interfere; and they return to their own selfish pleasure, wrapt up in the complacency of their own minds, though we tell them, that we want no more than the expression of their voice, and that by their silence they are increasing the miseries of their fellow creatures. (Applause.)

Adam Smith, that most accurate ana

I repeat it, if there be a person here, who has not read this terrible and affecting record, let him go home, and let him not stay till he has got and read the book. I repeat the title again, "A Picture of Negro Slavery, drawn by the Colonists themselves"--what, in this presence, I could not read one word of; and I know, that the hardest heart I address, cannot read one page of it without feeling that heart beat quick; that before he read another, his blood will grow cold; and that he will shut the book at last, astonished and confounded at the atrocities which he, by his silence, should be the means of committing upon those persons. (Applause.) I trust that no squeamish delicacy will prevent any man or woman who hears me from going through every line of this work; that we will not spare ourselves the horror and laceration of heart, the sickness which its disgusting details inspire; but that we will go on to the end, and then, refuse to sign our petition if you can! (Cheers.)

The fact is, that contemplating what the colonists themselves have told us is the improved condition of their slaves; it is to my mind, one of the most humiliating pictures of the weakness of our nature, that we can speak and hear so coolly of such a subject. We are living in the midst of our personal and domestic comforts; we rise in the morning, and the sun shines on our employment; and we close the day in the midst of our pleasures, our business, and our families; but we consider not, during these last twenty-four hours, how many of these slaves have suffered all that tyranny can inflict--all that humanity can endure. We think, that, because we attend a casual meeting, and sign our name to a petition, we have done enough; and we do no more: and we meet every day with the most sensible and amiable persons, possessed of what is generally called a good heart, we ask them to think of this matter--we ask them to come here--they shake their heads, look grave, give a few sighs for suffering humanity, but tell us they do not like to

case: suppose a man, of what are called generous feelings, to sustain any little injury, we shall suppose about the edge of his nail we all know what that man feels; he works about it, and talks about it, and thinks of nothing but the scratch of his nail. Should you meet this man, and tell him that certain news had just been received, that the whole empire of China had been swallowed up by a wave, and that three hundred millions of his fellow-creatures had in a moment ceased to live,what is the case? Why, says the learned Doctor, with a perfect knowledge of, but with a severe sarcasm on our nature, he will utter some well-turned period on the precariousness of mortal life, look sad,-he gets to the end of a division of the street, and then returns to his nail again. (Laughter.) We, gentlemen, are not unlike the fancied case put by this profound moral philosopher. Here are we, an assembly met for the subjugation and gradual abolition of slavery, and yet, notwithstanding the acknowledged benevolence of our designs, and though I delight to see the respectability of this meeting, permit me to tell you, that even with all the unwearied exertions of the office-bearers of the Society, we cannot count, out of all the citizens of Edinburgh, more than five hundred contributors, to the extent of five shillings a year. And yet, with that money, what light have we not poured upon the public mind, with regard to the situation of these poor creatures of slaves! What shock have we not given to that system of tyranny by which they are oppressed! It is worth while to observe what has been done by these mites. The mite multiplied becomes a treasure; and if these mites were poured in from one end of the island to the other, how many thousands might not we save from the event of possible degradation! Why, then, are they withheld ? The truth is, it is the anomaly of the evil which prevents us from seeing it. easily attach our sympathy to the case of an individual sufferer, when we hear every groan, and see every tear, and detect every quivering of every muscle; when we can follow him through the tale of his family woes, then our sympathies become flut tered, and we are all humanity. But when we can only describe wretchedness, by counting islands in the ocean, and enumerate by telling of hundreds, or thousands, or millions of sufferers, then our imagination is baffled in catching but one individual case, and we fall back on the

We

generality of our nature, and come to repose upon its continuance, as we do upon the continuance of some of the evils of the natural and moral universe, which, though we may regret, we know that man cannot remove. But could we only see a single slave for a single day, how different would be our sensations! I cannot tell you--imagination cannot conceive, nor words express what their circumstances are, even in an individual case. I can only say, that in the circumstances of the life of a single slave, every principle of human nature is subverted,--you have so conceived of all the extremity of distress that man can sustain, and all the extremity of insolence which power and selfishness can inflict,--you have the possession of life without the liver having the mastery over his own limbs,-you have labour without property--families without lawful relation--wrongs without redress-punishment without guilt-minds in which memory can remember no early education -fancy anticipate no aged repose. (Mur. mur of applause.)

