ANTI-SLAVERY EPISTLE OF "FRIENDS" IN GREAT BRITAIN.

"From our Yearly Meeting held in London, by adjournment from the
20th of the 5th Month to the 29th of the same inclusive, 1840.

"_To the Yearly Meetings of Friends on the Continent of North
America_.

"DEAR FRIENDS,--We think it a favor to us, and we accept it as
an evidence that our Lord is mindful of us, that from one time
to another, when thus assembled for mutual edification, and the
renewing of our spiritual strength, we are in any small measure
brought afresh to the enjoyment of that love which flows from
God to man, through Jesus Christ our Savior; and under its
blessed influence quickened to exercise of mind, not only for
the health and prosperity of all those professing the same faith
with ourselves, but for the coming of the kingdom of God upon
earth, and the universal prevalence of righteousness and truth
among men. This love has often brought us in Christian
compassion and tenderness of spirit, deeply to feel for that
portion of the great family of man subjected to the degradation
and cruelty of slavery.

"We do not cease to rejoice with reverent thanksgiving to
Almighty God, for the termination of this system of iniquity in
the British Colonies. It was an act of justice on the part of
our Legislature, and it has removed an enormous load of guilt
from our beloved country; but in our rejoicing, we cannot, nor
would we wish, to forget the hundreds of thousands of our
brethren and sisters on the continent of America, and elsewhere,
still detained in this abject condition, and liable to all the
misery and oppression which it entails upon its victims.

"We have a strong conviction of the guilt and sinfulness of
slavery, and its pernicious effects upon both the oppressed and
the oppressor. That man should claim a right of property in the
person of his fellow--that man should buy and sell his
brother--that civil governments in their legislative enactments,
should so far forget that 'God who giveth to all, life, and
breath, and all things, and hath made of one blood all nations
of men, for to dwell on all the face of the earth,' as to treat
those who differ from them in the color of their skin, or any
other external peculiarity, as beasts that perish, as chattels
and articles of merchandise,--is in suc