The Bee-Hive. — 1875-10-16 (London, England)

THE SLAVERY QUESTION AGAIN.  The question raised by Mr. Ward Hunt's circular is settled by what may be regarded as the absolute withdrawal of the "instructions" given in regard to fugitive slaves. This is not a question of Whig or Tory; it has nothing to do with the " ins " and the " outs " of office. It was simply a disgraceful disregard of the practical lessons taught during the whole of the present century by the honest men and women of England, for the purpose of bringing to an end the worst wickedness that over afflicted or disgraced the world. The right to buy and sell men, 0e:to possess men as slaves, simply an outrage against common sense and common humanity, against every moral and religious principle; in fact, it is so obviously a denial of justice in human life, that to admit it eveu to the slightest extent would be to practically deny god's providence in the moral government of the world. Perhaps there is no  question on which the working men of England would be so unanimous as on this. They who insist on rights of labour rest their claims on the necessity for justice in human dealings. If, in any corner of the earth, one man can hold another in bondage, and if, under any circumstances, the sanction of an English statesman can be given in the slightest degree to such a thing, we let slip the principle by which we sustain the whole of our arguments in connection with the rights of labour. Slavery cannot be temporised with in any way; wherever it insinuates itself so as to be brought into contact with British influence  or British power it must be condemned and crushed. All argument in connection with such a crime has been finished. In England long ago we sealed with our own condemnation the horrible crime of slavery. There is not in Great Britain any class of men who could be brought publicly to sanction such an atrocity. In America, where the institution made its last desperate stand, it went down in blood, and its destruction was hailed by the approving shouts of all honest, right-thinking men. The world, except in its foulest recesses, has got rid of it, and any Englishman who in any way sanctions it deserves not only to be condemned, but to be driven with opprobrium into disgraceful retirement. We do not condemn Mr. Ward Hunt because he is a Tory; we condemn him because he is not in spirit an Englishman, and because, as a man in office, he has put to risk the loyalty of the men over whom ho is placed by forcing on them duties, the performance of which would make them criminals in their own eyes. We insist that on this matter the working men of England would have acted as one man. Their determination that there shall be freedom and dignity in labour, that neither the work nor the man who works shall be at the mercy of an owner, be he whom he may, and that neither colour nor stature, nor race, nor religion, nor custom, nor anything else known to man on earth shall be held as justifying a wickedness so abominable. We have no argument to use in the matter. We do not argue against highway robbery or murder. A crime committed against the universal conscience is self-condemned. We have nothing to say beyond a declaration that it must not be. No English statesman can in any way sanction it and remain in office.