And yet, with all this, and with the most unfeigned delight in the appearance presented to this meeting, if the funds of this Society shall be allowed to become bankrupt this year, as they were the last, and if this meeting is to pass over, and our petition, instead of carrying with it the great and united voice of our fellow-citizens, shall be allowed to go forth to Parliament with the suffrages of the few attached to it,-every observation I have made will apply to every individual who now hears me, and who shall be conscious of not having done what in him lies to put down this monstrous abuse. I know it is a common sentiment--a sentiment only the more dangerous, because apparently founded upon reflection. "What can we do? The thing has lasted a hundred years. Do you expect that this meeting is to do much good? It will last a certain time, we cannot say how long; why disturb ourselves, for we cannot succeed, or rather, government will do it without us." My Lord, I believe, as firmly as I believe in the ultimate progress of justice and truth, that succeed we shall. (Applause.) I entertain no more doubt of it, than I do of any future moral good. There is nothing I anticipate more confidently on this earth, than that all the West Indian islands, which now present to the eye of man some picture of the wretchedness of another world, will yet be the abode, not merely of the English language, but of the principles of the English Government, and the principles and practice of the Christian religion. (Applause.) I do anticipate, my Lord, a long reign of guilt in these islands, favoured by nature with every beauty, and yet cursed only by the selfishness of man. But I say, that though we were not to succeed, or rather, though we

cannot be sure of success, that ought not to abate one jot of the holy ardour with which this cause ought ever to be pursued. Success is not in the power of man; but it is always in the power of man to use the means by which he thinks success may most probably be attained. If we had yielded to despair, where was the Reformation? Where the English Revolution? (Cheers.) Or where our redemption in this country from the persecutions in Scotland, a hundred and fifty years ago! (Immense applause.) Success! you are blind if you look to the certainty of that in any mortal affairs; yet you are not the less to bear in mind, that the government of the world, so far as man is the instrument, is in our own hands, and that generally. Yet we ought to remember, we are accountable to Him who gave us this power, for the use we make of it. And, even when we fail, there is an elevation of sentiment-an independence of character -a consciousness of desire of usefulness, which sometimes make even failure a greater delight than ordinary success obtained without a struggle, and for an imaginary or a useless end. (Applause.) Let no man imagine he does his duty, by sitting with his hands before him, and saying, "There is a place a little way off, hemmed in with a circle of wretchedness; the people are not of the same colour; they speak not the same language with us,--there is an interfusion of a little water between us; we do not hear their groans -we will not attend to them." Let every man crush that ungenerous sentiment! Let him remember, it is the person only who does his duty, that is able aright to look the sun in the face, and say, "it is not my doing." In. my eyes, there is nothing so utterly heartless and contemptible, as the life and mind of that creature, who, wrapt up in his own ease, could hear all this, and say, "I can't succeed in undoing it, and therefore I won't try to

have it undone."

My Lord, I beg leave to read the petition, which proceeds upon the resolutions which have been moved by my friend. [The learned gentleman here read the very excellent petitition of the citizens of Edinburgh, which have appeared in several of the public prints, and sat down amid great applause.]

THE CASE OF THE MARINERS' CHURCH NEW ORLEANS.

