1830.] Voice of the Country Abolition of Slavery. 83 



Mr. Wilberforce was followed by Mr. Buxton, Lord Milton, and that 

 " precious youth/' Mr. T. B. Macauley, who amused the meeting by 

 comparing the " high minded" negroes to post horses ! Mr. Hunt en- 

 deavoured to procure a hearing for the poor paupers of England, and 

 reminded the meeting that in some parishes they were forced to draw 

 waggons in the depth of winter, or starve ; but as these unfortunates 

 were merely " free-born Englishmen," with white complexion, he was 

 hooted down and could not obtain anything like a fair hearing. The 

 Rev. Daniel Wilson next took in hand the motion intrusted to him, 

 which was in reference to " the moral and religious bearings of the 

 question," and, in the course of his speech, censured " the great religious 

 societies of the church of England, especially in reference to the 

 Codrington estates in Barbadoes, which, though in the hands of the 

 f Society for Propagating the Gospel in Foreign Parts,' for 120 years 

 past, were still worked by slaves, whose condition for a great part of 

 that time differed little from that of the slave population around them, 

 and was still a reproach to the church of England," for which we shall 

 have a word with him by and by ! Mr. Wilson was followed by Mr. 

 Bennet, Mr. Brownlow, and others ; and the meeting having talked 

 themselves into a fitting state to second any measure however violent, 

 Mr Pownall proposed, as an amendment to one of the resolutions, that 

 " from and after the 1st of January, 1830, every child born within the 

 king's dominions shall be free" Mr. H. Drummond seconded the 

 motion affirming that " there were subjects on which it was disgraceful 

 to speak coolly, but if he controuled himself now, and if he conjured 

 those who heard him to controul themselves also, it was that they might 

 keep smothered within them a more intense Jtre, it was that they might 

 keep from dissipating in idle speeches in a tavern, what was yet to be 

 called into action in a more efficient place. In his conscience, however, 

 he believed and feared, that this question would never be carried until 

 some black O'Connell, or some swarthy Bolivar was found to take it up!" 



Mr. Brougham and Mr. S. Rice, who must have felt ashamed of these 

 unseemly ebullitions of spleen, demonstrated the impractibility of the 

 amendment, and opposed or qualified it. They were followed by Mr. 

 Dan O'Connell, who seeing the meeting inclined to be placable, and 

 not having the fear of Mr. Doherty before his eyes, manfully declared 

 that (( he had served three apprenticeships to agitation," and that "ifwe 

 were to go to battle, the sooner we began the fight the better." After a 

 good deal of further blarney he talked of " a voice of thunder in the 

 glens and valleys of his native land" that had made itself heard already, 

 and " should ere long be heard again /" meaning, we suppose, that 

 he is to raise a rebellion in Ireland for the benefit of the negroes in 

 Jamaica. After Mr. Buckingham and others had delivered their senti- 

 ments, the thanks of the meeting were voted to Mr. Wilberforce, and 

 the audience dispersed. 



The most prominent feature in the resolutions of this meeting is that 

 which pledges the abolitionists to have a day fixed after which all the 

 children of slaves shall be born free ; but whether they mean to take 

 this question out of the hands of Mr. Otway Cave, or whether that 

 gentleman has given it up, and joined Mr. James Salt Buckingham, (as 

 would seem to be indicated by a paper put into our hands at the door,) 

 in schemes for encouraging the trade and civilization of China, time 

 must show ! To revert to the charge of the Rev. Daniel Wilson against 



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