The Sun.
London, England, 1863-10-21 00:00:00

VELLUM MANUSCRIPT OF VIRGIL.

AMANUSCRIPT COPY of THE XNEID,
on Vellum, and of the Xlllth Century, has recently
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lost the same may obtain further particulars by applying to
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The Rev, Henry Ward Beecher on England

and America,

One of the most imposing demonstrations that have oc-
curred for many years at Exeter Hall took place last night,
to hear the lecture of the Rev. H. W. Beecher on the pre-
sent unhappy condition of America. Before the doors were
opened at half-past 6, the entrances in the Strand and
Exeter-street were crowded by thousands, and when the
doors were open a fearful rush took place, happily without
any accident to life or limb. The large room was crowded to
overflowing in a few minutes, so that the vast multitude
outside who were toiling and surging here and there to ob-
tain an entrance were obliged to go away disappointed.
Curious enough the leading members of the committee, and
even Mr. Beecher himself, had great difficulty in forcing
their way through the anxious crowds that blocked up the
doors. Some disturbance of the proceedings was expected,
in consequence of it being well known that a number of
persons having what are called " Southern proclivities"
were in the room, but happily everything passed off quietly,
and the rev. gentleman was permitted with scarcely any in-
terruption to continue his eloquent address, which lasted
nearly two hours. At 7 o'clock the chair was taken by Ben-
jamin Scott, Esq., City Chamberlain, who was supported
by the following gentlemen :—G. Thompson, Esq., Dr.
Haley, Dr. Holland, Rev. H. Allen, P.D., John Kaye,
Esq., Revs. J. Hinton, W. Tyler, J. C. Galloway, J. H.
Byrnes, W. Dunkerley, Dr. Bunting, Dr. Jobson, A. Ray,
Leigh, J. Spark, Selim Martin, J. Spong, W. Cuthbert, J.
B. French, Dr. Campbell, G. Wilkins, W. Brock, H. J.
Bebies, Dr. Hales, Professor Newman, Messrs. Newth, J.
Cassell, Washington Wilks, Edmond Beales, Wm. Spicer,
J. W. Willans, J. Richardson, C.C., Rev. Newman Hall,
Sir Charles Fox, James Beale, &c.
As there were loud cries of "Time, time," and some im-
patience otherwise manifested as Mr. Beecher did not make
his appearance,
The CHAIRMAN rose, and begged they would allow him
to inform them that the crowds outside the building were so
dense that Mr. Beecher had not as yet been able to force his
way through, and they were thus prevented from being as
punctual as they should otherwise have been. It had been
with the greatest difficulty that himself and some members
of the committee forced their way into the building, and he
hoped therefore they would make allowance if they were a
few minutes behind time. He deeply regretted that Mr.
Bright was not present, to fill the chair—(hear)—and for
his own part he felt it his duty to state that it was not their
object that evening to discuss the great American struggle
now going on. (Hear.) There were many opportunities
for discussing that momentous question, and their object
then was to afford an opportunity tow distinguished stranger
to address them on an absorbing topic. (Cheers.) He was,
besides, a gentleman who, whatever opinions he may hold,
was entitled to their profound respect as the son of Dr.
Beecher and the brother of Mrs. Harriet Beecher Stowe.
(Cheers.) As a stranger visiting their shores who had par-
taken of their salt, as a man whether regarded as a minister
of religion, a gentleman, or the uncompromising advocate of
human rights, he was eminently entitled to their respect,
and deserved their courteous attention, (Cheers.) He was
quite sure therefore that this assembly of English men and
women would support him in obtaining for him that re-
spectful hearing which was so eminently his due. (Hear.)
That was the more nemssary as his feelings and opinions
were often misunderstood in this country, and perhaps mis-
represented, and as he was a stranger about to deport from
their shores in a few days, he asked for the opportunity of
putting himself tight with the London public. (Hear.)
They would then give him, he hoped, a patient hearing ;
and as for himself (the chairman), he abstained advisedly
from entering into a discussion of the question. The Rev.
Mr. Beecher, however, had been its unpromising advocate
for more than 25 years.
Hero the rev. gentleman entered the hall, and was re-
ceived with loud and long continued cheers. When silence
was obtained,

2he CHAIRMAN proceeded—He had been, as he said, its
uncomprising advocate for 25 years, in times of peace and
before the present war—for the emancipation of the op-
pressed—broke out, and at a time when only a few thinking
men on I he other side of the Atlantic were found advocating
that cause. (Cheers.) He would in conclusion introduce
to them the rev. gentleman.

