The Sun.
London, England, 1830-05-17 00:00:00

ANTI-SLAVERY SOCIETY.

A General Meeting of the Friends of this Society
was held on Saturday, at the Freemasons' Tavern.
&ion after the hourannouneed for opening the doors,
the great room became crowded to excess in every
part, and the utmost difficulty was experienced in
introducing the speakers and other persons who came
to take part in the proceedings, but who arrived
later, to the platform.
Among the Noblemen and Gentlemen present in
the course of the day we observed Lord Calthorp,
Lord Milton, the Bishop of Bath and Wells, Mr.
Brougham, Mr. Denman, Mr. Macauley, Mr. T.
Macauley, Mr. E.Buxton, Mr. Rice, Mr. 0. Cave,
Mr. Brownlow, Mr. O'Connell, Rev. D. Wilson,
Mr. R. Owen, Mr. W. Smith, Hon. and Rev.
G. T. Noel, Hon. and Rev. W. B. Noel, Dr. Lush-
ington, and Mr. Clarkson.
On the motion of Mr. CLARKSON, Mr. WILBER-
FORCE was called to the chair.
The CHAIRMAN said, he bad the satisfaction of
thinking that it could not be necessary for him tof
detain the meeting long with any observations or
his, inasmuch as he trusted that the purpose foo
which they had assembled had sunk so deeply rots
the hearts of all present as to render many remark
from the chair on the subject of 'the meeting need-
less. It was impossible for him to meet his old
friend, Mr. Clarkson, after a long interval, without
finding his mind occupied (as no doubt his friend's
mind was also) in looking back to earlier days of
their labours and warfare in the good cause. In that
warfare his friend had preceded him. When the pro-
position was first made to the House of Com-
mons to abolish the slave trade—when the
light was first let in upon that vale of dark-
ness—every one said, " Let it be abolished." But
see the danger of trifling with the honest con-
victions of the mind; by degrees self-interest began
to operate, and the ardour at first felt for the total
extinction of the horrible traffic was abated. Under
the patronage of the late Mr. Dundas, (the first
Lord Melville), the gradual abolition of the slave-
trade was proposed to be adopted. He (Mr. Wil-
berforce) saw at once the danger of such a step, and
believing that he ought to contend for an entire, in
preference to a partial, eradication of the evil, he re-
sisted the proposition. Mr. Dundas maintained that
it was right to attend to the West India interest in
any course that might be taken upon the subject.
In 1792, he proposed the death-warrant of the sys-
tem should be signed, which, however, was to be
continued in operation for eight years longer. In
fact, it was proposed that from the Ist of January,
1800, not only should the slave-trade be abolished,
but that every nego born after that day should be
considered free. He had since frequently asked him-
self, " Ought I not to have assented to Mr. Dun-
das's proposition ?" But the answer of his mind
had ever been in the negative. Parliament being
willing to abolish the slave-trade for ever, it was re-
quired that we should give our consent to its exist-
ence for eight years longer; that we should sanc-
tion the carrying across the Atlantic of 70,000 or
80,000 individuals in a state of slavery, and the con-
tinuance of them and their descendants for ever, in
that condition. (So we understood the Hon.
Gentleman to say, but he spoke in so feeble a tone,
that although occupying a place at a short distance
behind the Chair, we could not always be certain of
his precise words.) If he ever could have assented
to such a proposition, at least he could not do so
now, when he found that they who, from time to
time, had made concessions retracted them. He
and his friend Mr. Clarkson went on their way
cheered by the consciousness of labouring in a good
cause. Already :had they achieved one triumph ;
he trusted they might both live to see the comple-1
tion of their great object. There was now no longer
time for delay, or 'for attempting half measures; on ,
the contrary, it was the duty of all to be in earnest,
and to show that they were in earnest. Mr. Dun-
des could not be charged with being a wild reformer,
or one led astray by visionary and theoretical
schemes. He was no such man; on the contrary,
he was the enemy (though generous and liberal
in his heart) of every thing that looked that way,
