The Sun.
London, England, 1840-02-24 00:00:00

AMERICAN SLAVE TRADE.

The compassion and justice of Britain are at this mo-
ment widely awakened in behalf of the negrocs. No mea-
sure is left unconsidered which may improve the blessing
of liberty, and restore to them the rights and hopes of
man, whether in our colonies or in their native land. At
the tame time it stands confessed, that elsewhere their
wrongs and sufferings from the slave trade and sla-
very are increased and increasing, and particularly in
the United States of America, in some of which
men, women, and children, are expressly reared for
the market; bought and sold, and driven off in
strings and herds, like horses or oxen or other beasts of
burden ; but more wretched than these, to be broken in by
a system of cruelty and oppression, and enforced ignorance,
swage in proportion to the danger apprehended from their
power of reasoning, and resisting. This state of things is
acknowledged, made public by the law of the land and the
Lynch-law of the mob; but the exertions of the Ame-
rican abolitionists to put it down, their sacrifices,
their efforts, at the risk, and even at the loss of life,
their difficulties and dangers, are comparatively unknown,
and can indeed scarcely be imagined here ; for they have
to struggle against a league of circumstance and feeling,
incredible to all who have not known the baneful effect of
slavery on the enslavers. They have to oppose the great
power of the Southern States in the Legislature ; the im-
mense mass of public opinion, which, in the Northern as
well as the Southern States, declares itself against dis-
turbing the present pro-slavery system of society; at
every step they meet the insensibility and the antipathies
nurtured by custom, and reckoned essential to the tone
of what is called " good society ;" yet, " though per-
secuted, not forsaken," the American abolitionists have
already effected a change in opinion which is felt in Con-
gress; which has, for the present at least, prevented the
annexation of Texas to the United States, and from which
may be hoped blessed and permanent effects, if the opera-
tions begun in the spirit of justice and humanity are con-
tinued as they were begun. But the Abolitionists are still
comparatively few in number, and limited in their means
for the arduous task before them. They intreat the aid of
their British fellow-labourers in the great cause. Their end
is the same, to assist the African race ; and their means are
such, and only such, as are worthy of the end. They
endeavour to spread knowledge and to awaken conviction
on the subject of slavery in the minds of the powerful.
They utterly reject all violent and inflammatory measures,
being entirely persuaded that there is no need to enlist on
their side any other feelings than those of justice and hu-
manity. They neither have, nor desire to have, any com-
munication with the slaves themselves, end in disproof of
the accusations some bring against them, of exciting the
slaves to insurrection, they point to the fact, that, since
the year 1634, when the first Abolition Society was
organised, but one feeble attempt at insurrection
las taken place in the South. The Abolitionists
write and disseminate books and papers, they send
lectures to various parts of the non-slave-holding States,
and, in the common intercourse of life, they use their ut-
most endeavours to improve the condition and to elevate
the character of their coloured brethren. One of their
powerful means for attaining there objects is the college
established at Oberlin, in Ohio. The free coloured
people, now numbering near 400,000 in the United States,
are subject to oppressions and injuries only serpassed by
those inflicted on the slaves. Among many instances, we
will mention only one. They arc, by custom, though not
by law, denied admission to the same schools with whites,
and the means of instruction to which they have had ac-
cess have hitherto been so meagre, that very few among
themselves arc qualified to impart, even to their children,
the rudiments of learning.
The Oberlin Institute in Ohio, and the Oneida in
New York, are noble exceptions to the common rule of
exclusion. It is for the former of these that the help of
the British public is now solicited. The Institution ori-
ginated thus. Five years ago the students of Lane Semi-
nary, Cincinnati, Ohio (a free state), having become inte-
rested in the subject of slavery, held discussions and formed
an Aboli jon Society among themselves. They hereby drew
down the censure of their college superiors, whe went so far
as to forbid all discussion and conversation on the subject
of slavery, "on ordinary occasions and elsewhere." Forty
students, on account of this prohibition, quitted the semin-
ary. The want was immediately felt of an institution where
good instruction and freedom of discussion might both be
enjoyed. To meet this want, the Oberlin Institute was
planned. Five hundred acres of land were obtained in the
north of Ohio, 700 miles from New York, 11 from Lake
Erie. Funds for present support were contributed,
and hopes held out for the future. To that wild
tract of five hundred acres the forty students and
others of a kindred spirit repaired, and began to clear.
They persevered through the winter of 1834-35, and with
the help of workmen, 200 acres are now partially cleared
and cultivated, and buildings have been erected. Profes-
sors and teachers, eminent for ability and learning, •have
devoted themselves to the Institution, though they
might elsewhere obtain lucrative situations. Student's
have flocked in to the number of four hundred,
and many have been refused from want of means
to accommodate them. Students are received with-
out respect to colour ; and this Infant Seminary is de-
signed and permanently cultivated to elevate and to bene-
fit the coloured race. It serves, and this is its most strik-
ing feature of immediate usefulness, as a school of/cachets
for the coloured people.. Among the 400,000 free co-
loured inhabitants of the United States, there is ample
field for meee teachers than cal be prepared at Oberlin.
A large number of the students of Oberlin have gone
forth, full of the purpose for which they have been in-
structed, ready to devote themselves in any way that might
prove desirable to the benefit of their coloured brethren.
To preach, to lecture, to write, and to teach, are their
principal vocations. If, as happened in many instances, a
portion of their time is necessarily occupied in toiling for
their daily bread, they still feel that they are consecrated
to this work of love, are enabled to devote to it their best
energies, as " bound with those who are in bonds ;"
seizing every opportunity to assist and encourage the
objects of their sympathy. Nor do they confine their
labours to the United States. Twenty of them are en-
gaged among the ten thousand fugitives in Canada. Twelve
are employed as teachers and missionaries in the West In-
dia Islands, and others are gone to the Aborigines in the
west of America.

