ly through the unhealthy parts of it; to ascend it against the current; in short, to command its navigation.

Beyond and besides all these, there is another circumstance lately brought into existence which may supply us with the necessary agents capable of enduring the African climate. I wish not, with too sanguine an eye, to anticipate the course of events, but I cannot help believing, as I have elsewhere stated, that in the present condition of the negro race in our West Indian colonies lies one of the best hopes of Africa. They are rising, under the influence of freedom, education, and religion, to a rank, which will fit them to be messengers of peace to the land from which their fathers were torn; and already, though the time has been so short, various, distinct, and unconcerted symptoms have appeared, proving that "it pitieth them to see her in the dust."

At the moment, then, that a highway is discovered into the heart of Africa, and that a new power is placed in our hands enabling us to command its navigation, and that agents present themselves qualified by physical constitution to endure the climate; and by intellectual cultivation to carry with them the seeds of true improvement; at that moment, we learn the utter fallacy and inutility of the system for the suppression of the Slave Trade which we have hitherto been pursuing.

But there is another consideration, though quite of a different order, which bears strongly upon this point. New markets for the sale of our manufactured articles are urgently required, at a time when we are excluded from some of our accustomed channels of sale.

Nor is the supply of the raw material less import. ant; new fields for its growth ought to be opened, in proportion to the increasing consumption of the world. I firmly believe that, if commercial countries consulted only their true interests, without reference to motives of a higher character, they would make the most resolute and persevering attempts to raise up Africa -not to divide her broad territory amongst them, nor to enslave her people, but in order to elevate her into something like an equality with themselves, for their reciprocal benefit.

But I am well aware that it is a case in which we must act under circumstances of considerable discouragement; and especially that of our great ignorance with regard to the real internal condition of Africa, both physical and moral.

Upon any other subject, the dimness of our knowledge would supply an unanswerable reason for pausing; but the state of Africa admits no delay. The complicated horrors which are crowded into the space of a single month, furnish sufficient reasons for all possible dispatch, and for adventuring on measures, which, under other circumstances, would be premature and probably rash. Better to fall into a thousand errors in the detail, and to incur the expense and mortification of the miscarriages they will cause, than to sit still, and leave Africa to her woeful fate.

If nothing be done, Africa will be at the end of 50 or 100 years what she now is, and we shall still be as ill-informed, as we now are, of the readiest means for her relief. But if we grapple with the evil, we shall either find ourselves in the right road, or grope our way to it; and the very mistakes we now make will serve to direct us aright hereafter.

I am not so sanguine as to suppose that we can at once, by a single effort, solve the problem which lies before us. The deliverance of Africa will put our patience and perseverance to no ordinary trial. We must deliberately make up our minds to large and longcontinued expense, to persevering labors, and to severe disappointments. I wish not in any degree to conceal from myself, or from others, these truths.

But the question is, -Shall such an experiment be made? There are two mighty arguments which should prompt us to such an undertaking: the intense miseries of Africa, and the peculiar blessings which have been showered upon this country by the mercy of Divine Providence. With regard to the first, I need not again plunge into the sickening details of the horrors which accompany this bloody trade, and of the sanguinary rites, which there bear the name of religion. Whether we look to the vast space which is there made a theatre of public misery, or calculate how many deeds of cruelty and carnage must be perpetrated every day in the year, in order to make up the surprising total of human distress, which, by indisputable documents, we know to be realized, there is enough to awaken the deepest pity, and to arouse the most energetic resolution.

Turning to the second consideration, we cannot fail to see how signally this nation has been preserved, and led forward to an extent of power and prosperity, beyond what almost any other nation has been permitted to reach. "It is not to be doubted that this coun. try has been invested with wealth and power, with arts and knowledge, with the sway of distant lands, and the mastery of the restless waters, for some great and important purpose in the government of the world. Can we suppose otherwise than that it is our office to carry civilization and humanity, peace and good government, and, above all, the knowledge of the true God, to the uttermost end of the earth ?"*

Since that passage was written, Great Britain has refuted the idle, yet once the all but universal doctrine, that confusion, havoc, and bloodshed must follow the extinction of slavery. And with this doctrine of universal convulsion has also fallen the allegation, that negroes will not work, except under the impulse of the whip. It is confessed by every authority, that wages have charmed away what used to be called "the natural and incurable indolence of the African." I do not say a single word here upon the controverted question, whether the negroes demand excessive remuneration. We may assume, for the sake of argument, that they are exorbitant. This may be a fault, though, under all the circumstances, not an unnatural or surprising one; but this does not touch my assertion, grounded upon all the papers which have been produced to Parliament, that, when satisfied with the rate of wages, they do labor industriously, and execute more work, in better style, and in less time, than when they were slaves. There never was a greater delusion, than that negroes could not be induced to work for money.

A nobler achievement now invites us. I believe that Great Britain can, if she will, under the favor of the Almighty, confer a blessing on the human race. It may be that at her bidding a thousand nations now

steeped in wretchedness, in brutal ignorance, in devouring superstition, possessing but the one trade, and that one the foulest evil that ever blighted public prosperity, or poisoned domestic peace, shall, under British tuition, emerge from their debasement, enjoy a long line of blessings-education, agriculture, commerce, peace, industry, and the wealth that springs from it; and far above all, shall willingly receive that religion which, while it confers innumerable temporal blessings, opens the way to an eternal futurity of happiness.

I have already confessed that I am not experienced or skilful in matters which touch the commercial part of the question. I tread this ground with diffidence. I say no more, than that it appears to me that the soil in Africa being rich, and the people being found upon it, it is not advisable to carry them to a distance. It is possible, however, that some fallacy, unsuspected by me, may lurk under my theory, if theory of mine it can be called; but when I come to humanity, justice, and the duties of Christian men, I stand upon a rock. It may be, or it may not, that while we act under the impulse of charity to the most afflicted of mankind, we are also obeying the dictates of the most far-sighted policy, and the most refined ambition. It may prove, or it may not, that while we are leading Africa to grow at home, cheaper sugar than Brazil, and cheaper cotton than the United States, we are renovating the very sinews of our national strength. Be this as it may, without doubt it is the duty of Great Britain to employ the influence and the strength which God has given her, in raising Africa from the dust, and enabling her, out of her own resources, to beat down Slavery and the Slave Trade