of every thing that the most prudent could term
extravagant. According to his system, the death-
blow was to have been given to slavery in l 800 ; and
yet, now that 30 years had elapsed since that period,
there was nothing done; and we were now told we
could only look for the accomplishment of our ob-
ject through a long vista of possible disappointments
and certain obj ections. In 1823 another step was
taken for the purpose of carrying into effect the de-
sirable object we had in view : in that year Mr.
Canning entered into aegociations with all the prin-
cipal West India proprietors, or their agents, resident
in this country, for the purpose of effecting a mate-
rial alteration in the state of things in the West In-
dies; and the result was, that all the leading and
influential men of that body, not only assented to
the measures (with one single exception) which he
proposed, but recommended them to the adoption of
their correspondents and fellow planters in the dif-
ferent islands of the West Indies. One might have
thought that Mr. Canning's propositions (many of
them highly important if acted on) would have been
accepted, particularly as they came recommended
to the parties by the advice and concurrence of their
own friends. But no such thing ; they contuma-
ciously rejected all the proposals, scarcely one single
colonial Assembly adopted any one of them. But
this was not all; after the consent that had been
given to Mr. Cunning's measures by the proprietors
in this country, how painful was it to have lived to
see those very planters, after their declaration in
favour of the wisdom and moderation of the mea-
sures, turn round, and not only retract that decla-
ration, but also declare the conduct of the planters
in the West Indies in resisting them, not only
wise and prudent, but actually humane. He
feared there was a disposition in the minds of
many in high station in the Government of this
country to leave the slaves in the hands of
the planters. This was a melancholy reflection;
for was it possible to believe any thing but this,—
that the only endeavour of the colonial assemblies,
and of those whom they represented, was to get into
the management of the affair for the purpose of
Mocking the hopes and frustrating the designs of
England ? After these renewed specimens of what
their intentions were, it would be a want of com-
mon sense not to see tl.at there could be no hope of
good by putting the management of the affair into
their jiands. When men said they disapproved
equally of the point you were travelling towards,
andllteWaryou took to reach it, was there any pos-
sibility asi ,agreement? Under such circumstances,
we must not transfer to others, least of all to the
West Indian interests, the performance of a duty
devolved by Providence upon ourselves. Convinced
he was that it was equally our duty to God and
man to endeavour to put an end to this system by
all the means within our power. It was said the
slaves were the happiest people in the world, much
happier indeed than our own peasantry,—a disgust-
ing a,sertion, for how could that man be happier
than a free man who was in 'rant of all those bless-
ings which liberty afforded ? When he heard per-
sons of high rank and station maintaining such a
Proposition, he always thought, however high their
condition in life, that they wanted true nobility of
mind. If the slave was indeed happy in his situ-
ation, why was he so ready to give all that he could
serape together, all his little earnings, for the pur-
Pose of purchasing his own freedom or that of his
family ? By the way, in doing so he manifested
more true nobility of mind than those who could
speak so lightly of slavery. We must exert our-
selves by prayer and endeavouis, by speech and ac-
tion, private and public, at all times, and upon all
occasions, to put an end to the system. If we did
not, there was a power above that would not allow
this country to continue to enjoy the blessings and
privileges which it had long possessed : our sky was
loweting; if we went on trifling with the rights and
liberties of others, the Almighty would not suffer
us to enjoy our own. It wits impossible that the
colonial assemblies could safely be left to do the
work : we must do it ourselves : it was our bounden

