The Sun.
London, England, 1840-06-25 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, TRURSDAY, JUNE 25, 1840.

the parties will inflict punishment and suffering on the un-
fortunate negro.— ( Hear, hear.) It has been well said
that there is no ration on the face of the earth so fond of
liberty as the French. It may be a little exaggeration,
and not quite so satisfactory to humanity as to military
triumph, but the French having acknowledged that
slavery ought to terminate—that principle being et once
avowed, and England having set them the example, I
would like to encourage the old rivalry between England
and France on this topic. While Frenchmen arc talking
of emancipating, and talking in beautiful phraseology of
doing such and such things, that they intend to do it, and
are about to do it, John Bull has actually eman-
cipated them, Mr. Frenchman—( Great laughter)--and
that is the thing you ought to do.—(Cheers.) I do not
wish to discourage them, but I laugh to scorn their efforts.
I despise their exertions, if they attempt anything but
total and immediate emancipation.—( Cheers.) That is
the only rivalry except, in other good qualities, that I would
wish to exist between the two great nations of the world.
But we must cast our: eyes further, and what do we there
find? Why, countries bound by the faith of treaties, ob-
serving none of those treaties, for I am reluctantly, but by
the force of truth, compelled here to declare, that this
mighty sacrifice of twenty millions, this great and glorious
act of emancipation of 800,000 slaves, has been followed,
ley what ? By a most atrocious and enormous augmenta-
tion of the worst of crimes attending slavery—the slave
trade. The importation has been more than doubled,
the debts have been increased 25 per cent. The result of
our having emancipated slaves makes the produce of the
slave colonies more valuable, and the consequence
has been, that the slave trade has increased
enormously. All produce of course is lessened. If it di-
minished from nothing else, it would from the circumstance
that the negroes no longer suffered their women to labour
in the field.--( Hear, hear.) [Mr. Joseph Starge here
made a communication to Mr. O'Connell.] My phrase
perhaps was riot quite correct. The increase of the slave
trade did not commence with the abolition of slavery—it
commenced with the abolition by England of the slave
trade ; but it has dreadfully augmented since the period
when the English abolished slavery.—(Hear, hear.) We
have treated with the Brazils, with Spain, with Portugal.
The treaties are fine pieces of parchment to look at, em-
blazoned with the arms of monarchs; but in the mines of
Brazil, for instance, a great quantity of British capital is
employed, and there are British slave holders surrounding
us to the present moment. We have them in the House
of Commons. It was only this morning that I heard
something of the great friends of the Mauritius. I
am now in possession of the fact ; and if any of
them speak again in another place, depend upon
it I shall not be so mealy-mouthed as not to an-
nounce it. —( Cheers.) In proportion as we have acted
with humanity, other nations are acting with barbarity.
In Baltimore it is the fashion to build vessels called "clip-
pers;" they arc used for carrying on the slave-trade, and
they arc made shallow in order to get up the rivers, and
to sail with the greatest speed. He then came to the Texas
—that nest of banditti. The Mexican Government had
nobly done away with slavery—it nowhere existed in that
ceuntry. All at once a band of land pirates took their
slaves and rifles and robbed the Mexicans of their land.
He blushed to say that the King of the French had at last
acknowledged those robbers as a nation. He was sorry
that the talented individual who had been amongst them—
the representative of France, had retired; he (:Mr.
O'Connell) would have been happy that he had had it
in his power to tell him of that act of his King. It was
useless to talk of or to hope for the abolition of slavery in
the French colonies, while the King of France encou-
raged wholesale robbery, murder, and slavery in the Texas.
