.; the
Rev. J. Bunts, ; J. Stewart, MA., and E. 11Iat-
thews ; Messrs. E. Foster, J. Livt.ov f Preston), and
Andrew l'aton (of Glasgow), Mrs. Maria Weston Chap-
man (of Boston' United States), Miss Weston, &c.
After tea had been discussed,

The ell AIRMAN delivered a short and interesting address ,
to the meeting. Ile glanced at the difficulties which existed
iii the spread of the anti-slavery cause in America, stated
that the American churches were virtually the chief sup- ,
porters of the odious system of slavery, and on the ,
friends of freedom in this country to exert themselves in
promotion of the cause of abolition in the United States.
Ile expressed his gratitude to Mr. G. Thompson for his
noble endeavours on behalf of enslaved humanity. He hail
had ample opportunities of judging of his real in the good
work, and knew that he had not only protected the fugi-
tive slaves from falling back into the hands of their task-
masters, but had afforded them with a ready hand the most
substantial assistance. In conclusion, he introduced to the
meeting the Rev. E. Matthews, who had suffixed not
little in tho cause of emancipation.
The Rev. E. mArrii EWS gave a most distressing pic-
ture of the degraded condition of the slaves in the United
Stases, and related a few of his experiences in his endea-
vours, as a missionary, to spread hiformatioa upon abolition
principles. Ile had fallen at one time into the hands
of a mob of white people in the state of Kentucky.
They had ordered hint to leave the place within Id minate,,
and while he was endeavouring to escape had 'Rol at him
without effect five or six times. A portion of the same mob
had subsequently overtaken hint, and threatened either to
shoot, drown, whip, tar and feather, or hang hint, and had
actually thrown him into a pond 10 times. On each occa-
sion he had to swim out to save his life, and nu sooner had
he reached the bank than ho was thrown back into the
water. (Shame.) Lefore he d got rid of the parties he
hail been obliged to promise that he would leave the state
of Kentucky immediately, and net er return to it. Ile Con-
• eluded by urging the importance of the English churches
bringing their influence to bear on the churches of America,
in order to hasten the overthrow of the inhuman traffic.

(Cheers.)
Mr. GEORGE THOMPSON, who was received with
I deafening shouts of applause, said he felt proud of the pod-
. tion in which he stood that night. There would be a
' good moral lesson taught by that meeting. Such a
meeting as that had yet to be held over the wide
continent of America. It would startle the whole of
America, from the banks of St. Louis to the banks
of the Sacramento, and from the Atlantic to the
i Pacitie. But here, in the metropolis of England, midway
oetwemt the Mansion-house and the Dank of England—in •
the Hall of Commerce—(cheers)—in the City of London—
' was held a free meeting, and presiding over that free meet-
ing was a black man—(loud applause)—the insulted, the
!scorned, the hated, the hunted, of perfidious and guilty
America. (Cheering.) There (pointing to one of the fugitive
slaves) sat a proof, and on the other side of him additional
proofs (alluding to other fugitive slaves and to two daughters
of the chairman, who sat on the platfonn)—that the
republic of America, as far as the whites were concerned,
was but one great criminal conspiracy for the enslavement
of an entire cation—a nation insulted within a nation, and
by men who dared to take the name of Franklin and
Adams, not anticipating the day when they worfel come in
view of them in the world beyond the grave—when the
• shades of these men would frown upon them, and we them
, hurled to that depth below the deepeg, where the perfidi-
ous republican sinners would find their reward. (Loud
I and continued cheering.) America was sin impious nation
—an atheistical nation. The hun. gentleman then made
a few further remarks upon the general question of slavery,
and urged the organisation of the frivoils of the negro
in London, in order to forward the extinction of slavery in
the United States. While they demanded political (ree-
-1 duns for their brethren at home, the would have personal
freedom fur their brethren abroad. (Loud cheering.)
i The meeting was afterwards ad reseed by Mr. JAMPaI
Gouuu, Mr. SI'ENITIL T. HALL Mr. 1:011EKT SMITH, and
others, and an appeal on behalf of the fugitive slaves was
unanimously adopted.
Mr. G. 'Chomps= introduced to the meeting two
interesting necro girls' daughters of the chairman, who had
come across with him from America. They were received
with loud applauw, and seemed evidently affected by the
warm greeting they received.
Votes of thanks having been passed to Mr. W. L. Garri-
son and his compeers in America, to Mr. G. Thompson and
to the Chairman, the meeting broke up.

