others, I should be charged with being selfish and mercenary,-an imputation which I dreaded to incur.

'But my greatest error, and to which I mainly attribute the disastrous result which has brought me so painfully before the public, was the introduction of the Liturgy of the Church of England into a system of worship which ought to have been marked by a definite and decisive character. My motive in doing this, was to conciliate the great majority of the residents around me, who were attached to the forms of the Episcopal Establishment; I acted under the advice of others, in whose judgment I had confidence. But fallibility is the character of all human decisions; what might have been reasonable and expedient fifty years ago, the spirit of the times no longer required. I thus placed myself in a false position with Churchmen and Dissenters, and especially with my dissenting brethren. Churchmen to whom an evangelical ministry was indispensable, could enjoy the privilege within the pale of their own Establishment; and Dissenters, though they attended a chapel where the Liturgy was used, declined uniting themselves in very close fellowship with a minister whom their prejudices represented as so far departing from the simple worship of their fathers. By some I have been accused of a dereliction of principle; but I was not less a Dissenter because I adopted the Liturgy, nor was my practice in this respect really at variance with my writings. Of this I could not convince my assailants, and, therefore, permitted them, unmolested, to reiterate their censures. I may, however, be allowed to say, that I have been misunderstood-I will not add misrepresented, for that would impugn the motives of some whom I know to be conscientious, and for whom I entertain the profoundest respect. The expedient has failed, and I trust it will never be repeated. The Liturgy is a noble composition-it breathes the spirit of genuine piety, but Dissenters do not need it; and by introducing it into their public services, they encroach upon that mode which is peculiarly their own, and which is their appropriate distinction. Perhaps, as another reason why my ministry at Holland Chapel has failed to attract many who might have cordially availed themselves of it, the calumnies to which I have more than once referred, may not have been without their influence. Character is usefulness; and the good and virtuous portion of the community should be more on their guard against slander, especially as it affects the reputation of ministers, than against any other vice.'

:

We have transcribed this explanation, not merely as an act of justice to a calumniated man, but because we deem it important that these facts should be placed in their true light, as they bear upon the general questions which at present are agitating the public mind. A mean and ungenerous triumph has been expressed at the alienation of this Chapel from the Dissenters; and its late minister has been made the butt of gross personal attacks from party writers in whose eyes his nonconformity is his real and only offence. We decline, for obvious reasons, going into the prudential question; but surely no small consideration is

due to a man who can make the following appeal to the religious public.

I have been a minister of the gospel thirty-four years, and am now in my fifty-fourth year. Four places of worship have been built under my auspices, and as many congregations raised by my labours. For two of these places, West Cowes and Brighton, I collected above a thousand pounds from the religious public. The fourth, Holland Chapel, by its entire unproductiveness, has cost me £3800, and twelve years' unwearied, but, as far as regards the retaining that chapel, unsuccessful exertions; yet have the moral benefits conferred upon the neighbourhood been many and signal, nor are they yet lost. The elements of a large and prosperous religious interest, to be established on congregational principles, are silently but powerfully working. During the whole of my public life, I have adhered strictly and earnestly to the doctrines of evangelical truth. The London Missionary and other Societies, have received all the support that my little influence could obtain for them. I have published many volumes, and my leisure hours have been devoted to advancing the influence of true religion through the medium of our literature; while all the pecuniary advantages I have derived from these various undertakings have been consecrated to the same cause. I could add much more. Let my calumniators and traducers say half as much. What I have written, I trust will be understood to have been dictated by the same spirit which influenced an apostle, when he was provoked, to say, fool in glorying;" and with him I trust I can add, "God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of Christ Jesus my Lord, by whom the world is crucified to me, and I unto the world.”

"I am a

'While I thus fearlessly vindicate my cause before men, I humble myself before God. Afflictions arise not out of the dust; a calamity such as has befallen me, must be intended by an infinitely wise and gracious Being to teach some salutary lesson, and to accomplish some important object; what that lesson is, I trust I shall be able to learn; and whatever are the designs of an inscrutable providence with regard to my future destination, it is my comfort to know that I am in the hands of God,—that in his dispensations he is most kind when most severe that the mercy which inflicts the wound will, in due time, heal it-and that upon those who trust in him, in the darkest hour he will cause light to rise.'

We shall not add a word, except to express our satisfaction at hearing, that a new chapel of less costly dimensions and architecture is now rising in the immediate neighbourhood, the expense of erecting which is already in great measure provided for.

ART. X. WORKS RECENTLY PUBLISHED.

TRAVELS.

Letters from Brussels, in the Summer of 1835. By Mrs. Arthur Thorold. In one vol. post 8vo, price 10s. 6d.

A Twelve Months' Residence in the

West Indies. By Dr. Madden, Author of "Travels in the East," &c. In 2 vols. post 8vo, with a Plate of "Negro Emancipation," after Rippingille, price 21s. cloth lettered.

THE

ECLECTIC REVIEW,

FOR DECEMBER, 1835.

Art. I. Slavery in America: or an Inquiry into the Character and Tendency of the American Colonization and the American AntiSlavery Societies. By William Jay. With an Introduction to this Edition by S. H. Cox, D.D., late of New York, and now Professor of Sacred Literature in Auburn College. Edited by John Morison, D.D. 12mo. pp. xxiv., 198. London, 1835.

