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long bill of indictments, as we may call it, against slavery, contained in the third resolution evinces that it was the Christian rather than the political consideration by which the Methodist mind was swayed. It reminds us of the correctness of the great Edmund Burke's philosophical remark, when he was contemplating certain civil changes for the benefit of the nation: "I depend for success infinitely more on the effect and influence of religion, than upon all else put together." The following analysis, printed by order of the House of Commons, when the struggle was ended, will clearly show the energy put forth by the Methodists, at the close of the contest, in the form of petitions against slavery:

Wesleyan Methodists..

Presented from the several bodies of Dissenters, (twentyone in number are enumerated)....

Total

5,070 1,309,931

Other petitions.

From this document it appears that the number of petitions from the Wesleyan Methodists was more than double those of all the other Nonconformist bodies put together; and the number of petitioners also was nearly double; and that the connectional number of both petitions and petitioners was highly respectable in comparison with those of the wealthy and powerful establishment of the Church of England, and such as may have been more immediately associated with it. If the Methodist body had not then a direct representative within the House of Commons, they had a powerful influence without as electors; much more so than when in former years they helped to secure the return of Wilberforce for Yorkshire. That veteran abolitionist well knew the value of their efforts when, at his last public meeting in May, 1830, he "particularly recommended the promoting of petitions to Parliament." The Conference of that year, and subsequently, recommended the same thing to the Methodist congregations; and the numbers just quoted evidence the earnestness of the Methodists in the abolition cause.

Religious zeal for freedom operated powerfully even on the merely political lovers of liberty, and upon the nation at large. The biographer of Buxton correctly remarks: "The outcry against slavery seemed to be rising at once from every corner of the land. Men of all ranks, of all denominations, were joining in the attack. And the House itself, where but a few years before scarcely half a dozen hearty advocates for emancipation could have been numbered, was now filled with zealous friends of the cause." This last sentence tells a tale as to the power of the elective franchise in a free FOURTH SERIES, VOL. X.-14

state; for by means of it the electors had completely new modeled the present House of Commons, and molded it after the national will. And it is of importance to notice how closely connected was the enlargement of British freedom at home with the complete emancipation of the slaves in our colonies. Philosophically examined, it will ever be found that one branch of freedom invariably supports the rest, the civil the religious, the religious the civil, till perfect freedom becomes universal law; while slavery is always encroaching, so that the longer the negro wears his chains, the more powerful will be the usurpation of the rights of freemen, till slavery has become a universal domination; and then follows chaos, civil wars, the dissolution of empires, and universal ruin. Religiously considered, we see that the Gospel is the only hope of the world's liberty; "the leaves of this tree of life are for the healing of the nations." However great the difficulties to be overcome, however long and arduous the struggle, where there is a free Bible slavery must come to an end. This was aptly, though undesignedly symbolized, when, on the day of emancipation, the British and Foreign Bible Society gave a copy of the New Testament to every free man, woman, and child, who could read the word of God.

The new and reformed Parliament, moved by its own zeal, and stimulated by so vast a multitude of petitions, and led on by a government not unwilling to meet the national demand, soon brought the matter to a glorious decision in a manner which made stern justice herself smile most benignantly on mercy. The British Parliament resolved that emancipation should be accompanied by a grant from the national treasury of twenty millions sterling, to be equitably distributed among those who held slaves in the British colonies. This sum was not voted as a bribe, or as a dole of benevolence to the planters, but as, all things considered, no more than a just though liberal compensation to them, considering the share of guilt the nation had incurred by introducing, and for so long a season upholding the unrighteous system of slavery. Compensation to the injured Africans was a simple impossibility; they never desired that, and were only too grateful to receive their long-withheld right of liberty. At length the negroes' chartered bill of rights, having passed through both Houses of Parliament, received the royal signature on the 28th of August, in the year one thousand eight hundred and thirty-three of the world's redemption by our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. By that signature the freedom of the king himself was promoted. He was constituted the freest of rulers, and therefore the greatest, whether among monarchies or republics; because, controlled by the law and Christianity of the

land, he could only rule over free men; the shadow of his scepter could no longer be polluted by falling on a slave. The law was appointed to take effect on the first of August, 1834.

And now let us turn aside and see this great sight, the emancipation in the solemn midnight hour of about 800,000 souls. The 31st of July came, 1834; it was emancipation eve. The negroes returned from their plantation labors at the usual hour. About ten o'clock they left the estates, and crowded the different chapels to hear their beloved missionaries; and their masters, to their honor be it recorded, ungrudgingly allowed them this privilege; it was certainly a graceful act on their part in this kindly manner to bid farewell to slavery; and all the more kindly considering the fears and excitements that had previously prevailed. Now was seen the wide extent of missionary influence, and its conservative power while it was still the foster-father of liberty; for though all the slaves were not converted, the Christian portion guided the movements of the whole, and brought all to the house of prayer. It was "a night much to be remembered," not by a destroying angel's visit, for it was the Lord's night of mercy, and in every island, "praise waited for God in Zion." The old Methodist watch-night service was employed on a new occasion, such as Mr. Wesley never contemplated when he held his first watch-night service at Kingswood, near Bristol. When wanting a few minutes of midnight, every one knelt down in silence; (O, who that was never a slave can conceive the emotions of slaves on the eve of such a tremendously glorious event to them ;) at length the clock struck the solemn sound-one-two-threefour-five-six-seven-eight-nine-ten-eleven-twelve;-and they were free. Slavery was over. "Ethiopia" received her freedom on her knees; the chains fell off while she was literally "stretching out her hands unto God." They knelt down slaves, they rose up freemen. Their first utterances when free were thanksgivings to Jehovah, the several congregations in those many isles singing this noble doxology:

"Praise God from whom all blessings flow,

Praise him all creatures here below;

Praise him above ye heavenly host,

Praise, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost."