duty to set ourselves to work in earnest, by bring-
ing to the contest all our best energies, for the pur-
pose of putting an end to so flagrant and afflicting
an evil.

Mr. F. BUXTON said, when he saw what numbers
were present, and by what persons he was surround-
ed, he could not help feeling that it might appear
presumptuous in him to step forward for the pur-
pose of moving the first resolution : but he did so
in obedience to the commands of the principal
friends of the society, and as the organ of the Com-
mittee, who had certain facts to state and certain
opinions to propound, which they called upon him
to explain. But first he must congratulate the
meeting, that he who so long had been the leader,
the chief and the pride of their good cause, still conti-
nued to cheer them with his presence, and that they
had this day heard from lips that had so often
pleaded the cause of Africa, advice, encourage-
ment, and instruction, in what manner to pro-
ceed. He felt the time to be come in which
they must speak out; they had hitherto been re-
strained by a faint and slender hope that the plant-
ers would take the matter in hand, and at least
awake to a sense of their own true interests. In
1823, exactly upon that day seven years, Govern-
ment took the question in hand, and gave us a so-
lemn pledge that such steps should be taken as would
eventually give the negro population a participation
in all the rights and privileges of freemen. The
determination was announced to, and approved by
the Houses of Lords and Commons,—the West In-
dia interests—and it was heard and hailed with
grateful delight by the public. Was it too much to
expect that the proposition would have been recei red
with decent compliance, if not with cordiality, by
the colonial assemblies ? What was their answer to
it ? Their verbal answer came first :—Jamaica said
she had done her utmost—she had made her people
the happiest peasantry in the world, and she would
" go no further." The little island of Tobago said
to Great Britain, " There is our ultimatum ; nothing
shall induce us to go further." These were the an-
swers of the colonies in words; their acts were still
more intelligible and decisive. The first direction
of the order in council was, that the shocking and
unseemly practice of chastising females with the
cart-whip should be abolished, as the first step from
a state of barbarism to civilization. Had this first
step been taken ? In Jamaica there was at least
found one individual in the colonial assembly
who had the courage to propose, not the aboli•
tion of the punishment of females by the cart-
whip, but that such punishment should, in future,
be inflicted decently. The proposition was nega-
tived, and it was resolved by a majority of two to
one that female slaves should continue to be flogged
indecently. " Next in importance," said Mr. Can-
ning, " is the abolition of the wanton and degrading
use of the whip to excite negroes to labour—a
practice placing them on a level with the cattle of
the field.' In reference to this, it was true an or-
dinance had been passed in Jamaica, nominally to
prevent arbitrary punishment, but which allowed
the infliction of 39 lashes by the cart-whip--equal
to 500 lashes of the cat-o'nine-tails. The third
point was the instruction of the negroes in the
Christian religion—and this was prevented by diffi-
culties raised as to the time of instruction. The
last point embraced in the regulation was, that the
negro should be entitled to purchase his own free-
dom, or that of his family, by paying the full market
price of it. This, too, was rejected. Thus we had
the answer of the colonies in words and actions
which they had omitted to do; but we had a still
better answer in the acts which they had done. In
Demerara occurred the murder of the missionary
Smith; in Barbadoes the destruction of a Metho-
dist chapel; in Berbice we had the report of the
fiscal of the colony ; and from the Bahamas came the
story of the Mosses. From Jamaica came a distinct
answer in the pretended plots and fabricated rebel-
lions, which were brought to light and discovered in
Parliament by his Hon. Friend Mr. Denman, who
extorted from an unwilling House of Commons a
vote of condemnation of them. We had another
answer in the deportation of free people of colour;