The Rev. H. W. BEECHER. then came forward in front Of
the platform and was received in the most enthusiastic man-
ner,. When silence was somewhat restored, he thanked the
chairman (he said) for the very kind introduCtion he received
at his hands, ailcl which required a single word from him.
He Ahould have been glad if he thought he deserved all the
credit so generously ascribed to him by their worthy chair-
man; but he was not old enough to be the pioneer in a
cause in which such men as Wild and Stewart, and Perrin
and Smith, Lovett, and Wm. Lloyd Garrison, and that most
accomplished speaker in the world,Mr.Wendell Phillips,took
an active share. When he thought of the exertions made
by the benevolent class of Christians called " Friends ;"
when he thought of the number of men, obscure in station
and without name or position, who laboured from their
earliest days in the same good work—and he remembered
that he came in after all this had been done—he felt that
honours were given to him which he did net deserve, and
were not, therefore, warranted, because wrested from others
who deserved them better. (Cheers.) All he could say was,
that he fell into the ranks under the able captains who
directed the movement--that he fought as well as he could,
or as he knew how, Now, having said so much on that
point, and as that would be his last popular address in Eng •
land, he was anxious to give a short glance at his preceding
movements since his arrival. At Manchester he attempted
to give a glance at what had been going on between North
and South for the last 50 years, and to show that the present
American war was only an overt act of what had thus oc-
curred during the last half century. Ile also endeavoured
to show that the condition of the working or free labouring
population throughout the world must be deteriorated and
brought to a position of contempt and injury by the conti-
nuance of slave labour, and that consequently it interested
every free man on the face of the globe to have it finally
and for ever extinguished. (Rear.) Re contended that the
South was the natural enemy to free labour all over the
world. (Cheers, and No, no.) In Edinburgh he endeavoured

to prove that after the separation of the colonies from the
mother country there was created out of the separate colo-
nies and States thus growing up a nation of United States
totally distinct fromeachother as a general gover ent hav-
ing control over the finances and general resources Of the
entire, which the North now endeavoured to uphold and the
South abandoned, because that Government was wielded
and influenced by men who gave its influence and autho-
rity to the cause of freedom. In Liverpool he laboured—(a
laugh)—to show that slavery in the long run must he the
ruin of commerce and manufacture all the world over, be-
cause every one must be aware that a slave nation must bo
a poor customer, and consequently goods sold there must bo
at the very lowest profit. Ile also endeavoured to prove that
it was forthe interests of commerce and manufacture to pro-
mote in those countries the freedom of the human race, and
not to allow some of tbe
.farrest portions of the earth to
be treated in a manner which made them too poor to buy
anything. He had thus endeavoured to rouse the atten
just •
tion of the British people to a sense of their own in-
terests. He was aware that there were many circumstances
which now made it difficult for him to make what he would
term a balanced statement, so that no doubt should remain
that slavery was the cause—the only cause, and the solo
cause—of the gigantic and cruel war now going forward.
(Cheers.) He asked them to look at the question from un
American point of view; to take. their standing-point and
judge of their character and motives not from the enemy,
but what they said themselves. There had, he knew,.been
some disagreerrent in feeling' between Great Britain and
America, but he did not wait to argue that question now,
only that the people of this country should consider each
other's position. He did not want them to came to any de-
cided opinion upon the point, but merely to ask them to look
at the state of things is the same point of view that they
did, and let them form their judgments as they pleased.
Their present position in the North was their mistortune,
not their fault. It had been said over and over again that
by meddling will). slavery they would make things worse ;
-'et held that opinion, and never advocated the
nk those who were its upholders and pro
Then came the question between
• '-,ring in a slave State for every
and for that purpose,
they practised the
bribery, in
nted to

but hone`
patting on the
moters. (Hear, het...
the North and South of bra—.
free one admitted into the Unto.,
having possession of the Government,
most extensive bribery. It was bribery, bribe.,
every department in the State. They next atten.k.
change the Constitution through the means of Southet—
judges i and it was felt at last that if such proceedings were Ind