Anti-slavery bugle. [volume] (New-Lisbon, Ohio) 1845-1861, 1849-02-23
Disappearance of Slavery in England.

The account which Macauley, in his
new work, gives Of the abolition oc slave
ry in England will We doubt not be inter-
esling and instructive to all our readers.
1t teaches two lessons with peculiar force,
viz the power of the church and clergy
10 remove that giant wrong from any
community whenever they ieiH TO do so,
and the ability Of simple moral power,
unaided by physical force, or legislation
TO remove long established aud deeply
rooted barbarism both of them lessons
which the people and the church of our
times need to sludy.-Pa. Freeman.
Meanwhile" says the historian, " a
change was proceeding, infinitely more
momentous than the acquisition or loss
of any province, than the rise or fall Of
any dynasty. Slavery, and the evils by
which slavery is every where accompa.
MED, were fast disappearing.
" 1t is remarkable that the two great
est and most salulary social revolutions
which have taken place in England-that
revolution which, in the thirteenth cen.
fury, put an end 10 the tyranny of nation
over nation, and that revolution which, q
few generations later, put an end to the
property of man in = silently
and imp~erceptibly effected. They struck
cotemporary observers with no surprise ;
and have received from historians a very
scanty measure Of attention. They were
brought about neither by legislation nor
by physical force. Moral causes noise-
lessly eflaced, first the distinction between
Norman and Saxon, and then the dis
~linction between master and slave. None
can venture 10 fix the precise momen, at
which either distinction ceased. Some
faint traces of the old Norman feeling
might perhaps have been found late in
the fourteenth century. Some faint ira.
ces of the institution of villanage were
detected by tho curious so late as the
days of the Stuarts nor has that institute
ton ever, to this hour, been abolished by
statute.
1t would be unjust not 10 acknowledge
that the chief agent in these two great de-
liverances was religion and it may per-
haps be doubted whether a purer religion
; might not have been found q less eff.
cient agent. The benevolent spirit Of
the christian morality is undoubted ad-
5 verse to distinction Of caste. Blu 10 the
" Church of Rome such distinctions are
l peculiarly odious, for they are incompa,-
ible with other distinctions which are es-
II sential to her system. She ascribes to
every priest a mysterious dignity, which
y entities him 10 the reverence of every
&c layman and she does not consider any
10 man as disqualified, by reason Of his ma
y ton or of his family, for the priesthood
le Her doctrines respecting the sacerdoial
T. character, however erroneous they may
l. be, have repeatedly miligated some OF
y The worst evils which can atfiict society.
That superstition cannot be regarded as
unniXedly ~noXious which, in regions
by the tyranny Of race over race, creates
C an aristocracy altogether independent of
u race, inverts The relation between the ops
Il pressor and the oppressed, and compels
the hereditary master 10 kneel before The
II spiritual tribunal of the hereditary bond.
II man. To this day, in some countries
where negro slavery exists, popery mp.
pears in advantageous contrast to other
forms of christianiiy. 1t is notorious that
The antipathy between the European and
African races is by no means so strong at
Rio Janeiro as AT Washington. In our
own country, this peculiarly of the Ro-
man Catholic system produced, during
l the Middle Ages, many saluiary effects.
l' 1t is true that, shortly after the baille of
Hastings, Saxon p~relates and abbots were
violently deposed, and that the ecclesias.
= tical adventures from the Continent were
intruded by hundreds into lucrative BEN
y efices. Yet even then pious divines of
n Norman blood raised their voices agains,
such a violation ofihe constitution of The
n church, refused 10 accept mitres from the
hands Of the Conquerer, and charged him
D. on The peril of his soul, not TO forge
n that The vanquished islanders were his
" fellow-chrislians.-.The first protector
IN whom the English found among the dom
al inant caste was Archbishop Anslem. A
ID a time when the English name was a re.
" proach, and when all the civil and mill
. tary dignities Of the kingdom were sup
OF posed TO belong exclusively 10 the coun'
rs trymen Of the Conqueror, the despised
ne race learned with transports of delight,
10 that one of themselves, Nicholas Break
"a spear, had been elevated TO the papal
throne, and held out his foot 10 be kissed
es by ambassadors sprung from the noblesl
n houses of Normandy. 1t was a national
s. as we'll as a religious feeling that drew
great muldtudes TO the shrine of Beckett
v the first Englishman who since the Con-
O. quest, had peel terrible to the foreign ty-
N rants. A successor of Beckett was fore
DC most among those who Obtained that char
" ter which secured at onco the privilege
H. Of the Norman barons and of the SaxoI
yeomanry. How great n part the Cath
Ollie ecclesiastics subsequently had in III