and at this moment they were preparing for us a
further and equally intelligible answer in the perse-
cution of the teachers of the negroes : one missionary
had already fallen a victim, arid another had returned
to his native land with health broken by persecu-
tion. We were brought to this point,—shall we
abandon the cause of the negroes, and commit
800,000 fellow-creatures to the well-known tender
mercies of the planters, or shall we strike a blow at
the root of slavery ? There could be only one an-
swer. it was said we did not understand the ques-
tion, and were enthusiasts. Certainly we were en-
thusiasts in this—that we did not wish the negro,
whom we considered as a man, to be treated like a
beast. To whom did the right to the negroes be-
long ? It was said, some years ago, that the slave
trade was the birth-right of the West Indian colo-
nists ; but he thought this principle would not be
contended for now. Thirty years ago there arose a
set of theologians, who found out that the negroes
were the descendants of Ham, and that their
slavery was authorized by the oracles of God.--
But this position, also, had been given up as un-
tenable. In point of fact, the only claim of the
planters to the negroes consisted in the slave-
trade; in other words, robbery, murder, and mas-
sacre, constituted the right and title-deeds of
the West India planters to their slaves. To
come to the point—what were we to do ? He
thought we must aim at the extinction of slavery.
He did not want to disparage the plan of mitigating
slavery, but that would not do : to use the words
of Mr. Burke, it was all anent trifling, and wanted
an executory principle. Slavery, in any form, was
horrible; and so little did he think of amelioratory
measures, that if the colonies now offered to obey
the Order in Council, striking out the words "even-
tual participation in equal rights and privileges," he,
for one, would oppose it. He was not an advocate
for emancipation. It was said that slaves were so
degraded, that it would not be safe to liberate them
at present. Granting this, what greater argument
could there be against slavery, than that it placed
human beings in so degraded a state as to be unfit
for liberty; but if the parents were unfit for liberty,
the unborn children were not under that disqualifi-
cation. The first thing was to aim at the extinc-
tion of slavery, by cut dng off the supply; and
though there might be difficulties in this course,
they were not insurmountable, for it was much
easier to prepare a child for freedom than for slavery.
Leave it to nature, and nature would do much.
Give the child instruction, and you prepare him for
society; give him religion, and you lay the founda-
tion of his happiness and your own security. The
process by which children were made slaves was
much more circuitous. It required years of blows
and stripes before you could teach them the unna-
tural docility of that situation. We should deal
with the planters fairly ; and he said at once, that
they had no claim to remuneration for the negro
from the friend of the negro. The negroes had
claims against the planters and against their accom-
plice—the British Government. However, when
the time arrived, he was sure we should be as
anxious to afford liberal justice to the master, as to
give freedom to the slave. The Hon. Gentleman
then concluded by moving a resolution in accord-
ance with his speech.
Lord MILTON seconded the resolution, and ob-
served that slavery was repugnant to Christianity,
which was a religion of liberty ; it was not only in-
consistent with the existence of Christianity in the
possessors of slaves, but with the reception. of
Christianity in these who were subject to these
masters. The resolution contemplated the utter
extinction of slavery. He observed in the Times
of that morning an attack (but he ought not to call
it an attack of the Times, for it was beaded " Ad-
vertisement"), charging Mr. Wilberforce with in-
consistency because he now claimed the extinction
of slavery, having in earl er life demanded only the
extinction of the slave-trade. In point of fact, there
was no inconsistency, and the attack was as futile
as unitise—The resolution was a:greedto.
Mr. MACAULEY, jun., in proposing the second
resolution, declared that his opinion of the principle

