opposition to repeated expostulation and strong remonstrance from such men as Franklin, Adams, and Hancock, had extended the evils of slavery, and diffused this malignant plague throughout lands to which the omnipotence of her parliament could no longer be extended. Though long since abolished in New England, slavery was introduced into that country soon after its settlement. But it was in a form modified and mitigated by the spirit and principles of the Bible. While the cupidity of New England had done much to replenish the slave market of the south, the institutions of the Mosaic law were professedly the model of her own slavery. It was early enacted in the Massachu sets colony, that "all slaves shall have the liberties and Christian usage which the law of God established in Israel concerning such persons, doth morally require." The law in the state of Connecticut is thus expressed by Judge Reeve, in his law of baron and femme. "Slavery here was very far from being of the absolute and rigid kind. The master had no control over the life of his slave. If he killed him, he was liable to the same punishment as if he killed a freeman. He was as liable to be sued by the slave in an action for beating, or wounding, or for immoderate chastisement, as he would be if he had thus treated an apprentice. A slave was capable of holding property in character of a devisee, or legatee. If the master should take away such property, his slave would be entitled to an action against him.

Slaves had

the same right of life and property as apprentices; and the difference between them was this,—an apprentice is a servant for a time, and a slave is a servant for life."

And where the Bible has begun to exert this influence, it does more. It gradually remedies the evil, and wears it away. It did in Massachusetts, and slavery was abolished by their constitution. It did in Connecticut, and statutes were passed in 1783 and 1797, which have in their gentle and gradual operation, totally extinguished slavery in that State. It did in New Jersey by an act of the legislature in 1784. It did in Pennsylvania, by a similar act in 1780. In New York, for a long series of years, the Bible appears to have exerted little influence in mitigating the condition of the slave. "The master and mistress were authorized to punish their slaves at discretion, not extending to life or limb, and each town was authorized to appoint a common whipper for their slaves, to whom a salary was to be allowed. In the year 1740, it was observed by the legislature, that all due encouragement ought to be given to the direct importation of slaves, and all smuggling of slaves condemned, as an eminent discouragement to the fair trader!" The criminal code against them was fearfully severe. When capitally impeached, they were often tried out of the ordinary course of justice, and denied the rights and privileges of free subjects under like accusations. They were convicted on suspicion and on testimony that would

have been rejected by any court where a white man was the accused person. In 1741 on the discovery of what was called the "negro plot," thirteen were adjudged to the stake in our own city.* The last execution of this kind was witnessed at Poughkeepsie shortly before the commencement of the revolutionary war.† But this severity could not long be sustained in a Christian land. In process of time the penal code against slaves was meliorated; facilities were multiplied for the manumission of slaves; and the importation of slaves was at length prohibited. Laws were enacted also to teach the slaves to read, and a system commenced for the gradual abolition of slavery. Till at length, by the act of the 31st. of March, 1817, it was declared that every subject of the State, from and after the 4th day of July, 1827, shall be free. And now tell me, where except in Christian lands, can any such history of slavery be found as this? Is it not true that the Bible has silently and gradually so meliorated the relation between the master and the slave, that in the progress of its principles and spirit, it must ultimately either abolish this relation, or leave it on a basis of the purest benevolence!

I am pained to say, that slavery in no very mitigated form still exists in these United States.

*Smith's History of New York.

† Kent's Commentaries.

There are Christian masters to whom the evils and abuses of slavery are unknown. Nor are they few. And yet there are abuses in this system which it is high time were eradicated. I speak not now of those physical evils to which these our suffering fellow men are subjected, but of the domestic wrongs, the intellectual ignorance, and moral debasement to which they are doomed. The slave population of the south are by law forbidden to read; they may not unlock the treasures of human and divine knowledge. This cannot be right. This must be an offence in the sight of God. Christian men at the south, high-minded and honourable men should adopt early measures to remove this evil. They scarcely know how such a policy appears to impartial minds of all lands.

The condition of slaves in the southern States is described by Chancellor Kent, to be "more analagous to that of the slaves of the ancients, than to that of the villeins of feudal times, both in respect to the degradation of the slaves, and the full dominion and power of the master. The statute regulations with regard to slaves, follow the principles of the civil law, and are extremely severe, but the master has no power over life, or limb; and the severe letter of their laws is softened and corrected by the humanity of the age, and the spirit of Christianity." This is a sufficiently melancholy picture from such a pen. We lament it; we deeply lament it before God and the world. Nor is this the worst. It is esti

mated in a recent and important work on the slave trade, by Mr. Buxton, of the English parliament, that not less than one thousand negroes are, even at this late period of the world, every day torn from their homes in Africa, by the horrible cupidity of their fellow men.

And how shall the evil be remedied? Just as the Bible, and all sound experience tell us it has been remedied;-through the influence of the gospel, by the power of Christian truth, by the meekness and gentleness of Christian men. Grossness, calumny, obstinacy, and fury are not the remedy. Angry passions and bitter invective are not the re medy. Strife and ill will, accrimonious discussions and sanguinary war are not the remedy. These will throw a thousand obstacles in your path, and involve you in endless difficulties, and create need less enemies and opposition. Who does not see that it has done so already? and that in Virginia, in Kentucky, in Maryland, and in the District of Columbia, a very sensible and inauspicious change has taken place within a very few years in the sentiments of the public in relation to slavery? The late Dr. Griffin, one of the most devoted friends of the coloured race in this land, said to me a few months before his death, "I do not see that the efforts in favour of immediate emancipation, have effected any thing but to rivet the chains of the poor slave." Is not this a lamentable fact? Deeply as this evil was laid in the foundations of our country, it has already disappeared in many portions of