way to the British ear for anti-slavery discussion, and that it was well
improved.

The fourth and last circumstance that assisted me in getting before
the British public, was an attempt on the part of certain doctors
of divinity to silence me on the platform of the World's Temperance
Convention. Here I was brought into point blank collison with Rev.
Dr. Cox, who made me the subject not only of bitter remark in the
convention, but also of a long denunciatory letter published in the New
York Evangelist and other American papers. I replied to the doctor as
well as I could, and was successful in getting a respectful hearing
before the British public, who are by nature and practice ardent lovers
of fair play, especially in a conflict between the weak and the strong.

Thus did circumstances favor me, and favor the cause of which I strove
to be the advocate. After such distinguished notice, the public in both
countries was compelled to attach some importance to my labors. By the
very ill usage I received at the hands of Dr. Cox and his party, by the
mob on board the "Cambria," by the attacks made upon me in the American
newspapers, and by the aspersions cast upon me through the organs of the
Free Church of Scotland, I became one of that class of men, who, for the
moment, at least, "have greatness forced upon them." People became the
more anxious to hear for themselves, and to judge for themselves, of the
truth which I had to unfold. While, therefore, it is by no means easy
for a stranger to get fairly before the British public, it was my lot to
accomplish it in the easiest manner possible.

Having continued in Great Britain and Ireland nearly two years, and
being about to return to America--not as I left it, a{301} slave, but
a freeman--leading friends of the cause of emancipation in that country
intimated their intention to make me a testimonial, not only on grounds
of personal regard to myself, but also to the cause to which they were
so ardently devoted. How far any such thing could have succeeded, I
do not know; but many reasons led me to prefer that my friends should
simply give me the means of obtaining a printing press and printing
materials, to enable me to start a paper, devoted to the interests of
my enslaved and oppressed people. I told them that perhaps the greatest
hinderance to the adoption of abolition principles by the people of the
United States, was the low estimate, everywhere in that country,
placed upo