What music was that asceding to heaven at the midnight hour, in that unclouded atmosphere? Such strains for such an event had never been heard since the foundations of the earth were laid! One could imagine that angels suspended their songs in amazement at this new wonder which the Lord had done, and this wondrous praise,

till as it ceased below they burst forth with new raptures of "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good-will toward men." One could imagine (perhaps it is not imagination) that "the spirits of the just made perfect" hushed their harps to listen; and that then prophets, and apostles, and Coke, and glorified missionaries, and all the redeemed, "cried with a loud voice, saying, Salvation to our God which sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb:" "for he hath saved the souls of the needy; he hath redeemed their soul from deceit and violence; and precious hath their blood been in his sight."

So ended slavery in the British empire! Were not a people who could so receive freedom prepared to be free? We were not then in the West Indies, but in Southern Africa; and we witnessed the religious termination of slavery in that country. Business was suspended, and all the places of worship were opened in the morning in Graham's Town. Early in the afternoon an Auxiliary Bible Society was formed; and the day closed with a public prayermeeting of all denominations united in the Wesleyan Chapel. At five in the afternoon, the colonists held a public tea-meeting. And now a most pleasant incident occurred; we witnessed the gratifying spectacle. Twelve young men genteely clothed, who had that day receive emancipation, came forward with a request that they might be allowed to perform their first act as freemen, by voluntarily waiting on the company as servants, in honor of the nation which had made them free! Were not men of such nobility of mind worthy of liberty? Since emancipation, slaveholders have themselves emerged into freedom; the slave has lost his fetters, and the master has lost his fears. Incendiarism and insurrections are now unknown. "They sit every man under his vine and under his fig-tree, and none maketh them afraid." This is the crowning compensation for doing the thing that is right in the eyes of the Lord, and is quite equal in value to the twenty millions of wealth which a guilty nation laid as an expiatory offering upon the altar. Every man now finds his place in the commonwealth settled, not by his descent, or the color of his skin, but by his ability and worth; instead of a rivalry of race there is a rivalry of merit; and Lord Nelson's noble motto, "Let merit bear the palm," has ample scope for illustration.

When the struggle was over, it was well said by Mr. Buxton, at a Missionary Meeting in London:

"Let it not be supposed that we give the praise of the abolition of slavery to Mr. Wilberforce, or to Mr. Macaulay, or to any man. I know the obliga tions we owe them; but the voice of the Christian people of England was the instrument of victory. Its author, however, was not of human race, but, infinite in power; what His mercy decreed, His fiat effected.”

ART. III.-THE POET AND THE DREAMER.

1. The Faerie Queen, by EDMUND SPENSER.

2. The Pilgrim's Progress, by JOHN BUNYAN.

LANGUAGE, as well as dress, has its fashion. A simple mode of expression would have been thought rustical by the admirers of Sidney's Arcadia, and have been considered as ungraceful as the scanty drapery and shorn tresses of the Empress Josephine's court would now appear in that of the English queen. It was once deemed a refinement in France to call dinner "the meridianal necessity," and the sun "the amiable illuminator," when, instead of being asked to seat yourself, you were told to "fulfill the desire which the chair has to embrace you," when horses were called "plushed coursers," the ear "the gate of hearing," the cheek "the throne of modesty," and the hat "a buckler against the weather.", Akin to this frivolous pedantry were the "taffeta phrases" at one time so much in vogue in the court of Queen Elizabeth, which Sir Walter Scott ridiculed in the character of Piercie Shafton, the euphuist. But this perversion of language was only temporary. A better taste soon prevailed, and the age which produced Bacon, Shakspeare, and Spenser, spurned such fantastic jargon. Still the language was vitiated by foreign intermixture when the Pilgrim's Progress appeared. It is a book in which the soul of the writer was fused, and it drew other hearts to it, as a blossoming plant attracts the elements which nourish it. Written in the familiar idiomatic style which the people understood, it took hold of the popular mind with a grasp which has never been relaxed.

Yet, admirable as its pure and vigorous Saxon is now esteemed, there was a time when the Pilgrim's Progress was looked upon as a book for the cottage and the nursery alone. The wits of Queen Anne's day smiled to hear Dr. Johnson say that the narratives of De Foe and Bunyan, two authors who had much in common, and who now sleep together in Bunhill fields, were the only ones he had ever read which he could have wished longer. Even after such a testimony from the great critic, Cowper dared not allude to Bunyan except enigmatically, lest he should provoke the facile sneer. Southey had not then written the life of "the glorious old dreamer" in his lucid English, nor had Macaulay placed him beside the author of Paradise Lost, and pronounced theirs the only creative minds of