of compensation fully agreed with that of his Von.
Friend Mr. Buxton. He the; proceeded to cot.-
tend that the effect of slavery was to diminish popu-
lation, and that it was a mistake to say that the com-
forts of the slave would keep pace with the prosperity
of the master. To assert such a proposition was to
reason from the phenomena of liberty to the pheno-
mena of slavery. It might well be said that the
post horse at an election was benefitted by increased
travelling, which added to the profits of the master,
and in the same degree increased the labours and
diminished the comforts of the post-horse. The
reasoning which applied to the post-horse also ap-
plied to the slave,—the human beast of burden. He
then moved the second resolution.

Lord CALTHORP said, if we contrasted what
was expected from the West India interest with
what had been done, we should have reason to be
miserably disappointed. But he turned with satis-
faction and confidence from this consideration to the
well-grounded expectation of the abolition of slavery,
which we possessed in the feelings of the English
people. The power of public opinion, if unani-
mous upon the point, must be irresistible. He was
no advocate for mob law, but felt that, in appealing
to the people of this country on such a subject, he
appealed to a power which could be legitimately ex-
ercised, and which was equally irresistible from
physical, political, and moral force. The Noble
Lord concluded by seconding the resolution, which
was carried unanimously.
Mr. HUNT next addressed the meeting. He
said he hoped he might be permitted to express his
sentiments at the risk of their not being altogether
palatable to the majority of .his hearers.—(Di,ap-
probation.)—He was not the enemy of negro eman-
cipation; on the contrary, he had ever been its ad-
vocate : but he thought the enemies of slavery bad
much employment at their own doors without going
to the West Indies for objects for their sympathies.
—(Hisses and " Off," " off.")—He was not to be
put down by clamour. He was an Englishman, and
not a negro slave, and had a right to express his
opinions, and would assert that right.
Here the clamour increased so much, that
Mr. BROUGHAM rose to order. He trusted that
he was addressing a rational assembly, and not one
so borne away by passion that a fair hearing to
those who conscientiously differed from them in
opinion would not be afforded. The Hon. and
Learned Gentleman implored the meeting to give
every person a calm and fair hearing, otherwise it
would he justly felt as a censure on their proceed-
ings that they would hear but one side.—(Hear.)
Mr. HUNT resumed.-1-ie was not, he expected,
an enemy of negro emancipation. Far from it; he
cordially concurred with the sentiments of the
speakers who had preceded him—(Cheers)—for he
was the enemy of tyranny in every quarter of the
globe, be the victim of the instrument who and where
he might. But still he was not to be led away by
artful appeals to the passions of the meeting in favour
of the negro slaves in the West Indies, from the
consideration of the state of the white slaves in his
native England. Mr. F. Buxton had, with a view
to inflaming their sympathies, told them of the
cruelties which had been practised towards a poor black
slave girl, and highly coloured statements were
daily put forth of the harsh treatment and de-
graded condition of the negro population of our West
Indian colonies; but did they never hear of the at
least equally harsh treatment and degraded condition
of the poor at home ? Did they ever hear of the
cruelties which he was himself instrumental in
bringing to light, as practised in Ilchester gaol ? A
man was tied down almost naked for a fortnight to
the floor, and a blister, in the shape of a pitch
plaster, put on his head by the governor! And yet,
when he called the attention of Parliament, by peti-
tion, to the enormous cruelty, some of the most
zealous of the friends of the negroes denied the fact.
Among others, an Hon. and Learned Gentleman
(Mr. Brougham) near him, on the ground that it was too
atrocious to have been practised in this country in these
civilized times. But he proved it beyond a question of
doubt ; and he was bound to say the Hon. and Learned
Gentleman admitted that he was deceived when, on a
former occasion, he questioned the truth of the statement.
--(Hear, hear.)—What if this torture had been inflicted
in the West Indies on some poor slave ! What speeches
and appeals to our best feelings; and yet he had great diffi-
culty in getting any body to notice it.—(Hear.)—They
ought not, in the excess of their philanthropy, he con-
tended, to overlook the tyrannical practices towards, and the
degraded condition and the sufferings of, our own poor, in
their long-sighted zeal to ameliorate the condition of the
negroes in the West Indies. It was but one-eyed or left-
handed humanity, to say the least of it, though unfortu-
nately that which found most encouragement from meet-
ings like the present. In the very neighbourhood of the
residence of the Right Reverend Prelate (Bishop of Bath
and Wells) near him, at Frome, in Somersetshire, he saw
last winter hundreds of poor in a condition far inferior to
that of the Waves in the West Indies. They were there
compelled—he said compelled, for they would starve if
they dared refuse—to drag carts, to which men, women,
and children were yoked, for sixpence a day the married,
and fourpence a day the single labourer. Who ever heard
any complaint of this disgraceful state of things from
those who were so zealous and eloquent in their, he ad-
mitted, laudable advocacy of the rights of the black slaves
in the colonies ?—(Disapprobation.)
The Rev. DANIEL WitsoN proposed the next resolu-
tion, He did so, he said, on the great broad principle on
which he would rest the measure they had all in view,
namely, that slavery was opposed to the spirit of the Gos-
pel. Christianity was the religion of love—brotherly
love and equality in the eyes of the Lord ; and so long as
the negro-slave was kept in his degraded condition, neither
he nor his master could participate entirely of its healing
fruit.

Mr. BENNET was enabled to speak as an eye-witness of
the deplorable state in which the present system of slavery
placed the poor negroes in the West India colonies. lie
saw men, honourable and respectable in all the conventional
relations of life, coolly traffic in their slaves as if they were
so many animals to whom was denied the inheritance of
an immortal soul. Female negroes were placed in the
condition of mothers, solely to increase their market value,
and all moral and religious ties were broken to suit the
views of Mammon. Mr. Bennet quoted some cases in
detail which had fallen under his own observations, illus-
trative of his general statement.
Mr. BROWNLOW, M.P., proposed the next resolution.
In doing so, he said that he felt that no apology was ne-
cessary for him, except an apology for being there for the
first time ; but he hoped, that in future he should not be
open to censure for absence. After adverting to a resolu•-
tion moved by Mr. Dundas in the year 1800, he said that
the time had at length arrived when the people of England
should, acting practically upon that resolution, come for-
ward and say that slavery should cease—they had tried the
colonial legislatures long enough, and now the Parliament
of the mother country was boorai to take the matter into
their own hands.

