THE NEGRO FRIEND. 187 



composed various metrical trifles, which gradually 

 brought him into notice ; and his father at length, re- 

 lenting, established him, and one of his sisters in a 

 tavern : but taking an active part in opposing the slave- 

 trade, by his voice, and through the press, besides fur- 

 nishing Mr. Clarkson with information on the subject, 

 he received little support from the public. In conse- 

 quence, he abandoned his speculation, and purchased 

 a share in a weekly paper " the Liverpool Herald ;" 

 of which, with the aid of an amenuensis, he became 

 editor; and finally, owing to some difference of opinion 

 with the other proprietors, sought another livelihood 

 by opening a bookseller's shop. In 1806 he published 

 a volume of poems; and in 1807, by the skilful oper- 

 ation of Mr. Gibson of Manchester, he recovered his 

 sight sufficiently to read large print with glasses, after 

 having sustained its loss for thirty years. His death 

 occurred November, 22. 1814, three years after that of 

 his wife, and a favorite daughter. It would be injustice 

 towards his memory to pass by in silence the fact, 

 that the first plan of the Liverpool Blind Asylum ori- 

 ginated with Mr. Rushton, 1790. 



It is sincerely to be hoped that the days are now ra- 

 pidly drawing nigh, when slavery shall be alike a 

 stranger to the Colonial territories, as to the native soil 

 of Britain; and that the obstacles which have been 

 hitherto deemed insurmountable, may give way before 

 the persevering efforts of philanthropy, in conferring 

 the blessings of rational freedom of civil and religious 

 liberty, on the long oppressed negro found " guilty of 

 a skin ; " and reduced to the thraldom of often worse 

 than Egyptian bondage by men who professed and 

 called themselves Christians. Although so good and 

 great a man as Columbus sanctioned its introduc- 

 tion into the New World, the hope of the negro's being 

 brought under religious instruction seems to have out- 

 weighed, in his mind, the actual horrors of the system 

 to which he thus gave his countenance ; and that con- 

 sideration alone succeeded in wringing a tardy and 

 reluctant toleration of the measure from the benevolent 