By the constitution of the country they had debarred
themselves from even discussing abolition for a number of
years, and even when they had expired, it could not be
done unless three-fourths of the people were in favour
of it. They might just as well hope to get three-
Jeurths of the people to cut their throats as to
agree to annihilate slavery.—( Laughter.) Another
principle of their constitution was, that they would cut
tie threats of every Indian in the territory—they would
not allow one of the aborigines to remain alive in the
land. Only lately six or seven of them had come in,
had been caught, and every one of them was murdered,
brutally murdered ; he was informed that he was much
underating the case—that in fact the murders amounted
to 30—that would entail more human suffering, but the
principle was the same. He was informed that they had
now twelve British subjects in slavery. `'l as it, could it
be possible ? There was no country in the world paid half
so much for being governed as England—(Cheers)—
they paid million alter million, but did any Government
deserve a farthing that would permit British subjects te
remain in slavery.—(Cheers.) Could it be a fact ? If
the atrocious crime was in existence, were not the Texians
at the mercy of England. Suppose they were to send
to the Mexicans a British Legion, the Texians would be
apt to surrender the twelve, and twice twelve if they bad
thorn.—(Mr. Joseph Sturge whispered to him.) A
friend of peace behind him, an illustrious friend of huma-
nity—(Cheers)—Joseph Sturge, had told him that the
Society recommended the use of none but peaceful, and
moral, and religious means. He (Mr. O'Connell) quite
agreed in all that, but the Texians were robbers—they
had stolen twelve of our fellow-sutjects, and it was quite
legal to catch and hang robbers and murderers. The, had
been guilty cf an atrocious robbery and many murders—
they must therefore be treated as such.' But, also c all,
that Meeting and that Society must speak out trurnF2t-
tongued, in order to deter the British Goiernment from
committing so foul a crime as to recognise them as a na-
tion. Let the Government of Europ., acknowleged one
slave-holding state, and all would he overrun, and ala-
i very would acquire a fearful increase. Oh, Gad forbiu
that they shoal ever be admitted into the scale of on.
tions. He then came to North America, and there, thank
. God, he fund much reason for congratulstion. Teen;
were now forty representatives of Abolition Societies in
Lyndon to aid them in the great struggle for human li-
h2rty.—( Cheers.) They bad heard a Learned and able
Judge describe the horrors of the internal s'are trade of
North America.—( Cheers ) Did they know who that
learned :aid noble man was ? He had Imen tl.:e proprietor "Grafton-street, June 23, 1840.
of slaves himself, but he had given them all their liberty. " Sir---i am en:tamely sorry flat the state of my health
—( Loud and conti,,ed cheers ) They had imerupted renders my attendance at the meeting of which you have
him. Ile not only did that, but a seco d given me notice, quite impossible. I need hareiy assure
batch came into his posssession -by patrimonial you that no one who attends it can feel ade :per interest in
descent. He was again the proprietor of slaves, but he its objects, or more heartily desire their successful attain-
emancipated then:.—( Cheers,) American abolitio:Asts went.
might indeed be proud with Judge Birney, of New Y.;rk, " I beg of you to present my humble duty to his Royal
at their head. Let them be honoured its proportion as the Highness the Chairman, and explain the reason why I can-
slave-holders were execrated. Oil I they had a hard not do myself the honour of attending his Royal Highness
battle to fight. In place of being honoured, as thoy were upon this occasion.
in this land, they had to encounter coolness and outrage; " I am, Sir, your obedient and humble servant,
the Bouie knife and Lynch law threatened them : they "To J. H. Trod gold, Esq., Secretary to tha British and
were abolitionists at the risk of their lives.,—(Che,..rs.) Foreign Anti-Slavery Society."
Glory to them. A year cr two since he made some observe- ( Signed) " BIiOUGHAM.
tions upon the conduct of the American Minister ;he Mr. CL. Rat SIOND, of the United States, a man of
charged him with breeding slaves for Bale ; he denied it; colour, then came forward, and said be would offer no other
and, in order to prove who was right, he sent ( Mr. apology for his appearance there than the simple fact that
O'Connell) a challenge to fight a duel.—( Laughter.) for the first time in his life he stood upon tire soil which a
He did not accept it. Nothing would ever induce hint slave had but to iread to become free—( Loud cheers)-_
to commit murder. God had forbidden it, sod he would that fur the first time he now breath:A the atmosphere that.
obey hint.—( Cheers.) The American Minister deeded an American slave had but to breathe and his shackles fell.
