returned victorious, not to pull down chapels, not to injure innocent men, but to clasp to their bosoms their wives and their children, to stretch out their free hands to Heaven and say, 'Now, indeed, we are men and brethren.' (Hear that, Mr. Borthwick.) I beg my friends will not make any remarks; let them leave that to me, for I am exceedingly jealous of my privileges. (Much laughter.)

And now, Mr. Borthwick comes to Hayti; he thinks he has a fine specimen of the dangers of emancipation at Hayti; and he measures the happiness of the inhabitants of that island by the amount of their exports. But this is false philosophy, Mr. Borthwick. Suppose the people of Ireland were to ship less of their produce, less corn, fewer cattle, and fewer potatoes to foreign countries than they now do, and eat it all themselves, would any person assign this as a reason why they should be worse off than they were when they did export a larger quantity. (Cheers.) Mr. Borthwick ought not to measure the comfort and hap piness of a people, by the amount of their exports. Would he argue, because the stage-proprietor did not carry so many passengers, and therefore did not run his horses so frequently, that the horses were worse off than they were before. (Loud cheers.) Would he argue that the ox was in a worse condition because he trod out less corn than he did before? How does it happen that the Haytians have not cultivated so much sugar as they did formerly. did they cultivate so much formerly? whip, to please their masters, not to please themselves. (Loud cheers.) What is the fact now? A gentleman who is now here is willing to come forward, and state it firmly, fearlessly, and openly. (Cheers.) After a twelve years' residence in Hayti, where he kept a regular account of exports and imports, and investigated the manners, motives, and desires of the inhabitants, he is ready to testify that the commerce of Hayti is prosperous, and that the peasants of Hayti are as happy as any portion of the human family. (Loud cries of Name, name.') Mr. Shiel. (Loud and reiterated cheering.)

Why

Because of the

Mr. SHIEL then stood upon the table, and said-Ladies and Gentlemen, called upon as I have been by the gentleman who has already addressed you for upwards of three hours, I do not come forward to make any long oration, I

merely come forward to say that the facts stated by that gentleman, with regard to Hayti, are perfectly correct, and that I have witnessed them. I know that the people of Hayti are free, independent, comfortable, and happy. (Cheers.) There is also another point which I wish to notice; a point which has never yet been laid before the British public :-I allude to the revolution which occurred in Hayti in 1822, when the Spanish part of the colony threw off the yoke of slavery. That revolution was effect ́ed by the people, without a single act of violence even of the most trifling character. (Cheers.) The masters, it is to be observed, were Spaniards-a people who never maltreated their slaves. (Hear, hear.) The slaves declared themselves free, shook off the Spanish yoke, and joined the republican part of Hayti, without a single act of violence or the slightest destruction of property. [Loud cheers.]

Mr. THOMPSON then resumed, and after eulogising the condition of the free negroes in Sierra Leone, in comparison with the West Indian, he said he would come to Mr. Borthwick's leg. [Laughter.] He wished he could come down from where he then was [Mr. B. was in front of the side boxes] and show them his calf, that he might see what he had to work upon-[a laugh]—although he suspected that there was calf higher when he gave that challenge. [Great laughter.] However he would reply to Mr. Borthwick's challenge, by giving him a counter one. He [Mr. T.] never said that he could lay open the flank of a mule with a Jamaica cart-whip. What he said was, that a skilful athletic slave driver had actually done so, in the presence of Mr. Coultart, the missionary. Now, if Mr. Borthwick could make a coat to fit him [Mr. Thompson] as well as the one which he then had on, he would give him two hundred pounds. [Cheers and laughter.] And if Mr. Borthwick could not make a coat, how could he expect him [Mr. Thompson] to lay open the calf of his leg, which he begged to assure him he would not do for the world, even if he could. Mr. Thompson then proceeded to combat the arguments of Mr. Borthwick in reference to the danger of emancipation. He quoted the example of Sir Stamford Raffles in Java, and of Bolivar, in Mexico, who abolished slavery by a dash of the pen, with the hap piest results. He further observed, that after deducting from

the slave population the females, the aged, the infirm, and the children, those who had been converted to Christianity by the missionaries, and those who were attached to their masters, the remnant of the disaffected or revengeful would be too trifling to occasion alarm, even were they disposed to resist the mild and kindly influence of British laws and British mercy. The cry of danger was a mere bugbear to enhance the price of compensation. We are not fed by slavery, said Mr. Thompson, in conclusion, we are taxed by slavery; ours is the cause of humanity, theirs of interest; ours of religion, theirs of tyranny.

