LETTER TO MR. JOHN TAYLOR. 263 



contemporaries. May you long live to prove that physical 

 infirmity is not inconsistent with great mental efficiency ! 



In this place, it is proper to introduce passages 

 from Professor Silliman's letters to Mr. John Taylor 

 of Liverpool. This gentleman was an enemy of the 

 slave-trade and of slavery ; and these letters, though 

 not confined to this topic, give energetic expres 

 sion to the feelings with which Professor Silliman 

 had beheld the encroachments of slavery in this 

 country during several years. 



TO MR. JOHN TAYLOR. 



NEW HAVEN, September 19, 1854. 



WHAT a contrast does your review of the epochs 



you have named, covering more than sixty years, present to 

 us of blasted hopes and despotism triumphant both in royal 

 and republican garb. The interesting but painful sketch 

 which you have drawn of affairs at home, and prospects 

 abroad, I have surveyed with solemn foreboding. The wars 

 in which England has often, during one thousand years, 

 been engaged, have produced burdens which are grievous to 

 be borne. Cowper says, that war is a game at which kings 

 would not play if people were wise ; but how shall the 

 people have a chance to show their wisdom ? For conti 

 nental Europe I see little prospect of amelioration, cer 

 tainly not without revolution, and as long as millions of 

 bayonets are bristling over their heads the people cannot 

 move. Ton have substantial liberty^but you need more re 

 form, and a reduction of expenses to relieve your people 

 from taxation, and especially in the form of the odious in 

 come tax. Thanks to you for your vivid reminiscence of 

 the ancient renown of your national Greys. Even Napo 

 leon, you will remember, at the Battle of Waterloo, ex 

 pressed his admiration on seeing the Scotch Greys, having 