the charge, but he admitted that he had slaves, and ae —(Coca ring.) Ile rose more particularly to corroborate the
admitted that he did afterwards sell some; SO let him statements made by the Hots. and eloquent Gentlemen
have the benefit of such a denial.—( A laugh.) He wive bad lately eddressed that large, intellieent, and
added, however, that he did it ,t believe that sieves were highly resp, ctab!e auditory, and he regretted thatihe had
bred fcr sale in Virginia. Now, toe would read some taken occasion to leave the room before he ( Mr. Ray-
few extracts from Judge Jay's book, pealiihsel in New mond) Ipol borne his testimony in favour of the great
York, in 1839. H., would call Mr. Stevenson's attention benefit which his langu,ge and sentiments and influence
to page 88 of that book, and that would prove to him not had had is America.—.(Great applause.) Perhaps the
only that slave-breeding existed in Virginia, but within citizens of London were not aware that the English
twenty-fire miles of his own residence. (The Hae, msee people had it in their power to emancipate every bondman
tiuman read several extracts proving the practice; also in that country, :'rid nothing other than that belief could
several advertisements of lots of slaves wanted for read) oossibly have indexed him to leave a beloved family
rreseev, fur shipment to New Orleans, and one dated in and cross the water in view of the sacrifices and sufFerings
Richmond, the very place of Mr. Stevenson's resideeee ) which it was necessary to undergo in order to do so.--
Ha had established Against the Ambassador that slave- Olean hear.) Hat thanked God, however, that it had
raising did exist in Virginia—yet all these things Cock been allowed him to stand there and utter his condemns-
place in a civilized country—a civilized age—advertise- tien of that system which was carried on in Arne-
ments of human flesh far sale, and written in even a more rica of enslasiog their fellow men—of that system
contemptuous manner than if the subject of them were which they had been given to understand v. as
cattle. The traffic in slaves from the North to the Southern a system of lust and cruelty and bleed
States was immense. In the latter they were put et the of that system which shut out the coloured man in
culture of cotton—a horrible culture, that swept off the America from heaven, and drove him headlong to Pt mdi-
whole in seven years—every severs years there was a new tion.—(Great cheering.) That system withheld from him
generation wanted. This was in a community calling the privileges which the American constitution and the
themselves civilized—why, they were worse than the declaration of independence guaranteed.—(Cheers.) IThe
savage beast of the desert—they only mangled when driven very descendants of some of those men who assisted in
to it by hunger; but this horrible practice is carried on by securing that independence were at the present day driven
wellsfed Americans for paltry pecuniary profit—for that into the fields ; and it was a fact that the knapsacks had
low and base consideratior they destroy annually their been taken off the backs of some of the soldiers, and the
tens and twenty thousasids. His Learned Friend the musket had been taken from their arms—that the lash
Judge had put two attested cases in his bands—( Mr. had been applied and the hoe had been put into their bands,
O'Connell then read the particulars; in ease the slave and and they had been driven into the fields as slaves, after all
her mistress were communicants in one congregation, yet they had suffered and sacrificed to secure that indeper.
the latter determined, and notwithstandinr, the most dence.--( Loud and vehement cheering.) The hand of the
heart-rending appeals, persisted in selling and separating clock reminded him that he must be brief.— (Cries of
the child of the slave from its mother. The other was a "Go on.") He wished, in addition to what he had already
slave who, with her eight children were brought into the stated, to say that it was not only the bondman in the
open market, and sold separately, amidst the loudest United States that was enslaved, there was not upon the
lamentations.) The mother there bad to suffer eight soil a free man of colour, as he understood the term.—
deaths, and when she was parted from the last, her (Cheers.) The humble individual now before them was
youngest, her senses fled, and she was happy for a time. riot able to trace any of his ancestors in slavery, but if he
These scenes took place in a country which, in all other happened to go into the district of Columbia within sight
respects, had a fair claim to be called civiliz d—in aof the flag under which their independence had been secured,
country which had nobly worked out its own freedom—in he was liable to be seized and bound and thrown into prisons
a country where the men were brave and the women beau- For having committed crime?—No. For being an in-
tiful. Amongst the descendants of Englishmen—even fidel ? No. For being a convict ? No. Why then was
amongst such was to be found a horrible population whose he liable to such outrage and indignity ? For no other
thirst for gold could onlybo gratified at the expense of reason than this, that African blood flowed in his veins
