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opened, through which "Southern institutions" look beautiful in the distance. Here is poisoning at the fountain! Had we expended ten times-nay, one hundred times the effort we have to administer the antidote, we could not have been justly chargeable with over-estimating the importance of the measure. Slaveholders dread the young abolitionists more than they do the old.

About the last of November, two agents sailed for the West Indies, with instructions to gather all the facts within their reach, which go to illustrate the working of the British abolition act of 1834, both in regard to the unqualified immediate emancipation of Antigua, and the apprenticeship of the other islands. They have visited Antigua, Barbadoes, Jamaica, and some other islands, and have every where been furnished with the best facilities for investigation. Important results of their labors have been already laid before the public, and others will follow in due time, going to set the fitness of slaves for freedom, and the expediency of immediate, in preference to gradual, or partial, or qualified emancipation, in the clearest possible certainty.

The Committee cannot omit to mention, with heartfelt thanks to God, the important aid the cause has received from two sisters, from Charleston, S. C.-once the holders of slaves. They have, without reserve, laid themselves on the altar of the cause, at the expense of becoming aliens and outcasts from their native city, and from a large circle of slaveholding relatives and friends. For their constant toil, they have declined receiving any pecuniary compensation. Their touching "appeals," both written and oral, have, we doubt not, kindled a genuine abolition flame in many thousands of hearts. Let them hold on their course, till universal womanhood is rallied in behalf of the bleeding victims of wrong.

Fully aware of the immense importance of British sympathy and concurrence to the cause of Emancipation in the United States, Mr. George Thompson has continued his labors in England and Scotland, with unabated zeal and the most cheering success. Through his agency, British Christians have been correctly informed of the character of American Slavery, and of its relation to the American. churches; and consequently memorials and remonstrances have been borne across the Atlantic by every breeze. These faithful and unsparing rebukes have had a most salutary

effect. They were at once so keenly felt, that our proslavery Christians resolved on a mighty effort to check George Thompson, and fill the eyes of their trans-atlantic brethren with the dust of their own sophistry. The champion of this worthy enterprise was the Rev. Robert J. Breckinridge, a native of Kentucky-one of the great lights of the Presbyterian church-a divine who is said to have liberated some of his own slaves-and a gradualist. Backed by the highest testimonials, and commended by his own. dignity and eloquence, he found in the British public so great a readiness to recoil from the appalling statements of Mr. Thompson to his own soothing varnishes, that he ventured to accept a challenge, to a public debate. The discussion took place at Glasgow, and continued five successive evenings. The cause of American prejudice and oppression was managed by Mr. Breckinridge with great adroitness. But his ingenious declamation was met and refuted by American documents, and he was indeed condemned out of his own mouth. Mr. Thompson more than sustained every position which he had taken, by testimony which passed the ordeal of his opponent's closest scrutiny, and conquered the doubts and scruples which had hitherto stood in the way of his own complete success. It was stipulated by the pro-slavery champion, that no decision should be taken immediately after the discussion. The Glasgow Emancipation Society, however, on the 1st of August, took occasion to give its opinion of the matter, when the Rev. Dr. Wardlaw, who presided at the discussion, delivered an eloquent speech, in which were the following words:"I shrink not from saying of him thus publicly, what I have said more privately in the Committee, that I consider him (Mr. Thompson) in this as in former controversies, as having borne himself, in every respect, creditably to his character and to his cause; to have established, to the full, his previous statements; to have successfully vindicated his trans-atlantic proceedings; to have justified the condemnation of the American Colonization scheme; and to have fairly fastened the guilt of slavery on the government and people of the United States; that I consider him, in a word, as having come out of this seven-times-heated furnace unscathed-without a "hair of his head singed, or the smell of fire having passed upon him." If the meeting are of one mind with me, they will accept the following resolution :

That in the deliberate judgment of this meeting, the wish announced by Mr. George Thompson, to meet publicly any antagonist, especially any minister of the Gospel from the United States, on the subject of American Slavery, or on any one of the branches of that subject, was dictated by a well-founded consciousness of the integrity of his purpose, and assurance of the correctness of his facts; and that the recent discussion in this city, between him and the Rev. R. J. Breckenridge, of Baltimore, has left, not merely unshaken, but confirmed and augmented their confidence in the rectitude of his principles, the purity of his motives, the propriety of his measures, the fidelity of his statements, and the straight-forward honesty and undaunted intrepidity of his zeal."

The vote on this resolution proved the meeting to be of "one mind" with Dr. Wardlaw; and if we may judge from the extreme bitterness of Mr. Breckinridge's subsequent letters, the same mind now pervades the great majority of British Christians. In his letter to Dr. Wardlaw, he abandons all attempt to justify the American churches, and resorts to recrimination-contented with the miserable consolation of reproaching British Christians with the abuses which exist under British laws. Unfortunately for this last resort, these abuses prove to be no darlings of those who have presumed to rebuke American slavery.