Mr. Thompson concluded a lecture of four hours duration by returning thanks for the attention with which he had been heard. The meeting then dispersed.

125)

MR. BORTHWICK'S REJOINDER.

On Friday evening the Amphitheatre was again filled at an early hour, to hear Mr. Borthwick's reply to the address of Mr. Thompson on the preceding evening.

CHARLES HORSFALL, Esq., was invited to take the Chair.

Mr. Borthwick then stood forward to address the meeting, but was loudly called upon to mount the table. This call he for some time resisted, but the vociferation continuing, he at length yielded to the persevering solicitations of the audience, and was then permitted to proceed. After some introductory observations he proceeded to say that the appearance of himself and his opponent before the public at the present moment, was, to say the least of it, rather premature, since two committess, one of the House of Commons, and the other of the House of Lords, were now sitting to examine the very matters under discussion; the former having been appointed on the petition of the abolitionists, and the latter in answer to the prayers of the West Indian body. The sitting of these committees must afford some security to both of those parties, at whose instigation they were appointed, that the question would at last receive due consideration, and that justice would ultimately be done. It was, therefore, premature in the Anti-Slavery Society to be sending their agents to and fro over England, to urge upon the people the necessity of the immediate abolition of slavery. If the object was to get the House of Commons packed by abolitionists, then he ap-. pealed to every reformer who was present if this mode of influencing the electors of Great Britain was not as bad as the the much repudiated influence of the boroughmongers. These appeals would no doubt be followed by the proposal to require pledges from their future representatives, that they would vote for the immediate and unconditional abolition of slavery. He begged them, however, to suspend their judgment until they heard the evidence laid before parliament. This (said Mr. Borthwick) is the

sum of my request; and this will appear-[A voice from the gallery-By and by'-great laughter.] Mr. Borthwick then proceeded to reply to the charges of falsehood' and folly,' brought against him by his opponent, and to justify himself for referring in his former lecture to the published speech of Mr. Thompson, at Manchester. The statement respecting the free negroes at Sierra Leone, that the most happy of them were more miserable than the most miserable West Indian slave, he advanced on the authority of the Aid-de-Camp to General Turner. Mr. Borthwick then ridiculed the statement of Mr. Thompson, that like Nehemiah, he had a 'great work' to do, to accomplish which he must go hither and thither without stopping to carry on a discussion with Mr. Borthwick. The great work which Nehemiah had to do, was to build up the city of his fathers, the work of Mr. Thompson was to pull down. (Great uproar.) He rather resembled a certain person who, on one occasion, presented himself where the sons of God were met together, and who was said to go to and fro over the face of the earth. Mr. Thompson had replied to his former speech by recapitulating his twenty-six evils. He ought to have shown that these were peculiar to slavery in general, and to British colonial slavery in particular. This, however, he had failed to do. He had failed to prove that his first evil, the sterility of the soil, was peculiar to slavery. He had failed to refute the objection to the second evil, the enslavement of the children of slaves. He admitted that the child of the English peasant might rise to the highest distinction, and obtain the dignity of Lord Chancellor, a fact, which there were two splendid instances now living to prove. That the child of the slave might become a member of assembly was equally true. Hopkinson, Esq. the son of a female slave, who now resided in Liverpool, was so elected. With regard to the principle, that the sins of fathers might be visited upon their children, it was recognised by the express declaration of God himself. Mr. Borthwick then alluded to some of the other evils quoted by Mr. Thompson, and repeated many of his former arguments in refutation of these. He then, before proceeding further, read to the meeting a letter he had received that afternoon from Mr. Wm. Smith, in reference to an anecdote quoted by Mr. Thompson the