The Institution has no funds or endowments from which
an increase is guaranteed. The American Abolitionists
contributed to its support with their accustomed liberality;
but owing to the great fire in New York, Dec. 1815, which
fell most heavily upon its first patrons, and the subsequent
commercial distresses in the United States, many who,
three years since, were wealthy, are now so reduced in
circumstances as to have become unable to fulfil their en-
gagements to the Institution. Tire entire expense of
these Slavery operations rests upon the Abolitionists of
America, but few of whom are now wealthy, and they have
made for the cause pecuniary sacs ifices such as have rarely
been'known. Of tbe originalmembers of the Oberlin College
many, the sons and brothers of slave holders, by the very
act of joining this institution, sacrificed .their possessions
and prospects. These, and others equally unable to con-
tribute in money to the funds, now earn their subsistence
by the labour of their hands. All the members,
without exception, devote a portion of every day
to labour, and thus, aided by extraordinary abste-
miousness, they have been enabled to bold together
with no other help than the occasional and precarious
contributions of distant friends. Bui the Institution has
contracted a debt which bears a high rate of interest;
the professors and their families have no perrnanent.pro-
vision for their daily sustehance, and must, though in
bitterness of heart, relinquish their situations, unless
the appeal now made to British philanthropists enable
tho Institution to overcome its present pecuniary difficul-
ties. These difficulties once overcome, the Abolitionists
have every hope, from the diminishing pressure of com-
mercial distress, and from the increasing spirit of hu.
inanity and freedom in America, that their Institution
will be enabled to go on and prosper.
If it is objected that British philanthropists are not con-
cerned in the abolition of American slavery, may it not be
answered—first, that the abolition of slavery is not a
national interest merely, but the interest of humanity at
large; and if this is not a suffie:ent answer, be it remem-
bered that slavery was first established, and for 163 years
maintained in America under British rule. Even in
spite of a petition from the Virginian Assembly in 1772,
praying the abolition of the slave trade on the ground of
its great inhumanity and injustice, expressing their fears
that it would endanger the very existence of his Majesty's
American dominions, our Government continued to uphold
it for commercial reasons (good or bad). In spite of an
Act of the Pennsylvanian Assembly, about the same time,
transmitted to England for the Royal Assent, whereby a
heavy duty was to be laid on the head of every slave im-
ported, in order thereby to discourage the trade, the Bri-
tish Government persisted in allowing it to continue. In
the words of the venerable Granville Sharp—" The guilt
of persisting in that monstrous wickedness demands in-
deed an atonement of repentance, but not from America "
In four years from this time, the British Government lost
for ever that power of interference which she had refused to
exercise on behalf of justice. But something yet remains.
Individuals may aid individuals—and shall we rot all
unite, all who acknowledge ourselves children of one
Father, all who value our common heritage of lite,
liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, shall we not all unite
heart, head, and hand, to cleanse this plague spot of sin and
suffering—Slavery—from oar racey

