They touch our country, and their shackles fall.* Of all your empire; that, where Britain's pow'r But, highly as we appreciate the manly spirit of the Englishman, and the ardour of the philanthropist, in the foregoing verses, it is the Missionary Feeling, glowing in the following passage, that we most ad * The force and beauty of this passage will be best understood by the following statement. A slave, of the name of Somerset, was brought over to England from the West Indies, by his master, Mr. Stewart. Shortly after, he absented himself, and refused to return. He was pursued and arrested, and by Mr. Stewart's orders put on board by force, a ship, the captain of which was called Knowles. He was there detained in custody, to be carried out of the kingdom and sold. The case being made known was brought before Lord Chief Justice Mansfield, in the Court of King's Bench, June 22, 1772. The judgment of Lord Mansfield, on this occasion, was as follows:—“ A foreigner cannot be imprisoned here, on the authority of any law existing in his own country. The power of a master over his servant is different in all countries, more or less limited or extensive; the exercise of it therefore must always be regulated by the laws of the place where exercised. The power claimed by this return was never in use here. No master ever was allowed here to take a slave by force, to be sold abroad, because he had deserted from his service, or for any other reason whatever. We cannot say the cause set forth by this return is allowed or approved of by the laws of this kingdom, and therefore the man must be discharged." In other words," says a report of the 66 case, a negro slave, coming from the colonies into Great Britain, becomes ipso facto Free." mire, as expressing the only true mode of requiting injured Africa. Let us not think that we have discharged the debt by an act of emancipation. In conferring the boon of liberty, we restore only that, of which they ought never to have been deprived. Restitution is not compensation. We have granted * With what feelings of deep gratitude ought we to record the final emancipation of eight hundred thousand Negroes, in the West India Colonies, by an act which passed the British legislature, in the year 1834, dating the commencement of that memorable event from August the 1st. The sum of twenty millions was voted to the proprietors of slaves, as a compensation for any loss they might incur. Mr. Wilberforce was at this time on his dying bed, as if his life had been protracted to witness this noble consummation of all his labours. When he heard of this splendid act of national generosity, he lifted up his feeble hands to heaven, exclaiming, "Thank God, that I have lived to see my country give twenty millions to abolish slavery." The noble grant of the British and Foreign Bible Society (to commemorate this great event) of a copy of a New Testament and Psalter to every emancipated negro that was able to read, deserves to be recorded on this occasion. The measure originated in a suggestion of the Rev. Hugh Stowell. It was computed that, out of a population of eight hundred thousand negroes, one hundred and fifty thousand were capable of reading, and that an expenditure of twenty thousand pounds would be necessary to supply this demand. Forty tons cubic measure of New Testaments were destined to Jamaica alone. The Colonial Department was willing to assist in the transfer, but the Government packets were found to be too small for this purpose. It is greatly to the honour of some ship-owners, distinguished for their benevolence and public spirit, in the city of London, that they offered to convey this valuable deposit, free of freightage and expense, to its place of destination. The sum of fifteen thousand pounds was eventually contributed. compensation to the proprietor, but where is the compensation to the negro? Never will the accumulated wrongs of ages be redressed, till we say to We the sable sons of Africa, Behold your God. have burst the chains from the body, let us now convey to them the tidings of a nobler freedom, a deliverance from a worse captivity than even African bondage and oppression. Let us announce to them that God hath made of one blood all nations of men, that dwell on the face of the earth." Acts xvii. 26. Let their minds be expanded by instruction, and the Bible, that great charter of salvation, be circulated wherever it can be read, that thus Britain may acquire a lasting and an honourable title to their gratitude and love. Inform his mind; one flash of heavenly day And slaves, by truth enlarged, are doubly freed. While gratitude and love made service sweet, My dear deliverer out of hopeless night, Whose bounty bought me but to give me light, Sin forged, and ignorance made fast, the chain; At my best home, if not exiled from thee." Charity. That Ethiopia shall one day stretch out her hands unto God we have the assurance of a specific prophecy, as well as the general declarations of sacred scripture. "All the ends of the world shall remember and turn unto the Lord, and all the kindreds of the nations shall worship before thee." At what time or in what manner the prophecy will be accomplished it is not for us to determine. But should it please Divine Providence that the light of the gospel, through the instrumentality of Britain, should first spring forth from among that people in our own West India colonies, the land of their former servitude and oppression; should they subsequently, with bowels yearning for their own country, see fit to return, seized with a desire to communicate to the land of their nativity that gospel, the power of which they have previously felt for themselves; and should the hitherto inaccessible and unexplored parts of that vast continent thus become evangelised, such an event will furnish one of the most remarkable instances of an over-ruling Power, educing good out of positive evil, ever recorded in the annals of mankind. We beg to add one more remark. The Blacks are considered to be the descendants of Ham, who first peopled Africa. It pleased God to pronounce an awful curse on him and his posterity. "Cursed be Canaan, a servant of servants shall he be." For the long period of four thousand years has that curse impended over their heads. They have drunk the cup of bitterness to its lowest dregs. We conceive this terrible interdict to be now approaching to its termination. The curse began to be repealed, in part, when the abolition of slavery was first proclaimed by a British parliament. This was the seed time of the future harvest: the example of Britain cannot be exhibited in vain: other nations must follow that example, or suffer the consequences of their neglect. They must concede the liberty which is the great inherent right of all mankind, or expect to behold it wrested from them amidst scenes of carnage and blood. Policy, justice, and humanity, therefore, require the concession. We have said that the repeal of the curse had begun in part: it will be completed when civil privileges shall be considered to be only the precursors of that more glorious liberty flowing from the communication of the gospel of peace. Then will Africa be raised up from her state of moral degradation, and be elevated to the rank and order of civilized nations. Then will she once more boast of her Cyprians, her Tertullians, and her Augustines; and the voice of the Lord, speaking from his high and holy place, will proclaim to those "who in time past were not a people, but are become the people of God; which had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy:" "There is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, barbarian, Scythian, bond, nor free: but Christ is all, and in all.” Col. iii. 11. How sweetly does the muse of Cowper proclaim the blessings of this spiritual liberty! But there is yet a liberty, unsung By poets, and by senators unprais'd, Which monarchs cannot grant, nor all the pow'rs |