the slave population the females, the aged, the infirm, and the children, those who had been converted to Christianity by the missionaries, and those who were attached to their masters, the remnant of the disaffected or revengeful would be too trifling to occasion alarm, even were they disposed to resist the mild and kindly influence of British laws and British mercy. The cry of danger was a mere bugbear to enhance the price of compensation. We are not fed by slavery, said Mr. Thompson, in conclusion, we are taxed by slavery; ours is the cause of humanity, theirs of interest; ours of religion, theirs of tyranny.

Mr. Thompson concluded a lecture of four hours duration by returning thanks for the attention with which he had been heard. The meeting then dispersed.

MR. BORTHWICK'S REJOINDER.

On Friday evening the Amphitheatre was again filled at an early hour, to hear Mr. Borthwick's reply to the address of Mr. Thompson on the preceding evening.

CHARLES HORSFALL, Esq., was invited to take the Chair.

Mr. Borthwick then stood forward to address the meeting, but was loudly called upon to mount the table. This call he for some time resisted, but the vociferation continuing, he at length yielded to the persevering solicitations of the audience, and was then permitted to proceed. After some introductory observations he proceeded to say that the appearance of himself and his opponent before the public at the present moment, was, to say the least of it, rather premature, since two committess, one of the House of Commons, and the other of the House of Lords, were now sitting to examine the very matters under discussion; the former having been appointed on the petition of the abolitionists, and the latter in answer to the prayers of the West Indian body. The sitting of these committees must afford some security to both of those parties, at whose instigation they were appointed, that the question would at last receive due consideration, and that justice would ultimately be done. It was, therefore, premature in the Anti-Slavery Society to be sending their agents to and fro over England, to urge upon the people the necessity of the immediate abolition of slavery. If the object was to get the House of Commons packed by abolitionists, then he appealed to every reformer who was present if this mode of influencing the electors of Great Britain was not as bad as the the much repudiated influence of the boroughmongers. These appeals would no doubt be followed by the proposal to require pledges from their future representatives, that they would vote for the immediate and unconditional abolition of slavery. He begged them, however, to suspend their judgment until they heard the evidence laid before parliament. This (said Mr. Borthwick) is the

sum of my request; and this will appear-[A voice from the gallery-By and by'-great laughter.] Mr. Borthwick then proceeded to reply to the charges of falsehood' and 'folly,' brought against him by his opponent, and to justify himself for referring in his former lecture to the published speech of Mr. Thompson, at Manchester. The statement respecting the free negroes at Sierra Leone, that the most happy of them were more miserable than the most miserable West Indian slave, he advanced on the authority of the Aid-de-Camp to General Turner. Mr. Borthwick then ridiculed the statement of Mr. Thompson, that like Nehemiah, he had a 'great work' to do, to accomplish which he must go hither and thither without stopping to carry on a discussion with Mr. Borthwick. The great work which Nehemiah had to do, was to build up the city of his fathers, the work of Mr. Thompson was to pull down. (Great uproar.) He rather resembled a certain person who, on one occasion, presented himself where the sons of God were met together, and who was said to go to and fro over the face of the earth. Mr. Thompson had replied to his former speech by recapitulating his twenty-six evils. He ought to have shown that these were peculiar to slavery in general, and to British colonial slavery in particular. This, however, he had failed to do. He had failed to prove that his first evil, the sterility of the soil, was peculiar to slavery. He had failed to refute the objection to the second evil, the enslavement of the children of slaves. He admitted that the child of the English peasant might rise to the highest distinction, and obtain the dignity of Lord Chancellor, a fact, which there were two splendid instances now living to prove. That the child of the slave might become a member of assembly was equally true. Hopkinson, Esq. the son of a female slave, who now resided in Liverpool, was so elected. With regard to the principle, that the sins of fathers might be visited upon their children, it was recognised by the express declaration of God himself. Mr. Borthwick then alluded to some of the other evils quoted by Mr. Thompson, and repeated many of his former arguments in refutation of these. then, before proceeding further, read to the meeting a letter he had received that afternoon from Mr. Wm. Smith, in reference to an anecdote quoted by Mr. Thompson the

