number of inmates was at
that time not more than 70. While the lady was showing us from one
apartment to another, and pointing out to us the comforts and
conveniences of the institution, the following colloquy took place.

_Myself._--"Now, Mrs. B, this place is very beautiful: I admire it
exceedingly. Would you refuse a little _coloured_ orphan admission into
this asylum?"

_The Lady._ (stretching herself up to her full height, and with a look
of horror and indignation),--"Indeed, we would!"

_Myself._--"Oh, shocking! shocking!"

_The Lady._--"Oh! there is another asylum for the coloured children;
they are not neglected."

_Myself._--"Ay, but why should they not be together?--why should there
be such a distinction between the children of our common Father?"

_The Lady._ (in a tone of triumph).--"Why has God made such a
distinction between them?"

_Myself._--"And why has he made such a distinction between me and Tom
Thumb? Or (for I am not very tall) why has he made me a man of 5 feet 6
inches instead of 6 feet high? A man may as well be excluded from
society on account of his stature as his colour."

At this moment my wife, seeing I was waxing warm, pulled me by the
coat-tail, and I said no more. The lady, however, went on to say that
she was opposed to slavery--was a colonizationist, and heartily wished
all the coloured people were back again in their own country. "In their
own country, indeed!" I was going to say,--"why, this is their country
as much as it is yours;" but I remembered my wife's admonition, and
held my peace. These were the sentiments of a lady first and foremost
in the charitable movements of the day, and regarded by those around
her as a pattern of piety and benevolence. She was shocked at the
notion of the poor coloured orphan mingling with fellow-orphans of a
fairer hue.

In the evening we went to take tea at the house of an English Quaker.
About half-a-dozen friends had been invited to meet us. These were
kindred spirits, anti-slavery out-and-out, and we spent the evening
very pleasantly. One of the company, in speaking of the American
prejudice against colour, mentioned a remarkable circumstance. Some
time ago, at an hotel in one of the Eastern States, a highly
respectable coloured gentleman, well known to the host and to his
guests, was about to sit down at the dinner table. A military
officer--a conceited puppy--asked the landlord if that "nigger" was
going to sit down? The landlord