CLEOPATRA'S NEEDLE AT ALEXANDIILL—In a
memoir in the Builder of to-day, on Ecyptian obelisks,
with proposals in detail for bringing to Enrland that called
Cleopatra's Needle, Mr. Nathaniel Gould, the writer, says
—.l feel persuaded that the removal and transport of this
large mass to London is both practicable and comparatively
easy, and to be accomplished within one-fourth of the time
expended on the same operation by the French, which was
three years and a half from the sailing of the vessel to the
erection of the column in Faris, and about tour years and a
half from the commencement of building the La‘quor ; and
I am prepared with a plan fur its execution, and to enter
into contract, either on my own account or conjointly, for
performing the same within nearly one-fourth of the time,
and at nearly one-fourth of the actual cost of the removal
of that of Luxor by the French, which could not hare been
less than from 3i,b00/. to 40,000/." In a note the editor
remarks, that " the writer urges, with justice, that the
feeling manifested with respect to the Great Exhibition
shows that the public would now appreciate the erection in
London of the ancient obelisk belunzin_; to them, and that
the pecuniary SUCre,ll of the Exhibition otters the means of
indulging the public taste, without calling un the Chancellor
of the Exchequer."
HURRICANE IN FRANCE. lite Journal de la
Nierre says : " We were far from having been aware of the
full extent of the disasters caused by the late hurricane
when we spoke of it two days back. the Prefect, who at
once visited the communes which were devastated, is de-
scribed as having been much shocked at what he saw, and
he immediately issued a proclamation calling on the public
to get up a subscription in aid of thou, who have been left
destitute. He himself, the bishop, the receiver-general, and
the engineer-in-chief, subscribed 200 f. each. Among the
scenes described to us are those which took place at Asuan.
A number of the inhabitants were there in the fields getting
in the harvest, when in an instant a Mal of black clouds vil-
lected over them, and, almost before they could run for shel-
ter, they found themselves enveloped in a sort of whirlwind
of large hail, which prevented their seeing, and bruised
their bodies most severely. The wind then rose to a perfect
hurricane, and several persons were flung by it to the
ground with violence. Every one endeavoured to find
shelter under a range of lofty Chesnut trees which grew
near, but the impetuosity of the wind became such that
nothing could resist it, and the largest tree, were torn up
by the roots. Au elderly man, who had seated himself in
the hollow of a gigantic tree, was suddenly dashed to the
ground under the immense trunk, and killed by its weight,
his wife and children standing near under another tree and
unable to assist him. Nut far off another tree was turn up
by the roots, and thrown down on a woman who was stand-
ing under it with her child in her arms. By good foreune
she fell in a hollow of the ground, and so was saved. It
however took upwards of an hour's work to extricate her.
The child did seat receive even a scratch. We have been
informed that the church of Montenoison has been com-
pletely destroyed, and that two children were killed in that
commune by the whirlwind, Just as we arc going to press
wellearn that the Minister of Commerce has sent, as a first
assistance, a sum of 6,000 fr., and the Minister of the
Interior 1,000 fr."

THE CANTERBURY ASSOCIATION.—Yesterday a
bill, now in the Commons, was printed, to kilter and amend
• former act relating to the Canterbury Association, New
Zealand. By this measure bye laws for the regu,ation of
the association may be made, land disposed of for public
purposes, and fur the furtherance of the interest, of the
Canterbury Association.