the slaves' freedom would be sealed with blood, that our day of freedom would be like Egypt's, when" God came forth from his place, his right hand clothed in thunder," and the jubilee of Israel was echoed by Egypt's wailing for her first-born.

It is not the thoughtful, the sober-minded, the conscientious, for whom we fear. With them truth will finally prevail. It is not that we want eloquence or Christian zeal enough to sustain the conflict with such, and with your aid to come off conquerors. We know, as your Whately says of Galileo, that if Garrison could have been answered, he had never been mobbed; that May's Christian firmness, Smith's world-wide philanthropy, Chapman's daring energy, and Weld's soul of fire can never be quelled, and will finally kindle a public feeling before which opposition must melt away. But how hard to reach the callous heart of selfishness, the blinded conscience, over which a corrupt Church has thrown its shield lest any ray of truth pierce its dark chambers. How shall we address that large class of men with whom dollars are always a weightier consideration than duties, prices current stronger argument than proofs of holy writ? But India can speak in tones which will command a hearing. Our appeal has been entreaty, for the times in America are those party times, when —

"Virtue itself of vice must pardon beg,

Yea, curb and woo for leave to do him good."

But from India a voice comes clothed with the omnipotence of self-interest, and the wisdom which might have been slighted from the pulpit, will be to such men oracular from the market-place. Gladly will we make a pilgrimage and bow with more than Eastern devotion on the banks of the Ganges, if his holy waters shall be able to wear away the fetters of the slave.

God speed the progress of your society! may it soon find in its ranks the whole phalanx of sacred and veteran Abolitionists! No single divided effort, but a united one to grapple with the wealth, influence, and power embattled against you. Is it not Schiller who says, "Divide the thunder into single notes, and it becomes a lullaby for children; but pour it forth in one quick peal, and the royal sound shall shake the heavens"? So may it be with you! and God grant that without waiting for the United States to be consistent, before our ears are dust, the jubilee of emancipated millions may reach us from Mexico to the Potomac, and from the Atlantic to the Rocky Mountains.

Yours truly and most affectionately,

WENDELL PHILLIPS.

COTTON, THE CORNER-STONE OF

SLAVERY.

Speech delivered at the First Annual Meeting of the British India Society, held at Freemason's Hall, London, July 6, 1840. In presenting a resolution relating to the effect of the cultivation of cotton in British India upon slavery in the United States, Mr. Phillips said:

I'

T is now ten years since the friends of the negro in America first put forth the demand for the unconditional abolition of slavery. They thought they would have nothing more to do than to show that emancipation would be safe, that it would be just; and having proved that, that it would, in such a liberty-loving country, at once be cordially and willingly acceded to in every State from Maine to Georgia; but at the end of the long period of ten years they have done almost nothing. Had it not been for their perseverance and zeal, the more devoted because of the difficulties they had met with, long, long ago they would have been put down, they must have folded their arms in despair, and have given up all hope of bloodless emancipation. When they heard of the British India Society and its objects, the news burst upon their ear, and was as startling and as grateful as must have been the first cry of land to Columbus when he was plunged almost in despair. [Cheers.] They through it saw again a peaceful hope for the slave, and then every friend of abolition rallied round it, and

placed their plan prominently before the country. Many at first doubted: they deemed it but one more of the many fables to which India had given rise; they deemed it a very fiction, but I trust through the exertions of the society they will find it.

"Truth severe, in fairy fiction dressed." [Cheers.]

If it is a fact that there are 24,000,000 acres within reach of the Ganges, upon which cotton can be grown, now lying waste; if it is true that there are 54,000,000 men anxious for labor, and that their services can be had for a penny or twopence a day; if they can bring their cotton to Liverpool at fourpence per pound, how can slavery stand against it at a cost of a shilling a day? Commerce is incompatible with slavery in England it has put down the system of villeinage; in France it put an end to vassalage; it has done more than Christianity, of which it is a good forerunner. It is one of the most immutable of truths, that the moment a free hand touches an article, that moment it falls from the hand of the slave. Witness the beet sugar of France; the moment it was made, her West India colonists applied for protection against the eternal principles of commerce and freedom. [Hear, hear!] So it was with indigo. Formerly it was all slave produce; now, not an ounce of it is. I need not give further examples, for the principle is as immutable as the laws of Nature. No article can be grown and manufactured at the same time by both free and slave labor. The fathers of this country thought in the settlement of their independence they had put down slavery: but, unfortunately, in 1786, when it was about to cease, a small bag of cotton-seed was found in Carolina; it was almost by accident put in the ground, and it was found that cotton could be grown, and so slavery was perpetuated. Slavery can

only be maintained by monopoly; the moment she comes into competition with free labor, she dies. Cotton is the corner-stone of slavery in America; remove it, and slavery receives its mortal blow. [Hear, hear!]

I am glad to see such a society grow up in the land of Clarkson and of Wilberforce, the great fathers of Antislavery. I am glad that England is awakening to a sense of her power, and I pray God she may arouse herself as one man, and exert that power for the sake of humanity all over the world.

It is not the fault of America that slavery exists; it is the fault of England that bribed her with £14,000,000 a year, and it is the price of cotton in the Liverpool market that signs the death warrant of the poor slaves. [Cheers.] There are a class of men in America that would not listen to the voice of an angel, or to one risen from the dead. The denunciations of O'Connell are nothing to them, while the balance is on the right side of the ledger; they must have Antislavery preached in their counting-houses, or it will never be preached at all. [Cheers.] The only voice they will listen to is the Gazette that publishes them bankrupts, and the auctioneer who knocks down their houses to the highest bidder. It is England that delays that day by paying them £14,000,000 annually for their support. [Hear, hear!] One hundred per cent profit is better than the most eloquent lips that ever spoke. You may think it strange for an American to speak thus of a system that is to make bankrupt one half of his country, and paralyze the other; but though I love my country, I love my countrymen more, and these countrymen are the colored men of America. [Cheers.] For their sakes I say, welcome the bolt that smites our commerce to the dust, if with it, by the blessing of God, it will strike off the fetters of the slave. [Cheers.] But I do not fear