that has stood the test of 400 or 500 years. The windows also were
darkened. The whole affair was tremendously heavy, enough to mesmerize
any one. The congregation was large, respectable, and decorous. After a
few glances around, to see if there was a negro pew anywhere, I
observed several coloured faces peeping from a recess in the gallery,
on the left side of the organ,--there was the "Negro Pew," In due time
_Doctor_ Plummer ascended the pulpit. He was a fine tall man,
grey-haired, well dressed, with commanding aspect and a powerful voice.
I ceased to wonder at the emphasis with which the Scotchman called him
_Doctor_ Plummer. He was quite the _ideal_ of a _Doctor_. His text was
John iii. 18: "He that believeth on Him is not condemned, but he that
believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the
name of the only begotten Son of God." His subject was, that "man is
justly accountable to God for his belief." This truth he handled in a
masterly manner, tossing about as with a giant's arm Lord Brougham and
the Universalists. Notwithstanding my want of rest on the previous
night, the absurd heaviness of the building, and the fact that the
sermon--which occupied a full hour--was all read, I listened with
almost breathless attention, and was sorry when he had done.

And who was this Dr. Plummer? It was Dr. Plummer late of Richmond, in
Virginia. "Richmond," says Dr. Reed, "is still the great mart of
slavery; and the interests of morality and religion suffer from this
cause. Several persons of the greatest wealth, and therefore of the
greatest consideration in the town, are known slave-dealers; and their
influence, in addition to the actual traffic, is of course
unfavourable. The sale of slaves is as common, and produces as little
sensation, as that of cattle. It occurs in the main street, and before
the door of the party who is commissioned to make the sale." And what
was the conduct of this Doctor of Divinity in reference to this state
of things? He sanctioned it! He pleaded for it! He lived upon it! He
was once actually supported, either wholly or in part, by slave labour!
The church of which he was the pastor was endowed with a number of
slaves. These slaves were hired out, and the proceeds were given in the
way of stipend to the _Doctor_! Nor is this all. A few years ago the
slave-holders of the South were greatly alarmed by the vigorous efforts
of the Abolitionists of the North. It was about the tim