There annually visit New Orleans from seven to ten thousand seamen; and their number is constantly increasing. They are principally natives of Great Britain and of the Northern States of America. For the moral and religious instruction of this large, highly-interesting, and important class of strangers, no provision whatever is made. On the contrary, the temptations to a departure from a course of moral aud

virtuous conduct are open, numerous, and pressing. This is specially true on the Sabbath. Too often the young and unwary, on finding themselves beyond the parental roof and parental voice, are hurried away, to the loss of health, character, and life. Benevolent merchants and others in New Orleans, on learning what has been done in London, Dublin, Liverpool, New York, and elsewhere, for seamen, have, in order to co-operate in the same work, formed themselves into a Mariners' Church Society. Their primary object is to erect a building, and support a preacher, for seamen. They feel, that, in order that the efforts made for mariners in other seaports may not be counteracted, but sustained in New Orleans, a Bethel Institution must be planted there ;-that while the Bethel flag is already waving over the Thames, the Mersey, the Clyde, and the Hudson,the time is come when it must also be unfurled over the dark and hitherto neglected waters of the Mississippi.

They design that the same edifice which serves for the Mariners' Church, shall also be used as a Sabbath School, and serve as a depository for Bibles and Tracts. The connexions of Louisiana with the adjoining and the Western States, and with the new Republics of Mexico and Guatemala, are so numerous and intimate, that greater facilities for the circulation of the Scriptures in these countries are possessed at New Orleans, than in any other American city. South of the United States, and north of the Isthmus of Darien, is a population of about nine millions, who are, with scarcely an exception, destitute of the word of life. The recent political changes in these and the other Hispano-American States, have broken down many barriers which have hitherto obstructed the circulation of the Sacred Writings. The door is now opening through which the Bible is to pass to the heart of the American Catholic Church. Indeed so liberal are the Catholics in Colombia, that a Bible Society has been organized in Bogota, which has for its President, the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs. In Mexico, a kindred liberal spirit is extending. In Tampico, Alvarado, Rio Grande, and other towns on the Gulph of Mexico, the inhabitants have purchased, at advanced prices, many copies of the New Testament, sent thither in vessels from New Orleans. A

short time since, a Spanish gentleman, who had been driven from Havannah on

account of suspected political opinions, called at New Orleans, on his way to Mexico. While at the office of the collector for the port, who is President both of the Louisiana Bible Society, and of the Mariners' Church Society, he, unsolicited, purchased fifty Spanish Testaments to take with him.

The managers of the Louisiana Bible

Society, desirous at once to supply their own immediate vicinity, and the valley of the Mississippi, with English and French Scriptures, and at the same time co-operate with the British and Foreign and American Bible Societies, in circulating the Spanish Scriptures through the new Republics, are obliged to state, that in their peculiar situation, they can personally do but little. Their desire is to aid in the support of some active and intelligent agent, whose express business it shall be to accomplish these objects. Experience has already proved, that any other mode of co-operation will effect their objects but partially, and not at all to the extent both desired and practicable. While upon many parts of the European Continent, it is a crime to read the Scriptures, -in Mexico, Guatemala, Colombia, Peru, Chili, and Buenos Ayres, the priests are desirous not only of purchasing for themselves, but of circulating them among the people. Shall enlightened Protestants neglect such an opening and such a moment to send among their awekening Catholic brethren those Scriptures, which, while bestowing so many temporal, and social, and political blessings, also make wise unto eternal life?

To procure the land, erect a suitable building, and endow it with funds adequate to the support of a mariner's preacher, and of an agent for the Bible Society, a large sum will be required. Measures have already been taken in the American Atlantic cities to secure their aid; and liberal assistance is offered in New York, Boston, &c. Whatever sum is collected in Great Britain, is to be deposited in Liverpool or London.

This case is strongly recommended, and subscriptions will be gratefully received in London, by Mr. William Skinner, Secretary to the Religious and Charitable Institution House, 32, Sackville Street, Piccadilly, to whom also any donations can be sent by letter, specifying the object; or by Colonel Aspinwall, 1, Bishopsgate Church Yard; or by R. H. Marten, Esq. 40, Commercial Sale Rooms, Mincing Lane ; or by Professor Shedd, 20, Keppel Street, Russell Square.