The memorials and remonstrances that come to us across the water, show that slaveholders must not longer expect to be welcomed to the pulpits or the church fellowship of British Christians. Their spirit may be illustrated by the language of the Rev. Mr. Mursell, at a Baptist Missionary meeting in Birmingham, in July, 1836. That gentleman said, with his eye on the abolitionists of America,

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I am happy to say, sir, that we do not stand alone in this opinion, but that a large and reputable body of men on the American continent are under the same conviction, and fired by a similar spirit. To these we resolve this evening to stretch out the hand of fellowship, and upon them we desire the blessing of hearen may descend. (Hear, hear.) We will assist them by rousing on all fitting occasions the British mind-by circulating in every possible way relevant information-by conveying loud and long remon strance-and by RETIRING FROM ALL UNION WITH THOSE CHURCHES WHICH REFUSE TO HEARKEN TO OUR CRY. (Cheers) LET IT BE DISTINCTLY UNDERSTOOD HERE, THAT ON THIS ACCOUNT, THE RELIGIOUS INTERCOURSE BETWEEN THE BAPTISTS IN AMERICA AND THOSE IN ENGLAND IS SUSPENDED. (Immense cheering.)"

The Rev. Dr. Wardlaw, in the speech already referred to, used the following emphatic language:

"Mr. Breckinridge has said, that if this subject is much meddled with, and especially if such measures are persisted in as those hitherto pursued, there must be a breaking up of the fellowship of American and British Christians. Sir, I prize that fellowship highly; I prize it individually—

I prize it collectively. But if it is a fellowship which requires to be maintained by connivance at iniquity and oppression-if it is not to be enjoyed without our entering into a compact to be silent or to be inactive, on topics respecting which we feel it our incumbent and indispensable duty to "lift up our voices like a trumpet," and show our brethren their sin-THEN I SAY, WITH WHATEVER RELUCTANCE AND WHATEVER PAIN, LET THE FELLOWSHIP CEASE!"

The Southern Religious Telegraph gives an extract of a letter from a Virginian travelling in Scotland, dated Oct. 3d, 1836, which bears a strong testimony to the value of Mr. Thompson's labors. Witness the following:

"Since my arrival in this country, I have had frequent occasions to witness among the dissenting clergy in particular, their utter abhorrence not only of the system of slavery, but also of the principles which are advocated by the greater part of Southern Christians. To maintain that Slavery, in itself considered, is not necessarily sinful, is in their view so repugnant to every dictate of reason and Scripture, that they can hardly reconcile it with their consciences to believe that the advocate of such a sentiment can ever have experienced the regenerating influence of God's grace. This state of things has been brought about chiefly through the instrumentality of the noted George Thompson. This man, by exaggeration and distortion of isolated facts, has so wrought upon the feelings of the Christians of England and Scotland, that it will require no ordinary sagacity and forbearance, on the part of the Southern Christians, to prevent the disruption of that union of feeling and action which has heretofore so happily existed."

The last remonstrance which has reached us is from Dumbarton and the Vale of Leven, signed by more than FOUR THOUSAND of old Scotia's "hardy sons of rustic toil"

"The wall of fire around her much-loved isle,"

who ask us, with the solemn energy of aggrieved friendship, to wipe the stain from the brow of that American liberty, on which they have loved to gaze, and to wash the "blood of murdered thousands" from the robes of that American Christianity which they long to welcome to the full fellowship of their hearts. What answer shall we return to these four thousand friends?

In the name and strength of God, let George Thompson and his associates go on-let them stamp the brand of felony upon slaveholding, " in itself considered," till the "sagacity" of Southern Christians shall no longer find the means of hiding it under the sanctity of the church.

Let us now survey the results of Anti-Slavery action at home, and see how far they offer rational encouragement for further labors.

As our object has been to affect the hearts and consciences of men, by an appeal to their religious feelings, we should

naturally look for the most marked results upon truly religious men. A glance at the religious periodicals within the year, must have convinced any one that a great change has been going forward. Not only has the discussion of slavery increased, but a great number of religious bodies have passed and published the most pointedly Anti-Slavery resolutions. Among these cheering testimonies, we notice the following:

The Worcester Central (Congregational) Association

says

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The usurpation, by man, of dominion over his fellow man, is a sin; which, as it ought not to be done, ought at once to be forever forsaken."

The Cincinnati (Presbyterian) Synod, of Ohio, recommend to all the churches under their care, "to prepare memorials to the General Assembly, that they will enjoin on the inferior judicatories to enforce discipline upon all those who claim the right of property in their fellowmen."

The General (Congregational) Conference of Maine, say, "That slaveholding, as it exists in a portion of these United States, is a great sin against God and man, for which the nation ought to humble itself, and for the speedy and entire removal of which, every Christian ought to pray and use all suitable means within his reach."

In the Pastoral Address to the Congregational Churches of Strafford County, N. H., the abolition cause is warmly commended, and the following rebuke is dealt to those whom it may concern:

"It is mockery, and the world will see it, and our consciences must feel it, for us to pass votes to supply every family in the United States with the Bible, while with Priest and Levite indifference we pass by and leave destitute three hundred thousand American families."

The Presbytery of Montrose, Pa., say-

"That the buying, selling, or holding of a slave, is a heinous sin and scandal, and requires the cognizance of the judicatories of the church."

The General (Congregational) Association of New-York, convened at Brighton, passed the following resolution:

"Resolved, That this Association feel bound, by the principles of our holy religion, to co-operate with our brethren who are laboring by truth, and mo. tive, and prayer, to effect the immediate abolition of slavery in these United States."

The General Conference of Seventh Day Baptists, assembled at Alfred, N. Y., passed the following resolutions :

"1. Resolved, That we consider the practice of holding human beings as mere goods and chattels, entirely subject to the will of their masters, under a tenure which neither recognizes nor secures their religious rights, but, on the contrary, annuls the marriage contract-destroys parental gov.

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