such scenes of human suffering. A population that were (Loud cries of Hear, hear.) This system did but make
insensible to the wrath of Grid, who were insensible to the the inquiry whether the man of colour was destitute of
cries and screams of mothers and children torn from each character or not? That was not the question, but the
other for ever ; but there was one thing they would not be complexion ; or, in other words, their blood identified them
insensible to—they dare not, they would net be insensible to with the system, in consequence of which the coloured
the contempt of Europe.—(Loud cheers.) While they man could not stand erect and breathe the pure air of
embraced tho American abolitionists as friends and heaven.—(Great applause.) If it should be his lot to be
brothers—let none of the slave-owners, dealers in human imprisoned in the district of Columbia, which had been
flesh, dare to set a foot upon our free soil.—(Cheering.) erected by the taxes which his fathers had paid, and the
Let them call upon the Government to protest to America officers of which had been supported by the same taxes,
that they would not receive any slave-holding Ambassador. and after having remained there two or three months, if
—(Loud cheering.) Let them declare that no slave- they were not able to prove that he was a slave, and that
owner can be admitted into European society, and ho was allowed the poor privilege of going forth free, with
then Calhoun and Clay, and men like them, who perhaps a strike or two, a kick or two, or perhaps a
stand up putting forth their claims to be President few cuffs, to whom could he look for redress
of the great Republic must yield to public, uni. of the wrongs and rievances lie had endured ? Their
versal opinion. He had made mention of two men,mete national code of lawsg recognized no redress for crimes
iwould only say that Calhoun was branded with the blood high and so infamous.—(Loud cheers.) Did their
issuing from the stripes of the slave, and Clay, drowned in that metropolis know that from the commencement of
n the tears of the mothers and the children. —( Cheers.) the establishment of liberty Mayflower
derers, this country, slavery had
Let the people of Europe say to slave-owners, Nur_ existed therein. In the vet hour when the
derers, you belong not to us,—away to the desert and was
making her way through the ocean, bearing on her
herd with kindred savages."—( Cheers.)
Ile begged deck the Pilgrim fathers, that were to establish liberty,
anger he committed heinous crimes, but he was incapable to Virginia, bearing on her deck a different
of coolly calculating how long or how herd he could work cargo of some fifteen or sixteen victims, who had been torn
pardon of the savages.—(Laughter.) sometimes in civil and religious, at the same time there was another
bark going
a human being with a profit,--3ernetimes granting him a from their homes and from everthing dear to them in Africa,
boon for the purpose of obtaining a year or two's more and placed on the soil of Virginia, and from that day to
labour out of him. The Hon. Gentleman continued,— I the present they had been obliged to suffer, and die the
admire ;the purity of the democratic principle, when it is hewers Of wood arid drawers of water. He wished to ask
kept within the proper bounds of society. I am a great if these things were tee fruits of civilization and Chris-
admirer of your Declaration of Independence; it is the tianity, what sort of a system had been introduced among
delight of even the slave-holders of' America. Let me the heathens and barbarians of different parts of the globe?
read to you the first few lines. It says," All are created Hear, hear.) He hoped before the meeting left that
equal." These are their own words,...—', All are created house, that a declaration would go forth similar to that
equal, with certain inalienable rights,—the gift of God." 1 which bad been called for by the Hon. and Learned
'c.noWledge the Giver ; amongst theme. Gentleman. He lit,ped that their condemnF•tion would
able rigits are, "Life, liberty, and the safe pursuit of ha at,ten to the inconsistency of the Americans. One of the
'-
pintas." Therefore they proclaim it--they admit that God chief causes that led to the last war between his own baeveal

has given those rights, anti hoiv dare the ralians attempt to
take away the rights a hic'n God has given ?—( Cheers and
laughter.) Is that word too harsh ?—( No, no 1)—" And
in the fair spirit of the declaration, with a reliance on the
firm protection of Divine Providence." They appeal to
God; and has not this all the sanctity without the pro-
fanity of an oath we mutually pledge to each other
might easily pledge that
Y
our" hearts,our lives
cos uarnfdo r touunre ss"a—crtehd honours."—( Hear.) Nowe
I appeal to that honour—they have pledged their lives and
their sacred honour to those principles, and when they
come to me and say that I am a vituperator and a slan-
derer, I read to them their declaration, their pledge, and
their honours.— (Loud cheers.) Well, are we to remain
passive as hitherto ?—( Loud cries of " No, no 1)" Let
our declaration also go abroad. Let this Society adopt it
—let the benevolence and good sense of Englishmen
make that declaration. If an American addresses you,
find out at once if he be a slaveholder.—( Hear, bear.)
