The Sun.
London, England, 1866-02-16 00:00:00

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Ditto to Barcelona — ...
Roman — ... 116 23

The Legal Abolition of Slavery in the

United States.

Last night a public meeting was held in Exeter Hall,
under the auspices of the British and Foreign FreeFlmen's
Aid Society, to commemorate the passing of the constitu-
tional amendment by which slavery is for ever abolished in
the United States of America. There was a very nume-
rous and respectable attendance, and the proceedings were
characterised by the utmost enthusiasm.

Mr. Benjamin Scott, the Chamberlain of the City of
London, occupied the chair.
At the request of the chairman, Dr. Tomkins read the
Constitutional Amendment, which has been ratified by 28
States in America, the entire mass of people rising to their
feet and cheering enthusiastically.
The CHAIRMAN said there were two objects had in view
in convening the meeting. The first was to commemorate
worthily one of the grandest events which has ever been
written upon the page of history—(cheers)—the com-
plete, final, and irrevocable abolition of slavery in the
United States. (Loud cheering.) The second object was
to commend to public attention the urgent necessities of
four millions of slaves who were now in the transition
state between slavery and independence. (Hear, hear.)
They had not met to discuss the recent war in America—
either as to its cause or its conduct—but to deal with that
great fact which stood facing the world as the consequence
of that war—that slavery had fallen—(cheers) mortally
wounded by the sword, drawn first by the slaveowners.
Slavery had fallen by the sword ; and, by a legislative
enactment passed by twenty-eight out of thirty-six States,
it had been consigned to a deep grave frcm which there
was no resurrection. (Cheers.) They were not come to-
gether in a spirit of self-complacency to welcome their
sister across the Atlantic because she had put away her
sin, because the sin was English as well as American.
(Hear.) Let it net be forgotten that England carried slavery
to America, and kept it there as long as she had power to
do so. (Hear.) They had met together to hold out the
hand of cardial congratulation to the American
people, without uttering one word of crimination or
sanctimonious self-laudation. (Cheers.) No doubt there
was a glorious future for America, and ho believed there
was a grand future for England, and henceforth the two
nations could go forward in the march of progress side by
side, the laws of the two great nations having new been
fundamentally assimilated. It was time that sympathy
should be extended openly and without reserve by the
people of this country to the suffering and oppressed
peoples of other nations. He wished that had been done
when the Emperor of Russia decreed the freedom of 25
millions of serfs ; and when the Dutch Government freed
the slaves in the Dutch colonies. He remembered, in 1854,
accompanying the Rev. Mr. Ringold Ward, a coloured
clergyman, on a deputation to Lord John Russell, with
respect to twenty British subjects who had been taken
from their ships at Charleston and Savannah, and sold to
slavery. On that occasion the Foreign Minister told the
deputation plainly that there was little or no help to be
expected from the Government in the affair. He (the chair-
man) would never forget the look of unmitigated scorn with
which Mr. Ward said, as he left the audience chamber, "Now,
go and sing 'Rule, Britannia, Britons never shall be slaves."
(Cheers.) He (the chairman) could not comply with the re-
quest, and ho never since remained in a room where that
air was performed or sung ; but now it could be con-
sistently sung, as he believed it could not be said that at
the present time any British subject was in slavery. (Hear,
hear.) With reference to the British and Foreign Freed-
men's Aid Society it had been in operation for the last
eighteen months, and had collected about. £12,000 to be ex-
pended in food and clothing. Other societies had been
doing tho same excellent work, and between £40,000 and
£50,000 had boen remitted across the Atlantic to aid the
suffering freedmen, and he hoped that this meeting would
afford a healthy impulse to this movement, which was
worthy of all support. (Cheers.)
Mr. HANDEL COSSHAM, of Bristol, moved the first resolu:
tion as follows :—" That this meeting reverently and grate
fully acknowledged that, in the good providence of God,
the crime and withering curse of chattel slavery—first in-
troduced by England into her transatlantic s colonie and
then perpetuated by the fundamental constitution of tho
United States of America—has, by the recent adoption of
the Constitutional Amendment, been rendered illal, and
for ever hereafter prohibited throughout those United
States. And this meeting tenders cordial congratulations
to the friends of freedom in America upon the occasion of
this gratifying and signal triumph of the cause of righte-
ousness and humanity ; recognising in this auspicious as-
similation of the fundamental laws of the United States and
of Great Britain a new and enduring bond of unionbetween
the two nations." He quite endorsed the sentiments ex-
pressed by the chairman that they had met to celebrate one
of the greatest triumphs and one of the most glorious events
of modern times. But he went further. He ventured to
say that since the time of Moses, except the coming of our
Lord to redeem the human race, there had been nothing
like it in the history of the world. (Hear, hear.)' He did
not wonder that they had such a glorious meeting that
evening to commemorate that great event. But he did
wonder that his countrymen had been so inert in
recognising, in thanking God, and in congratulating
themselves and the American people on the great and glo-
rious event to do honour to which they had that night as-
sembled. He did not want to underrate the grand event
which struck the chains off 800,000 of their fellow-men 30
years ago, nor did he want to underrate the good effected
by the Corn-law agitation, nor did ho wish to depreciate
the great event of the Reform Bill, and the greater Reform
event which he hoped before long would take place.
(Cheers.) But in the face of all these great events, he be-
lieved the greatest of the whole was that which had lately
occurred, and by which four millions of men marched from
slavery into freedom. (Cheers.) He believed that when
the history of the emancipation of the blacks of America
came to be written and made known, a glorious character
would be exhibited never heard of before. Mr. Cossham
then referred to his late visit to America, and gave the re-
sult of interviews and correspondence he had had with
some of the most distinguished statesmen and warriors of
that country, including President Johnson, Mr. Seward,
Mr. Sumner, General Grant, General Sherman, and General
Howard. He also referred to the measures being adopted
by the United States Government to render the abolition of
slavery a thing of reality. Referring to the conduct of this
country during the late war, he did not believe America
had justice done to her during that time, and ho charged
the great majority of the press of this country with trying
to corruptopublic opinion. He believed that in reconstruct-
ing the Union and in abolishing slavery the Americans did
not intend to act as England had acted with respect to Ja-
maicathat is, appoint men to carry out the emancipation
policy who were every day of their lives doing their best
to perpetuate slavery. (Hear, hoar.) On the contrary, the
American Government had appointed General Howard to
carry out the emancipation—(cheers)—and that appoint-
ment was a guarantee that emancipation would be some-
thing more than a name. (Cheers.)
The CHAIRMAN here announced that letters of apology
had been received from the following gentlemen, who were
unable to attend the meeting;—The Hon. Lionel Stanley,

