priate that fund equally to the benefit of slaves to be set
free--as of those already free. He mentioned these things merely to
show that there was a great and an increasing party in the south
favorable to the abolition of negro slavery. In fact, in some of the
Southern states the free people of color had increased faster than the
whites; in Maryland alone there were 52,000 of a free colored
population, all of whom, or their immediate progenitors, had been
voluntarily manumitted. It was needless to say, therefore, that in the
Southern states there was no anti-slavery party. There certainly was
not such a party in Mr. Thompson's sense of the word; but Mr.
Thompson's definition was not the correct one, as he (Mr. B.) would
explain directly. Was it fair then, he would ask, to hold up to the
British public, not only the people of the free states, but also this
great minority in the Southern states as pro-slavery men. Let slavery
be denounced, but let not the denunciation fall upon the whole
American people, many of whom were doing all they could for its
abolition. If Louisiana resolved on perpetuating slavery, let this be
told of Louisiana. If South Carolina adhered to the system, say so of
South Carolina; but do not implicate the mass of the American people,
so many of whom are as much opposed to slavery as is Mr. Thompson
himself. He had heard it said that the sun never sat on the British
dominions. As well, then, might the British people be identified with
the idolatry which prevailed in Hindostan as the Americans be
identified with negro slavery. The question was not American; it
existed solely between the slaveholder and the world. It was unfair,
therefore, to blame the Americans as a nation: the slaveholder, and
the slaveholder alone, should be blamed, let him reside where he
might. Having thus disposed of the first branch of his argument, he
was naturally led to explain the wonderful phenomenon of Mr.
Thompson's reception in America--to give a reason why that reception
was so different from what the same gentleman met with in Glasgow.
Mr. Thompson had taken up the question as one of civil organization.
Now the fact was, that the American nation was divided into two
parties on the subject, namely, the pro-slavery, and the anti-slavery
parties. One party said, let it alone; the other, and by far the most
numerous party, said, something ought to be done in relation to it. In
the last named class, was to be included the p