which is claimed in the declaration of American independence as the birthright of man.

In some of the states he can secure for himself the privilege of uniting with his fellow citizens in choosing their magistrates, but not on the same terms. The differences may be trifling, and apparently insignificant, but it suffices to imprint the stamp of inferiority. He may be relieved from conditions which are entailed upon others, such as service in the army or the jury box; but this is not meant as kindness to him; on the contrary, it is done to gratify the pride of his white countrymen, who would not sit on the jury or stand in the ranks by the side of a coloured freeman, and is therefore done in violation of his rights as a man, and in direct contravention of what, in the title-deed of American liberty, is declared a "self-evident truth," that all men are created equal.

It is painful to a foreigner to witness in that land of freedom the oppression of a large proportion of the population by their white brethren; and many are the touching tales to which he is called to listen. I have already mentioned one, related at the anti-slavery meeting at New York; I shall now introduce another, from an address delivered in Pine Street Church, Boston, at the commemoration of the signing of the declaratian of American independence, described in the commencement of this article.

"The following fact," said the orator, "was related in my hearing, by a man of colour, from out of the southern states. This man has, by some means, purchased his own freedom, and that of his wife; but his children, several of them, have been taken away from him, and sold, he knows not where. He proves himself, to the satisfaction of all who have intercourse with him, to be a humble disciple of Jesus. I will give the facts, as nearly as possible, in his own words:

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"I had a little boy, about eleven years old. One night, as he came home, he said to me, Father, the constable has been measuring me to day.' Measuring you,' said I, what does that mean?" 'don't know,' said he; he measured me about my body, and then he measured how high I was. I am afraid, father, they are going to sell me.' 'I tried,' said the poor father, not to think of it; but the next morning, soon after I went to my work, a little boy came running up to me, crying out John is gone; yonder they are taking him off now.' I went after them, and when I came near, my dear babe reached out his hands to me, and said, Father, I'm gone; can't you do something for me? At this the man, who was taking him away, gave him a kick, and kicked him along the road, and I have not seen my child or heard of him from that day to this. I could do nothing to help him; it hurts me to think of it.' Here he wept. Never in my life has my heart been so agonized by any deed of man as when I heard this grey-headed father give this simple relation. I had a daughter also,' said the poor old man, who was married, and had one child. One day a carriage drove up to the door, and took her, with her child, and carried them on board a vessel then lying at the wharf, about to sail. As soon as I

heard of it, I went after them. When I went to go on board, they pushed me back, but some one standing by said, that's too bad, let the old man see his daughter.' I then went on board, and my poor child threw her arms about my neck, and said, Father, I'm gone. Here the old man's sobs prevented his utterance, but he recovered himself sufficiently to say, I have not seen or heard of my child since. Her husband heard of it, and went to the vessel, but they drew a dirk upon him, and would not allow him to go on board. 'Oh,' said the old man, as the tears streamed from his eyes, 'it hurts me every time I think of it.' Probably it would hurt a slaveholder to suffer such wrongs, and the best of them could be no more injured by them than this poor disciple of Christ. This man has (if I recollect the number,) six children sold into helpless servitude, he knows not where. Three remained with him, and these, some months ago, were bought up by a notorious firm of slaveholders, and shipped for the southern market. Here the old man felt he had lost his all; and the distress of his wife, who wept, to use his langnage, as though her heart would burst,' drove him, with great reluctance, after endeavouring to put his trust in God, to state his case to some pious friends, and ask if something could not be done for him. A minister of the gospel, who was affected to tears at the old man's recital, went to the slave-dealer and interceded for him. They at length consented, that if the poor father himself could raise the money in one week, amounting to considerably more than two thousand dollars, he might have his own children, the ones last taken away. Perhaps they considered the question settled, as they would consent to no other conditions, and regarded it as impossible for the father to do as they proposed. He lifted his cries to God, however, and they were heard, and friends raised up, who gave him some few dollars, and at length made him a loan of what remained, amounting to eighteen hundred, on condition that it should be paid in two years. If at that time it remains unpaid, the children are to be sold to pay it. The poor father is now, with much diffidence, and great embarrassment, stating his case to the pious and benevolent, and asking their aid, that his children may not again be sold into bondage