JUDGE JAY, the Author of this exposure of the true cha

racter of American Slavery and Anti-negroism, is well known in the Atlantic States as an accomplished jurist, an elegant scholar, and a man of the highest character. He inherits no mean name, being the son of the late Hon. John Jay, LL.D., the second president of the American Bible Society, a statesman of great celebrity, and one of the fathers of American independence. His son, the judge, is a pious Episcopalian; a sect which in America, as with us, is not very apt to take the lead in violent movements. A work proceeding from an individual occupying this high standing could not fail to produce an immediate and powerful impression. Accordingly, Dr. Cox states, that it circulates in America with a rapidity that is extraordinary. Even 'hostile booksellers are beginning to like it for the sake of trade.' It has opened the eyes of not a few; and will, on this side of the great water, remove every remaining vestige of delusion upon the subject. Dr. Cox, who has transmitted it for publication in this country, speaking officially as the Secretary for Foreign Correspondence of the American Anti-Slavery Society, assigns among other reasons for wishing it to be widely circulated here, that the sympathies and prayers of British Europe may be directed wisely and engaged steadily in behalf of the suffering and the dumb; and that the mother country may be encouraged

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' in still further achievements in the cause of universal freedom

3 I

VOL. XIV.-N.S.

' and the moral elevation of the species, by the evidence afforded ' that her noble example is talismanic and electric in its influence on the daughter country, though following in her path too 'tardily, haud passibus æquis.' Dr. Cox is himself well known and affectionately remembered in this country. No visiter from his native shores, since Dr. Mason, has, we believe, left a stronger impression of his intellectual endowments, catholic spirit, and fervent piety. We believe we may date from his visit to England a very important advance, however, in his self-emancipation from the prejudices of caste in which he had been educated. Since his return, he has stood forward apostolically and heroically in defence of the claims of his coloured Christian brethren; and has suffered much, as the Apostle of the Gentiles did before him, for daring to assail the national prejudices of his countrymen. We are rejoiced to find that he has been called to fill so honourable and important an office in one of the most valuable collegiate institutions in America. Dr. Morison, the English Editor, announces his intention to devote the proceeds of the sale of the Volume to founding a scholarship in Auburn College for the professional education of coloured candidates for the sacred office. We cordially wish that the sale may be sufficient to afford profits applicable to so appropriate a purpose.

All this is by way of introduction; but what need we say more? It is a book which can stand in need of no further recommendation, and the contents of which we are anxious that our readers should make themselves acquainted with by actual perusal. Having recently gone so fully into the subject, in reviewing Mr. Abdy's Journal, (whose statements, by the way, are fully sustained by the more compact evidence comprised in this volume,) we feel in some danger, in pursuing the discussion, of falling into a repetition of former remarks.

Our object, in that article, however, it may be recollected, was not so much to portray American Slavery in its true colours, as to expose the criminality and absurdity of that malignant antipathy which is cherished by the whites, and fostered by the Colonization Society, against all Americans of mixed breed. This we must still regard as the worst feature of the American character. It is a more gratuitous insult to human nature and its Creator, than the holding of man in bondage; it is a more direct contravention of the fundamental principle of political equality upon which the American Republic was based; and it is the principal support of Slavery itself. We unfeignedly rejoice to find Dr. Cox speaking out thus nobly upon this point in his Introduction to the present work.

It is wonderful to consider how the whole system of oppression, as

organized and established every where, but especially in my own country-and America,

depends, for the pivot of its support and its movements, on the cardinal point of-COLOUR! Although our own cadaverous white, the vaunted albescence of the European or Caucasian race, is the distinction of a small minority, and certainly not the original or standard complexion of the species, yet we make it the criterion and the paragon of all that humanity ought to be, and deny almost the identity of the species, when its millions and its hundreds of millions vary on a graduated scale of imperceptible changes,

"Shade unperceived so softening into shade,"

from the European white to the Asiatic brown; the Australian tawny, the American red, and the African black. But still all are men, and of one blood. And do we hate our brother for being WHAT GOD MADE HIM? Diabolical impiety! Witness, all Nature and all reason, that this is hating God himself!-hating HIM in the works of his hand! oppressing a fellow-creature for the act of the Creator; piling cruelty and privation on his devoted body and soul, because God made him of a hue different from our own! Is it credible that if they were all white, all blanched by an act of God, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, that they could be retained slaves any longer? that their rights should be wholly annihilated? their dignity as God's image and his immortal offspring utterly denied? ARE THEY MEN?—This is the question for men to answer. If they are, there is no other question. If they are, who cares for the height of their stature or the hue of their skin, or the number of degrees, on the average, in their national facial angle, or the quality of their hair, or the form of their features, or their lineage from Cush and Ham, instead of Shem or Japhet? or even for the fact that their stolen, and abused, and infinitely-injured ancestors once lived in hither Africa? I fear that millions of white men will actually lose their souls, by reason of the devilishness of their antipathy to a coloured brother of the species; since without loving him whom he hath seen, with an affection precisely identical, how can one love God whom he hath not seen? There is nothing in the universe more impossible-nothing more tremendous! -Repent, O Earth!' pp. xviii, xix.

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The intensity and violence of this malignant feeling towards the free coloured population are of comparatively recent date in America. Lafayette, Judge Jay tells us, remarked, in his last 'visit, with astonishment, the aggravation of the prejudices against the blacks; and stated that, in the revolutionary war, the black ' and white soldiers messed together without hesitation.' As it is of recent growth, so it sprang up, and is still found operating in full force only in the Northern States. This is a very remarkable