324 NEGRO CLERGYMAN. [CHAP. XXXVIII. 



away their money, were quite willing that no new 

 taxes should be imposed. The creditors, however, 

 went to law, and, by aid of the courts, compelled pay 

 ment, as the Supreme Court might have done in the 

 case of the delinquent States (had not the original con 

 stitution of the Union been altered before any of them 

 repudiated), which might have given a wholesome 

 check to rash enterprises guaranteed by State bonds. 



The booksellers tell me that their trade is injured 

 by the war-panic, and I observe that most of the 

 halfpenny, or cent papers, are still very belligerent 

 on the Oregon question. 



On Sunday I attended service, for the first time, 

 in a free black Episcopal church. Prayers were read 

 well by a negro clergyman, who was evidently an 

 educated man. The congregation consisted wholly 

 of the coloured race. Where there is a liturgy, and 

 where written sermons are read, there is small oppor 

 tunity of comparing the relative capabilities of Afri 

 cans and Europeans for the discharge of such func 

 tions. In the Baptist, Methodist, and Presbyterian 

 services, the success of the minister depends much 

 more on his individual ability. I was glad, however, 

 to see a negro officiating in a church which confers 

 so much social rank on its clergyman, and in no city 

 more than Philadelphia docs the coloured race stand 

 in need of some such make- weights to neutralise the 

 prejudices which retard their natural progress. We 

 were told of an ineffectual attempt, recently made 

 by a lady here, to obtain leave to bury a favourite 

 free negro woman in St. James s graveyard, although 

 she had died a member of the Episcopal church; 