He may have business with you, and the less you do with
him the better—( A laugh)—but the moment that is over
turn from him as if he had the cholera or the plague—
(Cheers)—for thero is a moral cholera and a political
) He belongs not to your
oryohuim Ch
rci—im(e—heeer.is not within the pale of civili-
zation or Christianity.—(Cheers.) Let us rally for the
countryplague upon
liberty of the human race—(Applause)—no matter in what
country or in what clime he was found, he is entitled
to our protection ; no matter of what caste, of what creed,
or what colour, he is your fellow nsan—he is suffering in-
justice, and British generosity, which has done so much
already, ought to be cheered to the task by the recollection
of that success it has already attained.—( Cheers.) You
have already heard from the Right Hon. Dr. Lushington
something of the early struggles of the venerated Clark-
son—and how precious was the tear that rolled down his
cheek when he made that statement—we have read that
the recording angel dropped a tear on an oath which had
been extorted in the cause of humanity, and blotted it out
for ever—and the tear that stood upon his cheek seemed
to have been called forth by similar feelings.—( Cries
of " Hear, hear.") He reminded us that Clarkson had
at first stood alone—that Wilberforce had but few to
assist him, and that when Lushington and Buxton came
into the contest, there were only enough to be laughed
at by the selfish, and the Americans, but no more; they
had neither pistols nor cavalry, nor serried infantry—
they bad nothing to contend against the congregated
power of British mistaken avarice, and the immense
wealth of the planter class. Yes, they had the generous,
the humane, the noble spirit of the British people—they
had the protection of God, and, blessed be God, we have
lived to see the accomplishment of much that they had
anticipated.—( Loud cheers.) What is our strength now
to what it was when Buxton and others came into the con-
test ?—(Hear, hear.) We have had 500 Delegates from
various parts of the world. They have come from Ame-
rica and from France—we have foreigners, and judges, and
distinguished men of all descriptions. From 400 places
under the British dominion, Delegates have been sent to
our Convention. Our meetings have been attended by
audiences whose countenance alone would more than sa.
tisfy the utmost measure of fame or approbation. They
are surrounding us still. Oh 1 the women of England
are here—(Loud and continued cheers)—as they al-
ways are, foremost in the cause which humanity recom-
mends to them. They will appeal on its behalf to
their fathers, their brothers, and their sons. I am zealous
in the cause to he sure, hut inefficient—acknowledging the
humility of the individual, I am still swelled by the great-
ness of the cause. My bosom expands, and I glory in the
domestic struggle for freedom which gave me a title to
stand among you, and to use that title in the best way I
can to proclaim humanity to man, and the abolition of
slavery all over the world. The Hon. and Learned Mem-
ber sat down amid loud cheering.
Mr. W. ALLEN had been requested to support the re-
solution, but the manner in which it had ken moved and
seconded made it unnecessary for him to say more than a
few words. When they were all almost afraid to mention
the subject of the emancipation of the slaves, on account
of the great opposition which they had to encounter in en-
deavouring to put an end to the slave trade, they bad been
encouraged to perseverance, and now they saw that, by
the blessing of God, the various denominations of religion,
and the various opinions in politics, were all united in the
condemnation of that abomination, the slavery of man.._
( Loud cheers.) That ought to encourage them in
their good work, and to endeavour, by every means in their
Power, to 'orward the common cause of humanity.
