ve mistaken their _prejudices_ for their _consciences_.

So far as Britain is concerned, she is, manifestly, much more willing to
receive American slave labor cotton for her factories, than American
republican principles for her people. And why so? The profits derived by
her, from the purchase and manufacture of slave labor cotton, constitute
so large a portion of the means of her prosperity, that the Government
could not sustain itself were the supplies of this article cut off. It
is easy to divine, therefore, why the people of England are boundless in
their denunciation of American slavery, while not a single remonstrance
goes up to the throne, against the importation of American cotton.
Should she exclude it, the act would render her unable to pay the
interest on her national debt; and many a declaimer against slavery,
losing his income, would have to go supperless to bed.

Let us contrast the conduct of a pagan government with that of Great
Britain. When the Emperor of China became fully convinced of his
inability to resist the prowess of the British arms, in the famous
"Opium War," efforts were made to induce him to legalize the traffic in
opium, by levying a duty on its import, that should yield him a heavy
profit. This he refused to do, and recorded his decision in these
memorable words:

"It is true, I can not prevent the introduction of the flowing poison.
Gain-seeking and corrupt men will, for profit and sensuality, defeat my
wishes, but nothing will induce me to derive a revenue from the vice and
misery of my people."[94]

Let us revert a moment to the case of robbery, before cited, in further
illustration of this subject. The prisoners serve out their term in
Bridewell, and, after a year or two, again visit London with a cargo of
cotton. The police recognize them, and they are a second time arraigned
before the court for trial. The judge demands why they should have dared
to revisit the soil of England, to offer for sale the products of their
robbery. The prisoners assure his honor that they have neither outraged
the public sentiment of the kingdom, nor violated its laws. "While in
your prison, sir," they go on to say, "we became instructed in the
morals of British economics. Anxious to atone for our former fault, and
to restore ourselves to the confidence and respect of the pious subjects
of your most gracious Queen, no sooner were we released from prison,
than we hastened to the African coast, from when