of the thermometer had frequently
reached 94 degrees or 96 degrees in the shade: a tropical heat, without
those alleviations which render the heat of the tropics not only
tolerable, but sometimes delightful. In Rhode Island, the climate, while
we were there, was almost as temperate as an English summer.

Some parts of the New England States are much resorted to by southern
families of wealth; and their annual migrations have the effect of
materially adding to the vast amount of complicated pro-slavery
interests which exist in the free States, as well as of diffusing
pro-slavery opinions and feelings throughout the entire community. We
may hope this current will soon set in the opposite direction. The
season was too early for the arrival of these visitors, and the hotels
were generally filled with "Friends," collected from near and distant
places, to attend the yearly meeting. There were upwards of a hundred
boarding at the same house with ourselves. Soon after our arrival I
addressed a letter, making the same application for the use of the
meeting house for my friend, John Candler, who was also here, and
myself, which had been complied with at New York, forwarding at the same
time my credentials. My request, however, in this instance was not
granted. Yet there was plainly a willingness on the part of many to
receive information, and we caused it to be known that we should be at
home at our hotel, on the evening of the sixteenth. About two hundred
friends assembled, and appeared interested in a brief outline of the
state and prospects of the cause in Europe which I endeavored to give
them.

The subject of slavery was brought before the yearly meeting by a
proposition from one of its subordinate, or "quarterly meetings," to
encourage more action, on the part of the society, for its abolition. A
proposal was immediately made, and assented to without discussion, that
the consideration of it should be referred to a committee. On the
reading of the address on slavery from the London yearly meeting, it
was, in like manner, immediately proposed and agreed to, that it should
be referred to the same committee. At a subsequent sitting, this
committee reported, that they should recommend the whole subject to be
left under the care of their "Meeting for Sufferings," which was
adopted. With the exception of reading the documents, and going through
the necessary forms of business, these proceedings passed almost in
silence; yet, in