The resolutlon was as follows:—" That while this
meeting rejoices in the rapid progress of the cause of abo-
lition in the free States of the United States of America,
and deeply sympathizing with those of our American bre-
thren who are struggling in the maintenance of that cause
against the inveterate prejudices and sordid interests of
their fellow-citizens, it greatly deplores and indignantly
reprobates the existence and extension of slavery in the
southern parts of that great Republic, by which a sixth por-
tion of the whole population is degraded into the condition
of chattels and brutes, and that an internal slave trade to
an enormous extent is carried on to supp'y the demands of
human beings in the slave markets of that country under
circumstances as disgusting as they are barbarous, by all
which the rights of humanity are trampled uncle-font, the
sacred principles of justice and benevolence violated, and
the holy claims of religion outraged and conti-mned. This
meeting would therefore cell on the American people in
the name of the Christian and civilized world to renounce
these great inquities, and the flagrant inconsistency of up-
holding, in direct opposition to the solemnly recognized
rights of humanity as ant forth in their declaration of inde
pend.mme," was then put aid carried with a:.-claturiticn.
Shortly afterwards Mr. O'Connell left the room amid
- •• •
loud cheering.

Mr. \V, J. CRIZWDriON said, while the Hon and Learned
Gentleman was speaking wl;o Lal just left toe room, a
letter had been presented from a friend to the cause who
had worked earnestly and diligently for then.—he meant
Lard Brougham.—(Loud and general cheering.) Ile
regretted that the letter had not been received at the ovn-
ing of the prncccdings. Mr. C. then read the letter as
follows :—.

but guilty country, and Great Britain was the simple fact
ef the imprisonment of a few white Americans; that reason
was equally good with the resistance which had been of-
fered to a tax of 2:1. or 31 a pound upon tea, and in con-
sequence of which their revolutionary fathers had waded
through blood to seeure taeir independence. But it was
against the inconsisteney of his countrymen in these
respects that he warred. The instrument of their inde-
pendence made no reference to the coloured man, it gave
him no protection, but it protected the privileged class, the
slaveocracy. He would take leave to remind the meeting
of the sentiments of John Adams, the father of John
Quincy Adams, who was said to be the author of that do-
cument ; he advocated political and religious liberty, and
he denounced slavery as offensive in the sight of God, as de-
rogatory to the honour, and interests, and happinass of man,
and as opposed to the decrees which had been promulgated
from heaven of liberty, of peace and good will towards
man.—( Loud and general cheering.) He entertained
not the slightest-wish to stand there and traduce his coun-
try, but he was anxious to have the truth, and the whole
truth in Christ, made known, and to express
his abhorrence of the system which was driving
to misery and death thousands every year; for as
had been well remarked, it was a system of le-
galized murder, and he trusted that the voice of every
friend of this country would go forth for the abolition of
that most iniquitous system. He would conclude in the
words of one of the poets of his own country :
Go back, haughty Southern ; thy treasures of gold
Are dim with the blood of the hearts thou haat sold.
The sky of the south may be brighter than ours,
And greener thy landscapes, and fairer thy flowers ;
But dearer the blast which round our mountains raves,
Than the sweet summer zephyrs which breathe over slaves.
Full low, at thy bidding, thy negroes may kneel,
With the iron of bondage on spirit and heel;
But know that the Yankee girl sooner would be
In fetters with them than in freedom with thee,
Mr. Raymond concluded amidst loud and general cheering.
The Rev. W. KNOB, Missionary at Jamaica, then
rose amid loud cheers, to 'propose the next resolution.
He said, he tvas afraid that at that late hour no subject,
however important, could receive from those who must
be wearied--not of the subject, but on account of the
length of time their attention had been directed to it—
the attention it deserved ; and yet he had to move a resolu-
tion identified with the present and future happiness of
three hundred thousand of those on whose emancipation
they all had so justly rejoiced. It was the following :
" That this meeting, contemplating the extent and im-
portance of the objects of this Society, would urge upon
the friends of the enslaved of every clime the great neces-
sity which exists, and which, in the recent sittings of tho-
General Convention, has been made still more apparent, for
renewed and vastly-increased efforts to bring slavery itself
and the slave-trade, which so necessarily depends upon
it to a perpetual end."