Mr. BROUGItAIt had never seen, great as was his expe-
rience in public meetings, a meeting at once so numerous
(2,000 persons), so respectable, and so unanimous in the
pursuit of the one great object—the abolition of the de-
testable, the degrading, the demoralizing—alike to the
victim and the instrument, the slave and his master—prac-
tice of negro slavery.—(Cheers.)—He was particularly
glad of this unanimity and this zeal ; for never was their
aid more necessary to the interests of the great cause for
the promotion of which they were then assembled. Seven
years had elapsed since Parliament had passed certain reso-
lutions in favour of our negro brethren in the West Indies,
and yet what had been done by the local legislature and the
planters towards carrying the spirit of these resolutions into
effect? Let the murder of the missionary Smith answer
the question.—(Hear, hear.)—ln tact, nothing would be
done but through the voice of the British people speaking
as one man, and calling upon Parliament by one decided
measure to:put an end forever to slavery, and the monstrous
brood of evils whish it engendered.—(Cheers.)—He
trusted that the pledge which every one who then heard
him gave by his presence to apply his 'best energies to the
advancement of the great cause of the human race would
have the effect of eliciting such an expression of public
opinion, that the whole system of slave labour and its de-
moralizing consequences would be eradicated for ever.—
The Hon. and Learned Gentleman next proceeded to defend
the party with whom he usually acted in forwarding
the views of the anti-Slavery Society from the imputation
thrown out against them by Mr. Hunt ; that they neglected
evils at home while they busied themselves with the
abuses under the slave labour system of the colonies. Did
the gentleman, he asked, recollect, when he branded their
exertions as a kind of one-eyed or left-handed humanity,
the names of those most distinguished for zeal against
negro slavery ? Did he ever hear who, indeed, had not
heard of William Allen ?-.a man who had devoted the

unceasing energies of his life to the education of the
peasantry of England.—(Cheers.) The Hon. Gentleman
also alluded to the state of our prisons. In doing so,
was it possible to forget the incalculable services of Mr.
Fowel Buxton ?—( Hear, hear.) Did he forget the
labours, the unremitting labours, of Mr. Wilberforce, their
venerable chairman, in the cause of humanity ?—(Cheers.)
Did he forget what that geutleman had done towards
remedying the abuses of charities, in which it was also his
(Mr. Brougham's) good fortune to afford him some assist-
ance ?—( Cheers.) Even on the question of reform, did
he forget that Mr. Wilberforce, as well as himself, had
voted for every proposition in favour of that measure
which had been submitted to Parliament since he had been
a Member of it, except one ?—(Hear.) In a word, let
the gentleman look around him, and he would see the
warmest friends of every measure likely to promote the
general weal among those who had that day assembled to
effect the abolition of negro slavery.
Mr. PowNALL proposed, as an amendment on the last
resolution, a resolution to the effect that Parliament should
pass a measure by which every negro born after the Ist of
January, 1831, should be declared free.—(Cheers.)—
They ought not, he contended, to separate without ex-
pressing a decided opinion that there should be an end to
the accursed system of slavery.—(Hear, hear.)—They
should strike at the root of the evils at once, and instead of
mincing and huckstering about minor points, of good and
bad treatment, assert and insist upon. for the negro the
inalienable right of every British subject.—(Cheers.)
Mr. H. DRUMMOND, in supporting the amended re-
solution, experienced great difficulty in restraining the feel-
ings of indignation which the thought of the infamous
system of negro slavery excited. The friends of humanity
had slept too long on their posts, while the enemy never
slackened his endeavours to perpetuate the present abuse
by which his avarice was fostered. Indeed, he feared that
till some black O'Connell, or an African Bolivar, devoted
his unceasing energies to effecting the emancipation of his
negro brethren, the condition of the West India slaves
would never be that which every well-wisher of his species
must wish to see them placed in.—(Hear, hear.)
Mr. BROUGHAM implored the meeting not to permit
itself to be carried away too hastily by its passions, how-
ever laudable and natural might be their source. What
did the resolution of Mr. Pownall—which the meeting
had hailed with such enthusiastic acclamation—call upon
Parliament to effect? Why, that after the Ist of next
January every negro born should be free.—(Loud cheers.)
Now he could assure the meeting that there was no open
day for the introduction—the very first stage of the mea-
sure by which that declaration would be made law—before
the middle of the next month ; and as it could not be ex-
pected to pass either House without opposition, the sea-
son would be so far advanced before it could receive the
Royal sanction, that not more than four, or at most five,
months would remain between its enactment and its being
in force to inform and prepare the West Indians for it.—
(Hear, hear.) He need not say that he and the members
of the Anti-Slavery Society cordially concurred with the
principle of the resolution, since it was merely copied
from one they had themselves years ago recorded and sub-
mitted to Parliament ; all that he wished to deprecate was
their hastily fixing upon too near a day for its coming into
effect.—(Hear, hear.)