The Abolitionists of America ask our aid for the Ober-
lin Institution. 'I hey have sent over Deputies able to
explain all the circumstances and necessitius of the case,
and accredited by the most known and honoured among
the body to which they belong. These Deputies, the
Rev. John Keep and Wm. Dawes, Esq , have already
communicated with several of those best known in Britain
as philanthropists, and especially as friends of the Negro.
The venerable Clarkson has given his aid and the sanction
of his entire approbation to their object. Among their
contributors are found the names of Buxton, Gurney, and
Sturge. Let us hope that these examples will be followed
by thousands.

WEDDING EXTRAORDINARY.—Married, Feb.
18, by the Rev. NV. Fernie, at Zion Chapel, Frome, Mr.
Richd. Dole, to 111 rs. Kerenappuch Baker, both of Frome.
The parties were married 22 years ago at Exeter, but the mar-
riage having been discovered to be invalid, they have now
avadod tie.m,elves of the security of the New Marriage Act,"
and there being now no just cause or imp,dirr.ent, they are at
length legally joined together in holy matrimony._ Wiltshire
ndependent.

NEW PRINCIPLE IN STEAM NA-

IT.iiilLO. Is

An important discovery has been made by Mr. Samuel
Hall in the paddle-wheels of steam-boats, by which a
great saving of steam power may be effected under cer-
tain circumstances, and to which other advantages at-
tach. It is by rendering the goat-boards moveable,
and by that means altering the diameter of the paddle..
wheels, making it greater or less as may be required.
In the case of a large steam ship, like the British
Queen or Great Western, a paddle-wheel of very large
diameter is required when not heavily laden, on account
of the vessel standing so far out of the water. But no
sooner is the ship heavily laden than the paddle-wheels
are sunk down into deep water, and the resistance
becomes so great that only about nine strokes of
the engine per minute can be given instead of
eighteen, and a vast expenditure of steam power is
completely thrown away. Now, the fist suggestion
to the mind of any one conversant with such matters
would be that this difficulty could be overcome by
raising the wheels to a certain extent out of the water,
and this, in effect, is just what Mr. Hall's invention ac-
complishes. The wheels, however, are net raised out
of the water, but the float boards rendered capable of
being d.rawn up towards the nave, or sent down to-
wards the tire of the wheel, just as the lading of the vessel,
the power required to be used, or the state of the
weather may demand. The difficulty to be overcome
in the case of large anti heavily-laden steam-vessels,
when sunk by their burthens deeply into the water,
will be at once evident to all who know what in row-
ing is called " catching crabs, or, in other words, sink-
ing the oar too deeply into the water.
The eff,cts in both cases are very similar. "It
must," says Mr. Carpmael, in speaking of Mr. Hall's
invention, "be evident to every engineer that when
from stress of weathe,r, or deep immersion, the number
of strokes of the engine is reduced, the power the
nagine will then be exerting will be reduced in the scale
proportion. Thus, supposing a pair of engines
snaking eighteen strokes per minute be constructed to
to be equal to 500 horse power ; if from stress of
weather the number of strokes be reduced to nine (no
uncommon occurrence), in such case the engines will
only be working at 250 horse-power; and for the
whole length of time that the circumstances remain
such as to keep down the number of the strokes, the
vessel will be under the prejudicial condition of carry-
ing engines of a size, weight, and cost of 500 horse-
power, without the capability of using more than 250
or other reduced power, according to the relation of the
number of strokes."

There is to be seen a model of a pair of paddle-
wheels, constructed on the new principle, at Mr. Hall's
premises in the City, as well as one of a pair of wheels
about to be fitted to an iron steam-boat which will ply
on the Thames. The arms of the paddle-wheel are
double—that is to say, besides the ordinary arms, there
is to each a moveable one, to which the float-board is
attached ; and by means of a simple, but powerful,
principle in mechanics—a worm—(in the nave of the
wheel), it is moved upwards or downwards ar pleasure.
The invention is of much higher importance to marine
steam-vessels than to those used in rivers ; but the
power and command which it gives in both cases are
great and valuable.