It was with feelings of the deepest interest, end al the
same time of the deepest sorrow, be had risen to propose
to the assembly the first of those resolutions. He had
hoped that ere this information would have been received
and communicated to that assembly, that laws so entirely
unjust and iniquitous in their character as those to which
he had adverted had been at mace rejected by her Majesty's
Ministers—( Cheers)—and if he were disappointed in this
and in expressions he might make use of, should speak with
more force and energy than the subject might appear to
demand, he trusted the situation in which he had been
placed for years, and those for whom he had spent and
would spend every energy he possessed, would be deemed
a sufficient excuse.—( Cheers.) He did not wonder that
some of the people of England thought he spoke too
harshly; but they should recollect he had to do with men
in Jamaica and in England who could not bear mild
words, and would scarcely hear harsh ones.—(Cheers.
If these laws had been rendered necessary by the miscon-
duct of the emancipated slave, he should have deplored
them, but have held his tongue; but when it was a fact—
an indisputable fact—the truth of which he challenged all
the West Indians in London, and all the slave
tyrants throughout the world to disprove, that not
a single act of violence had occurred on the part of the
emancipated negroes from the time the Legislature ac-
corded them their rights until the present hour. Ile said
when this was an established fact he had a light not merely
to entreat, but to demand, that the negro should be pro-
tected in the enjoyment of all the liberty that had been ac-
cerded to him.—( Loud cheers.) If he could for one mo-
ment suppose that these laws were necessary for the public
good, and sanctioned by the public voice, he for one should
hold his tongue ; but with all the respect he entertained
for men, for principles he entertained a higher.—(Cheers)
—for all the respect he felt towards those who bad given
emancipation to the slave, for the high and eternal princi-
ples of liberty he entertained a more sacred and inviolable
regard—(Cheers)—and should these not have been se-
cured—should the rights of the negrocs of Jamaica again
be trampled in the dust, he would again go forth, and by
moral and religious power fight over again the battle of
freedom. He claimed their attention because it was probably
the last time he should appear in Exeter Hall. He wished
not to remain in England, his sympathies were in Ja-
maica. His heart was also aim e, and he hoped to ciery
back with him the fuel confirmation of that liberty the
people of this country had so liberally granted.—(Cheers. )
Before entered on tlivwo laws, be would annoence
what ought to strike conviction into every hear., that if
once they were allowed by the Braish Government, there
was no way except by ann:hilating the Legislative AF-
scrul-,,1y by which they could, be repealed. Let this fact
be known—once passed, and as fully. and dir,etly, and
oppressively as they could, they would be imposed in all
injthatoc and iniquity upon the people.—( A voice in the
crowd. .• No.") No 1 let him come forward and prove
it. Why die the coward stand there anonymously and
contradict him? If the West Indians in Landon could
prove that they would not, let teem call another
,hemeet-
irg and would attend and prove it, He defied them
• •
vv;th all the scorn which the love of liberty inspired.—
( Laud cheering.) He had met them in Jamaica when
;le tyre not supprirted by British sympathy, and
alien the finger of scorn was pointed at him ; but did
they think thus to induce an Elglishmaii to shrink ?
( Cheers.) No ! and they might rest assured that is ith
al the ability he possessed he would wa,ch their every
proceeding and use his every moral power to annihilate
the infamous system they upheld—(Cheers)—that whe-
ther introduced by the English merchant or sanctioned by
the English House of Commons, every attempt of their
fell purpose to degrade the black man, should meet with
his e ost strenuous opposition, and rec, ive his lasting
contempt.—(Cheers ) Of the laws to which he adverted,
and waieh ho would pass otter in rapid succession, the first
lie would mention was the Fisheries Bill, and he mentioned
this that they might see how, step by step, the House of
Assembly had attempted to oblaerate every vestige of
liberty. In the time of slavery, the poor and old were per-
mitted to fish in the rivers and on the brink of the Sea,
but •;:n sooner did the Act of Emancipation arrive than
this lib. rty of the poor and the aged was taken away.--
( Shame, shame.) The next Act was tailed the Hawkers'
and Pedlars' During the time of Slavery every man
was allowed to sell whatever he had manufactured himself
without obtaining a license for so doing, but as soon as
freedom came, or rather as sect: as a succumbing Governor
was found—(Cheers)—the Hawkers' and Pedlars' Act
passed through the Iluuse of Assembly, rendering it ne-
cessary for a roan to take out a license before he could sell
his own goods—the jars and other small commodities (no'
provisions), by the sale of which he could obtain an honest
and peaceful livelihood. The amount necessary for ob-
taining this license for every pa; ish amounted to 51. or 10/.