But this was in a slave-holding state, it will be said. It was; but where is slavery recognised in the declaration of Independence? "We hold these truths to be self-evident; that all men are created equalthat they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights-that amongst these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." And it is not in slave-holding states alone, that the negroes are subjected to insult and oppression. Never shall I forget the feelings with which I listened to a Presbyterian clergyman from New York, relating at a public meeting at Boston, the indignities to which he was frequently exposed on his journies, simply because he was a man of colour.

I have frequently heard Americans laugh at the idea of a declaration of equality being applicable to negroes, but a sneer cannot disprove a fact. A single erroneous item admitted into a calculation may affect the whole of the subsequent results, and a single false

principle admitted by the government of a country, may affect the whole of their subsequent legislation; and consequently, the comfort and well-being of the whole of the population. To the departure from their principles in their treatment of the negroes, may be traced many of the shackles to which their free citizens of the north must submit. Slavery once tolerated, it is impossible to controul but by injustice. The slave-holder knows that he has injured and wronged the slave; and doubts not but the slave burns with the desire of revenge, he therefore concludes that he must be kept down. To the iron fetters of slavery must be added the adamantine walls of ignorance. Scarcely must the slave be permitted to learn that there is a God, lest through the opening by which this information reaches him, he discovers that " God hath made of one blood all nations of men." Even popular works of general literature have been excluded from the south because they happened to contain strictures on slavery, so that masters, rather than permit to their fellow citizens the enjoyment of their inalienable rights, seemed resolved to shut up themselves and their families in the same cell with their wretched slaves-to wear the same mental shackles, and perish in the same mental darkness. Such are the consequences of slavery to the master of the slave. As the man who has got such a hold of a harmless snake as must effectually prevent it from injuring him, fearing that it is venomous, dares not quit his hold, lest it should attack him and cause his death. So do the slave-holders in the southern states of America treat their slaves; they seem to think that they dare not relax their hold; and at the first appearance of insurrection, they must destroy, to prevent their own destruction. From their fears they suffer even more than the innocent and oppressed objects of their dread, and have enlisted the sympathies of their friends in the north, who, feeling for them, voluntarily forged fetters for themselves, and sold the birthrights for which their fathers died.

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With all the licentiousness of the press, it is not free such is the power of public opinion in some districts, that editors of newspapers dare not introduce into their journals even notices of passing events, but must pass them over in silence, because, with all their feeling of independence, neither life nor property is secure; in many cases an individual dare not publish, write, speak, or think without exposing his property or his person to the fury of fellow citizens; and the magistrate is unable to afford him either protection or redress.

With all the privileges of the citizens, their secrets are not secure. The post cannot be trusted. The mail has been ransacked, and the letters opened and examined, lest something should be written therein on the subject of slavery. Such are the consequences of slavery, even to the innocent and the free.

It must not, however, be inferred, that all approve of slavery, or consent to look down upon their fellow men, having some slight difference in their conformation; but as already stated, a diversity of opinion exists as to the means by which the abolition of slavery is to be accomplished. In England the question is frequently proposedWhy do not the churches interfere? The answer is simply this. The members do not consider it a subject with which they, as eccle

siastical courts, can interfere further, than to see that masters and slaves in communion with them discharge the duties arising out of their relative situation, according to the rules laid down by the apostle Paul. Many who exert themselves as individuals and as citizens, would protest against the introduction of the question into their church courts.

The synod of Kentucky, and many other bodies have, however, openly declared and published their conviction, that slavery as it exists in America is unjust in itself, and a fruitful source of crime, and thousands are exerting themselves in every way in which they can do it successfully, to procure its extinction, and much has been

effected.

