THE SLAVE RACES. 



455 



public, periodically stimulated by the Liberal 

 press, bad split up, ou the subject of the African 

 slave trade, into two sets of opinions, both 

 honestly believed in, both diametrically opposed 

 to each other, and both somewhat in extremes. 

 The one sanguinely represented it as crushed, 

 and congratulated the nation upon having dealt 

 its death-blow to a svstem which was rotting the 

 roots of prosperity and progress. The others de- 

 spondently declared that, although in some places 

 the snake was scotched, yet that it was nowhere 

 killed ; they proved that whilst slavery had in- 

 creased in horrors, the result of our interference, 

 yet the average quantity of the wretched mer- 

 chandise had not been diminished ; they opined 

 that nothing save the special interposition of 

 Providence could end that which had so long 

 baffled many best efforts; and being well ac- 

 quainted with details, they maintained that the 

 average opinion was a mere pandering to popu- 

 larity at the expense of truth. And, when weary 

 of the self-glorifying theme whose novelty had 

 engrossed the attention of their fathers, the public 

 readily attributed selfish motives to those who 

 would enliven their zeal. 



Fact, as usual, lay between the two assertions, 

 but the inner working of the slave-abolition 



