e, the influence of the Government and the planters prevailed,
and the House rejected it. A bill was afterwards brought in to check the
enormities complained of; but no remedy at all effectual is as yet
applied. The official documents, however, proved that already men had
been inveigled on board, by the agents of the Mauritius planters, in
different parts of the East, and that the mortality on that
comparatively short voyage exceeded even the dreadful waste of life
which had characterized, and impressed with marks of horrid atrocity,
the accursed Middle Passage.

This subject, as might well be expected, once more roused the energies
of Thomas Clarkson: he addressed an able and convincing letter to Lord
Brougham, his old friend and coadjutor in the sacred cause; and it was
printed and universally circulated. The subject still remains unsettled:
and the labours of the enlightened philanthropist cannot now be directed
to one more important, or more urgent.

Meanwhile, in the spring of 1838, the question of Immediate Emancipation
was agitated throughout the country. The Government proved hostile.
Immense meetings were held at Exeter Hall, which were attended by many
members of Parliament, over which Lord Brougham presided. Among others
who were present and bore a distinguished part, were certain
representatives of Ireland who promised their strenuous support. It is a
painful duty to add, that their fellow-members from Ireland did not, on
this great occasion, follow their good example; for eleven only of
those, on whose votes reliance had been placed, opposed the Government,
while no less than twenty-seven gave them support.

The question was rejected by the House of Lords, when brought forward by
Lord Brougham; but in spite of the efforts of the Government; the
defalcation of the Irish, of a still greater proportion of the Scotch
representatives, two hundred and seventeen members of the House of
Commons voted for Immediate Abolition, out of four hundred and
eighty-nine who were present on the occasion. A second effort in the
same session placed Ministers in a minority; but they immediately gave
notice, they should strenuously oppose any attempt to carry into
practical effect this decision of the House; and in this determination
they were supported by a majority on a third division.

The word, however, had gone forth all over England, that the _Slave
should be free_. It had not only pervaded Europe, it had reached
Americ