oved of by many in the United States, while
nothing was more certain than that, what was said by his opponent,
would the more commend him to his friends on the other side of the
Atlantic; and nothing he could say would probably lower him in the
good opinion of his friends here. Hence arose the difficulty of the
situation in which he (Mr. B.) found himself placed, and his unusual
claim upon their patience in the course of the discussion. Still he
should be unworthy of his country, he should be forgetful of the power
of truth, he would have little trust in God, if he was not ready to
espouse the cause which he believed to be right; and more especially
if he was not ready, before a Scotish and a Christian audience, to
defend the principles he adopted and avowed. He had no desire to
attempt a mitigation of their hatred to slavery; and if, at a future
time, he should meet in America with any one now present, he would
prove to them by the friendship of those who loved and respected him,
and the opposition of those who did not, that he hated slavery as much
as any one of those present could do. It was said by one of the
ancients, 'I am a man: I consider nothing that relates to man, foreign
to me.' It was a true and noble sentiment. The fate of the most
hopeless might be theirs if power could make it so; and their
condition might have been that of the poorest wretch on earth if God
had not smiled upon them and their ancestors as he had done. He did
not wish them to interfere with slavery in America. They might
interfere, but the question was, how were they to do so? He wished in
the course of the discussion to bring before them facts to show, that
if they did at all interfere with slavery in America, it must be done
as between individuals, not as a national question. That, whatever
they did, they do as Christians, not as communities. That they must
not, for a moment, look upon it as a question of rival power and
glory, as a question between Great Britain and America. If they did so
in the slightest degree, their chance of success was gone for ever. In
the prosecution of the question, they should not allow themselves to
be identified in their efforts with any party in America, in politics,
in religion, or metaphysics; more especially, with a small and odious
party as they had done to a deplorable extent. They should not
identify themselves with a party so small as not to be able to obtain
their object, and so erroneous as not to