have mingled with the thing itself, when you have
encountered the atrocities of the system, when you have seen three
millions of human beings held as chattels by their Christian
countrymen, when you have seen the free institutions, the free press
and the free pulpit of America linked in the unrighteous task of
upholding the traffic, when you have realized the manacle, and the
lash, and the sleuth-hound, you think no more of rhetoric, the mind
stands appalled at the monstrous iniquity, mere words lose their
meaning, and facts, cold facts, are felt to be the only fit
arguments."

Again, as George grew to manhood, the struggle which ended in the
disruption of the Church of Scotland was approaching its climax, and
the sympathies of the Brown household were with those who declared
that it "is the fundamental law of this Church that no pastor shall be
intruded on any congregation contrary to the will of the people."

In 1838 reverses in business led the father and son to seek their
fortunes in America. Arriving in New York, Peter Brown turned to
journalism, finding employment as a contributor to the _Albion_, a
weekly newspaper published for British residents of the United
States. The Browns formed an unfavourable opinion of American
institutions as represented by New York in that day. To them the
republic presented itself as a slave-holding power, seeking to extend
its territory in order to enlarge the area of slavery, and hostile to
Great Britain as a citadel of freedom. They always regarded the
slave-holding element in the United States as that which kept up the
tradition of enmity to England. An American book entitled, _The Glory
and Shame of England_, aroused Peter Brown's indignation, and he
published a reply in a little volume bearing the name of _The Fame and
Glory of England Vindicated_. Here he paid tribute to British freedom,
contrasted it with the domination of the slave holders, and instanced
the fact that in Connecticut a woman had been mobbed and imprisoned
for teaching coloured girls to read. Further light is thrown upon the
American experience of the Browns by an article in the _Banner_, their
first Canadian venture in journalism. The writer is answering an
accusation of disloyalty and Yankee sympathies, a stock charge against
Reformers in that day. He said: "We have stood in the very heart of a
republic, and fearlessly issued our weekly sheet, expressing our
fervent admiration of the limited monarchy of Gr