"By the census of 1830, there were," says Mr. Breckenridge, in a letter which appeared in the London Patriot,' " in America about 2,000,000 of slaves, about 400,000 free persons of colour, and about 11,000,000 of white persons. Out of the twenty-four confederated states, twelve are free states, in which there are no slaves at all, and the remaining twelve tolerate slavery. The twelve non-slave-holding states contain a great majority of the white population of America, and about half of the free coloured people; four of these twelve free states never tolerated slavery, being new states formed within the present century; the remaining eight were all slave states at the era of the American revolution, and have abolished slavery, some of them, long ago, none less than twenty, one above fifty years since. Now let it be borne in mind, that every one of the 400,000 free persons of colour in America, were actually set free, or are the descendants of parents set free voluntarily, and without remuneration, by portions of the people of that nation; and that at least one half of them were set free by the purely voluntary benevolence of their masters in the slave-holding states.

"The whole of the free people," continues Mr. B., "in the United States may be divided into two great classes on this subject; one favourable to immediate action on the subject of slavery, with a view to its abolition, as soon as it can be done with a due regard to the interests of all parties; the other unfavourable to doing any thing at all with the subject.

"The latter party is again divided into two parts, one, and I think the smallest of all, which considers slavery a good institution in and of itself, and which they believe ought to exist for ever; the other, and more considerable one, admitting slavery to be wrong, yet consider the subject encompassed with such insuperable difficulties, as to prefer leaving it undisturbed, to cure itself, or abide as futurity shall determine. These constitute the pro-slavery party of America. The party favourable to the freedom of the slaves is also divided into two; the first is that technically called the Anti-slavery Society,' or the Immediate Abolitionists,' the second, though the first in point of time, is called the Colonization Party,' the Emancipationists,' and the Gradualists.'

I have already expressed the opinion I formed of these two parties from the intercourse I had with them while in the United States. The principles of the abolitionists must commend themselves to every

lover of freedom, but the indiscretion of some of the party has done much to render their principles obnoxious to their fellow-citizens, and consequently to diminish their influence. The sentiments held by them will yet, I believe, be held universally; but I fear this will not be effected by their instrumentality. None will be more astonished than Americans, that these sentiments have not long ago commanded universal assent. And then, if not before, it will be seen that the charges heaped upon the abolitionists of exciting to insurrection and rebellion, by the circulation of incendiary publications, and desiring the compulsory amalgamation of the negroes and the whites, are utterly false.

QUALIFICATIONS OF DEACONS.

INFINITE wisdom has ordained the constitution of christian churches, with their appropriate ministers, adapted to the necessities of mankind; and divine benevolence is peculiarly manifest in the institution of such a class of men as our DEACONS.

Large churches, in our populous provincial towns especially, are known to derive a considerable measure of their prosperity and honour, under the blessing of God, from their gifted and excellent deacons; and these, even in cases in which the pastors are possessed of acknowledged and popular talents. And it is probable that very few of our churches ever seriously declined in spirituality and harmony, without lamentable deficiency of suitable qualifications in their officers: such worthy men of God have, in many instances, been the happy means of securing peace, purity, and evangelical glory among their associated fellow Christians.

Experience has ever shown the necessity of such officers, and of their being men richly furnished for their honour and beneficial services; and having, in a former paper,* considered their rank and station, we shall proceed to inquire, What are the necessary qualifications of deacons? Every one will perceive at once the high importance of this inquiry to the best interests of our British

Israel.

Divine inspiration has defined, in general terms, the requisite endowments of this class of church officers. The apostles, in desiring the members of the primitive church at Jerusalem to select from among themselves seven brethren for this department of service, charge them to see that they fixed upon "men of honest report, full of the holy Ghost and wisdom." Acts vi. 3. And the Apostle Paul, in counselling Timothy as to the qualifications necessary in those officers among the churches of the gentiles, declares that "the deacons must be grave, not double-tongued, not given to much wine, not greedy of filthy lucre; holding the mystery of the faith in a pure conscience. And let these," says he, "first be proved; and then let them use the office of a deacon, being found blameless. Even so must their wives be grave, not slanderers,

* Congregational Magazine for March, pp. 172-177.