He

evening before, from the Christian Record, respecting the punishment of five negroes for trespassing and plucking grass upon the estate of a Mr. Wildman. Mr. Smith stated that his father was the magistrate before whom the negroes were examined, and that no proof was adduced that the mistress of the slaves had participated in their offence, by directing the mto commit the trespass. Lord Goderich had directed, through Lord Belmore, that an investigation into the circumstances of the case should take place, when Mrs. Clarke, the owner of the slaves was fully exonerated from any blame. After commenting upon this letter Mr. Borthwick proceeded to inform the audience, that on the evening of his last lecture Mr. John Cropper, who was standing behind the boxes, said to the persons near him-' Hiss the scoundrel down.' This statement occasioned the greatest sensation and uproar in the meeting, during which Mr. Adam Hodgson got upon the table and attempted to address the audience. He was strongly opposed, however, particularly by the gentlemen who were placed upon the stage; and finding it impossible to be heard, he again resumed his seat. Mr. Hodgson afterwards made a second attempt to be heard, and mounted the table for that purpose, but was again compelled to descend without effecting his purpose. Mr. Borthwick, however, ultimately succeed in obtaining for him a hearing.

Mr. HODGSON having a third time ascended the table said that he had too much respect both for the meeting and for the chairman to have taken a place upon the table without his permission. He wished the gentlemen on the stage behind him to know this fact. (Hear.) He did not stand there to disavow the fact just stated by the gentleman, or to extenuate that fact. It was an error, a very great error-an error so great, that had he, as chairman, heard Mr. Cropper utter these words, he would have felt it his duty to send an officer to take Mr. Cropper under his charge. (Hear.) He then read a communication which Mr. Cropper had addressed to him in the expectation that the subject might be publicly alluded to that evening, and which was nearly to the following effect:

'I exceedingly regret that from a want of self-control, and from a momentary impulse of feeling, I gave utterance to a very unjustifiable expression of feeling for which I am to blame. I made the very earliest apology to Charles

Horsfall, and as it was made in thy presence, and to thy satisfaction, I shall feel obliged by thy communicating the same to the meeting. I am thine truly. JOHN CROPPER.

[We understand that the occasion on which Mr. Cropper inadvertently gave utterance to his feelings, was that on which Mr. Borthwick charged the Baptist missionaries with having instigated the slaves to rebellion.]

Mr. HORSFALL briefly stated that Mr. Cropper did call on him on the following morning, and made an apology in the way he had described.

Mr. BORTHWICK then resumed his lecture, and in allusion to the alleged cowardice and meanness of slavery, observed that this would form a good argument against the slave trade, but had no force in reference to the present condition of British Colonial Slavery. The word cowardice reminded him of the circumstance of Mr. Thompson declining to lecture before a chairman, whose name was a synonyme for all that was noble in the character of a British merchant, and honorable in that of a British gentleman. But before such a gentleman, because he was connected with the West Indian Association-Mr. THOMPSON (in a loud voice) Read the letter' (cries of 'shame'—' turn him out' throw him over'-' break his neck '—and great uproar, in which many of the gentlemen on the stage heartily joined. [We observed a number of young lads who formed the back row of the stage to be particularly vociferous.]

When order had been partially restored, which was not until the lapse of some time, the CHAIRMAN addressing Mr. Thompson said, he must be well aware of the impropriety of his conduct; he must be well aware of the effect of the example he had set; he trusted there would be no more interruption; but if there was, either Mr. Thompson or any one who occasioned it, should be taken out of the house. (Prodigious uproar.)

Mr. THOMPSON immediately rose from his seat which he occupied in the front of one of the side boxes, and waving an adieu to the audience, retired from the house. The friends who surrounded him at the same time rose, and several of them accompanied him out of the box.

Mr. BORTHWICK then re-mounted the table and attempted to address the house, but it was some time before he could obtain a hearing, so great was the sensation produ