ed to take part in the
meeting, but who had been unable to attend. Among these he might
mention Professor Blackie, the Rev. Mr. Gilfillan, of Dundee, Rev. J.
Begg, D.D., the Earl of Buchan, Dr. Candlish, and Sir W. Gibson Craig,
all of whom expressed their regret that they could not be present. One
of them, he observed, was from a gentleman who had long taken an
interest in the antislavery cause,--Lord Cockburn,[B]--and his note was
so warm, and sympathetic, and hearty on the subject about which they had
met, that he could not resist the temptation of reading it. It
proceeded, "I regret, that owing to my being obliged to be in Ayrshire,
it will not be in my power to join you in the expression of respect and
gratitude to Mrs. Stowe; she deserves all the honor that can be done
her; she has done more for humanity than was ever accomplished before by
a single book of fiction. [Cheers.] It did not require much to raise our
British feeling against slavery, but by showing us what substantially
are facts, and the necessary tendency of this evil in its most mitigated
form, she has greatly strengthened the ground on which this feeling
rests. Her work may have no immediate or present influence on the states
of her own country that are now unhappily under the curse, and may
indeed for a time aggravate its horrors; but it is a prodigious
accession to the constantly accumulating mass of views and evidence,
which by reason of its force must finally prevail." [Cheers.] The Lord
Provost proceeded to say, that they had now assembled chiefly to do
honor to their distinguished guest, Mrs. Stowe. [Applause.] They had
met, however, also to express their interest in the cause which it had
been the great effort of her life to promote--the abolition of slavery.
They took advantage of her presence, and the effect which was produced
on the public mind of this country, to reiterate their love for the
abolition cause, and their detestation of slavery. Before they were
aware that Mrs. Stowe was to grace the city of Edinburgh with her
presence, a committee had been organized to collect a penny
offering--the amount to be contributed in pence, and other small sums,
from the masses of this country--to be presented to her as some means of
mitigating, through her instrumentality, the horrors of slavery, as they
might come under her observation. It was intended at once as a mark of
their esteem for her, of their confidence in her, of their conviction
that s