author of "In Memoriam" had been swept in by the crowd, and was standing
with his arms folded, and beholding for the first time (and probably the
last) so large a number of coloured men in one room. In different parts
of the hall were men and women from nearly all parts of the kingdom,
besides a large number who, drawn to London by the Exhibition, had come
in to see and hear these oppressed people plead their own cause.

The writer of this sketch was chosen Chairman of the meeting, and
commenced its proceedings by delivering the following address, which we
cut from the columns of the _Morning Advertiser_:--

"The Chairman, in opening the proceedings, remarked that, although the
metropolis had of late been inundated with meetings of various
character, having reference to almost every variety of subject, yet that
the subject they were called upon that evening to discuss differed from
them all. Many of those by whom he was surrounded, like himself, had
been victims to the inhuman institution of Slavery, and were in
consequence exiled from the land of their birth. They were fugitives
from their native land, but not fugitives from justice, and they had not
fled from a monarchical, but from a so-called republican government.
They came from amongst a people who declared, as part of their creed,
that all men were born free, but who, while they did so, made slaves of
every sixth man, woman, and child in the country (hear, hear). He must
not, however, forget that one of the purposes for which they were met
that night was to commemorate the emancipation of their brothers and
sisters in the isles of the sea. That act of the British Parliament, and
he might add in this case with peculiar emphasis, of the British nation,
passed on the 12th day of August, 1833, to take effect on the first day
of August, 1834, and which enfranchised 800,000 West Indian slaves, was
an event sublime in its nature, comprehensive and mighty in its
immediate influences and remote consequences, precious beyond expression
to the cause of freedom, and encouraging beyond the measure of any
government on earth to the hearts of all enlightened and just men. This
act was the commencement of a long course of philanthropic and Christian
efforts on the part of some of the best men that the world ever
produced. It was not his intention to go into a discussion or a
calculation of the rise and fall of property, or whether sugar was worth
more or less by the act of ema