of our money—and thus this law, which was known to
tell against the free system, most sensibly affected the poor
and old inhabitants, to hundreds of whom the Baptist
Missionaries had given a home—into which the tyrants
could not enter—who hated the thought of going to the
parish, and determined to struggle to be free.—(Bear )
Next was the Pound Law. Ia the time of slavery there
was a case of this kind, which enacted that every person
taking up stock upon his grounds might take it to the
pound, where it was retained until he was recompense:l for
the damage it had done; but now, when the negro re-
fused to work for the planters, they turned stock upon his
grounds, and he was forbidden to take it to the pound
without a written document, to prove that they were there
—a sufficient instance of the hardship and iniquity of
this law.—( Hear, hear.) The next was the Rum
Law. He ( Mr. Knibb) was not a teetoller.—( A
voice, " I am sorry for it.") He knew it, but he
had the same right to hold his own opinion as his friend
-s—( Hear, hear)—but though he was not a teetotaller he
was decidedly opposed to drinking ardent spirits—( Hear,
hear)—and a law had been enacted which he deemed
would have a most detrimental effect, by which on every
estate rum might be sold without a license by a white man,
sl that though the black masa could not sell the useful pro-
duct of his honest industry, the white man could distil his
poison and sell it without a license.—( Hear, hear.) There
was another law (and they would think it impossible that
anything bad could be concealed in that) to prevent cruelty
to animals, and what mischief could the anti-slavery man
suspect lurked there? Why, by that law it was made a
penal offence for any person to attempt to catch a horse or
a=s with intent to ride it, and for doing so he was subjected
to thirty days' imprisonment, or to the penalty of 51. The
object of the slave-owner in all these restrictive laws being
to bind the peasantry, and prevent their having boasts to go
to market, to prevent their purchasing land nod cultivating
it on their own behalf.—( Hear, hear.) But there were
others of a more stringent nature still_among those the
Petty Debt Act, by which if an employer ()Wee his slave or
servant so much money, yet if he have nat sent in a written
account two days before the trial comes on (and it is
not necessary to allow more than three days for it
to come on) he cannot bring it as a set off. but
he must apply for a new trial, and it' be does not
appear, judgrraet then goes Ly default. Ant added to
this, double rents were continually inflicted, and the At-
torney-General had stated that in his opinion they were
lawful; so that a man was charged, his wife and his chil-
dren charged, and he could prove that when they had
charged for the land, they could charge also for the trees
upon it. If after this they did riot teach the negro to
charge, it would not be their faults.—( Hear, hear.) He
had cases of this kind with him which would fill the albums
of half the ladies in the assembly, and wh. n Le hai applied
to the Special Justices respecting them, the only answer
he could get was, that the law bad given them no appeal,
and that if a man's conscience would let him swear the
charge was just, they had nothing to do but to award it to
Another law was that for the recovery of term..

menta, by which five-sixths of the whole population of .la-
mica might be turned out of their houses at alweek's no-
tice; and the Attorney-General had declared that it did
not need a second notice before the ejectment took place.
In this law It was enacted " That when a landlord at the
time of issuing such warrant as aforesaid has a lawful
right to the possession of the premises so held as afore-
said, neither the landlord, nor his agent, nor any person or
persons anting under the authority of this Act, shall he
deemed to be a trespasser by reason of any irregularity
or informality in the mode of proceeding for obtaining pos-
session as aforesaid; but the party may bring an action on
the case for any damage that he may have sustained by
reason of such irregularity or informality." Thus, what-
ever violence a man might commit in executing a warrant
of ejectment, he is not to be deemed a tretpaser, but tic_s
negro must go through the expense of a Court of La +V 10
ob:ain rodrei,s, which, however, he might jubt as well try