Mr. O'CoNNELL saw no difficulty in adopting the
amendment ; they could not expect to accomplish their
object all at once—let them make a beginning.—(Hear.)
They might fix the Ist of January, 1831 ; but the diffi-
culty the Hon. and Learned Gentleman who opposed the
amendment saw in the way of passing such a Bill would
never present itself practically ; for even if they agreed to
the 14th of April, 1532, a day which he had most
Pleasing reason to remember, yet, if they agreed to that
day, or even earlier, there would still be a cry of " You
are too hasty; you do not give time enough to educate the
young descendants of slaves before they come to man's
estate, and make them fit for freedom.—(Hear, hear.)--
The resolution was a distinct and tangible proposition,
upon which they should take their stand, and if they failed
in the struggle, they at least would have the consolation of
knowing that they had failed in attempting the spread of
freedom and religion.
Mr. F. Burrosi, M.P. read the resolution in an altered
form to the meeting, pledging it to petition Parliament to
proceed forthwith with such measures, as might be ne•
cessary for abolishing slavery, and praying that an early
day might be fixed, the children born after which to be
deemed free.—The resolution was ultimately adopted.
Mr. DENMAN and Dr. LUSHINCTON proposed and se-
conded the next resolution, and called upon the meeting
not to slacken its exertions till negro slavery, with all its
accursed evils, was not known in any part of the British
empire.

Thanks having been given with acclamation to the
Chairman, the meeting, a most highly respectable and
crowded one, broke up about six o'clock.

UNIVERSITY OF LONDON.

On Saturday prizes and certificates of honours were dis-
tributed to those students of, the London University who,
on examination, had been found to possess the highest
acquirements in medical science.

The ceremony took place in the Theatre of the University,
which was crowded with spectators. Among others we
observed the Earl of Darnley, Lord Auckland, Lord John
Russell, Dr. Birkbeck, Major Carnac, Mr. Croly, Mr.
James Brougham, &c. _ _ _

Sir JAMES GRAHAM took the chair. He said he was
fully sensible that the seat he was that day called upon to
occupy would have been tilled much better by many of the
noble and learned persons by whom he found himself sur-
rounded, and he had, for that reason, felt some reluctance
in consenting to preside on this occasion ; but when it was
suggested by him that by so doing he might be of service
to an institution, the success of which he contemplated
with the most heartfelt gratification, he at once overcame
that reluctance. It was impossible that he should hesi-
tate for a moment after such an intimation ; for if there
were any means by which lie could contribute, even in the
slightest degree, to the aiivancernent of the interests of the
London University, nothing would give him greater plea-
sure than to employ those means for so desirable and so
laudable an object.—(Applause.)
The Warden then read the report of the Professors on the
state of the medical schools of the University. Great im •
overnents were spoken of in this document ; the number
of the students was represented to have increased consider-
ably, and the progress of the students in the various
blanches of medical science was declared to have surpassed
the expectations of the Professors.

The mode in which the examination bad been con-
ducted, and the prices and honours awarded, as also the
manner in which they were about tc be distributed, were
described as below, the Warden adding this explanation,
namely, that no student who had gained a prize in one
class in a former year was competent to claim the same
prize in the same class in the next year, even though he
should again be found to possess the highest merit. In
such a case, therefore the prize would be given to the stu-
dent next in merit to the candidate whose former success
had disqualified him from again receiving it.
following are the names of the successful candi-
dates for the medals :

NATURE AND TREATMENT OF DISEASES-106 StUdentB,
GOLD MEDAL.—MT. F. H. Taylor, of Tortola.
SILVER MEDALS.—
I. Mr. H. 0. Stephens, of Bristol.
2. Mr. R. Garner, of Stattbrcishlre.

ANATOMY-179 Stu.dents.
GOLD MEDAL.—Mr. E. Merrion, of Rye, Sussex.
SILVER MEDALs.—
1. Mr. H. Cooper, of 'rranby, near Hull.
12. Mr. T. Bidwell, of Penzance.

PiIYSIOLOGY-148 SCudents.

GOLD MEDAL.—Mr. W:OaWs, ofDryclough, Lancashire.
SILVER MEDALS.--
rI. Mr. H. Cooper, of Tranby, near Hull.
2. Mr. T. G.Wright, of Stockton-upon-Tees.
SURGERY-96 Students.
GOLD MEDAL.—Mr. H. . of Staffordshire.

SILVER MEDALS..
rl. Mr. W., Evans, of Dryclough, Lancashire
1,2. Mr. H. Cooper, of Tranby, near Hull.