Professor Rogers, of Oxford, the President of the Wesleyan
Conference, Mr. P. A. Taylor, M.P., Rev. Mr. Arthur, Pro-
fessor Cairns, Rev. Thos. Binney, and the Rev. Professor
Riley.

The Rev. NEWMAN HALL, on rising to second the resolu-
tion, was loudly cheered. After referring to the objects of
the Freedmen's Aid Society, he said that in connection with
it their thoughts would naturally revert to America. But,
while they were endeavouring to succour freedmen—whe-
ther negroes or whites—they must take care not to be open
to the retort—" Physician, heal thyself." Terrible accounts
had reached them of the treatment of their own freedmen,
and had gone throughout the whole world. He had read
some of those accounts. They had haunted him in his sleep,
disturbed him in his studies, and excited in him such an
indignation as it was necessary to exercise the greatest
vigilance over lest it might exceed the limits of a righteous
wrath. He rejoiced those matters were to be brought under
judicial investigation—he rejoiced that they had a Govern-
ment alive to the fact that England was on her trial be-
fore the world—that they had a Government determined
that these matters should be impartially investigated and
justice done upon them. (Cheers.) The rev. speaker enu-
merated some of the penal enactments which had existed
against slaves previous to the passing of the constitutional
amendment, and concluded by stating his belief that hence-
forth England and America would be more closely united
now that slavery had been abolished in the latter country.

Professor LEONE LEVY felt higkly honoured in being
allowed in the slightest manner to take part in the meeting,
the noble object of which was to commemorate and render
thanks for the recent abolition of slavery in America. He
compared the condition of the free and the slave States up
to the time of the late war. On the one hand there was
real life, all energy, and all progress. Agriculture, manu-
factures, shipping industry of every description were
advancing rapidly. But the moral blight of slavery had
struck down other portions of the State., and they could
not get over it. There was comparatively no progress in
the slave States. But he rejoiced to find that throughout
the whole of the States of the continent of America had
now become the land of freedom, and he looked forward to
a glorious future to that country as the result of that great
event.

Dr. HOLBROOK, of New York, who was received with
loud cheers, as a citizen of America claimed a few words in
approval of the expression of opinion embodied in this re-
solution. He looked on slavery as the curse of any govern-
ment which allowed it to exist, and dwelt on the fact that
America could now boast of being truly free. It had been
the boast of England that her flag floated over free soils
and freo peoples, and he was glad to be able to claim the
same proud character for his native land. Now it might
be truly said, that henceforth " the star-spangled banner in
triumph shall wave over the land of the free and the home
of the brave." (Cheers.) In the name of his countrymen,
he thanked the meeting, and through them the people of
England, for the sympathy they had expressed for the
North in the recent struggle, and the assistance they had
rendered in enfranchising the coloured inhabitants of
America and alleviating their condition.

Dr. HUGH ALLEN moved the next resolution. He denied
the right in Undue of the white man to sell the black, and
declared such traffic to be worse than slavery. The world
had got too old to tolerate such a state of things as slavery
any longer, and it was, he thanked God, at length effectu-
ally put down. He did not believe that the heart of Eng-
land was ever with slavery, and he believed the heart of
England now rejoiced at the result of the late war in Ame-
rica. (Cheers.) The resolution he had to propose was—
,' That whilst this meeting offers its warmest congratu-
lations to all who have been faithful to the cause of
freedom in the time of conflict and trial, it is deeply
impressed with the sense of responsibility arising from
success. All past experience has shown that the effects
of the system of slavery remain long after the time of
legal emancipation, both in the disabilities of the freed-
men, and in the spirit of caste in their former oppressors.
And thismeeting would express its strong conviction that
the zealous, enlightened, and persistent efforts of the true
friends of freedom will, if possible, be more than ever
needed to inculcate just principles, to redress wrongs, to
relievs the necessitous, to protect the defenceless, to care
for the orphan, the infirm, and the aged, to instruct the
ignorant, to impart industrial training, and to exercise the
utmost vigilance, so that the peace of society may be pre-
served, and that neither selfishness, prejudice, nor a domi-
neering class of any kind may mar the work of emancipa-
tion, or prevent its full benefit to mankind. This meeting,
therefore, cordially approves the objects of the British
and Foreign Freedmen's Aid Society, and pledges its ener-
getic support."
The Rev. Mr. BROCK, in an able speech, seconded the
resolution.

Mr. J. HODGKIN supported the resolution, which was
unanimously adopted.
On the motion of Mr. ESTCOURT, a vote of thanks to the
chairman was passed by acclamation, and the proceedings
then terminated.

BANK OF FRANCE.

PARIS, Feb. 15.

The following is the return of the Bank of France
for the week ending to-day, together with the cor-
responding figures of the previous account :