Catholicam, remissionem peccatorum, et cætera: substituta interrogatione generali: utrum teneat omnes articulos fidei Christianæ prout in Symbolo Apostolico continentur. Quamvis hæc mutatio parvi momenti possit cuiquam videri, ex industria facta quum sit, periculum præsefert ne sensim sine sensu a pluribus fidei dogmatibus recedendi quæratur occasio. Quod vero

ad rem magis facit, in visitatione ægrotorum olim apud Anglicanos præscriptum est ut minister ægrotum hortaretur ad specialem peccatorum confessionem peragendam, eique confesso absolutionem auctoritate sibi a Christo commissa impertiretur : quam absolvendi potestatem Ecclesiæ denegare esset, teste Pearsonio, hæresis Novatiana. Jam vero omnem mentionem confessionis, et absolutionis, Rituale Americanum prorsus omittit.

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'Quum Methodista Episcopalianos imitentur, Baptistæ vero et Presbyteriani nullam fere habeant formam cultus, sed pleraque præconum permittant arbitrio, qui orationes fundere, legere scripturas, hymnos canere, et conciones facere pro occasione debent, liquet fidei unitatem in cultu et sacramentorum administratione nullum apud sectas habere præsidium.

"Nullum est principium apud Sectas quo in regimine servari possit unitus, vel foveri sacra cum Christi fidelibus per orbem communio: nam nulla est communis auctoritas qua teneantur. Comitia Generalia in America nullo auctoritatis ligamine cum Calvinianis Scotis, Anglis, Genevensibus conjunguntur, sed sola imitatione regiminis, et doctrinæ similitudine, plurimis capitibus, quæ odium paritura forent,mutatis, se fratres exhibent.* Ipsa comitia non valent unitatem in sua provincia servare, quum auctoritatem nullam sacram habere agnoscantur, et oscillatione quadem in varias ferantur partes. Episcopaliani nullo cummuni vinculo tenentur, Angli

The only change is in the chapter of the Civil Magistrate, whose authority in the church the Americans totally deny.

cani enim regem vel reginam in omnibus causis civilibus et Ecclesiasticis, intra suam ditionem, suprema auctoritate pollere fatentur, quod ex Dei ordinatione repetit rex in solemni sua declaratione articulis præfixa. Nostrates autem Conventione Generali res suas moderantur, in singulis diœcesibus cœtu quodam statuto, quo et Episcoporum arctetur potestas. Adeo autem carent communionis sacro vinculo, ut non nisi humanitate quadam conjungi cum Anglicanis dici possint, cujus exercitium leges Anglicanæ coercent, vetantes ne exterus quis episcopus in suis Ecclesiis concionetur. Anglicani porro cleri comitia, quæ Convocationem vocant, nequeunt haberi absque venia regia, qualem etiam sanctionem ejus decreta exigunt ut valeant.”—Vol. i. p. 186.

I shall conclude with the following quotation exhibiting Bishop Kenrick's view of the tenets of the four leading evangelical denominations in America, in regard to the office of a Bishop

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Plerique sectarii in hac regione vel Episcopale regimen prorsus rejiciunt, vel illud ad Ecclesiasticam politiam referunt, quin a Christi institutione derivetur. Presbyteriani contendunt nullam specialem auctoritatem regiminis Episcopi vocabulo designari, sed de simplici quovis animarum pastore illud usurpari. Iis Baptistæ, ut plerumque, assentiuntur. Methodistæ nonnulli Episcopalis regiminis nomen retinent, sed illud repetunt ex Wesleyi in hanc formam voluntate magis propensa, eum Episcopatus sui auctorem agnoscentes. Episcopaliani eo gloriantur; sed ex Apostolorum institutione illud derivat White, qui, moderationis laudem cupiens, animadvertit Ecclesiam Anglicam absolutam ejus necessitatem nunquam affirmasse, et Bancroftum ipsum, dum ageretur de Episcopis Scotia dandis, ab ea quæstione dirimenda consulto abstinuisse, ne omnes pene Ecclesiæ Reformatæ ministerio carere viderentur." —Vol. i. p. 246.

CHAPTER X,

SLAVERY, ABOLITION, AND AFRICAN

COLONIZATION.

THE existence of slavery in the United States is the grand anomaly in the political and social system of America; the dark spot in the national banner; the source alike of present weakness and of future calamity.

There are certain things, however, which every intelligent and candid Englishman ought to bear in mind before visiting the Americans with unqualified condemnation for the existence of slavery in the United States; and the first of these is, that slavery in America is entirely of British origin and creation. There was a period when slavery was not only lawful in the British dominions, but when the Slave-trade itself was regarded as one of the most important branches of the national industry. It was encouraged by the Commons; it was protected and promoted by the Lords; it was made the subject of solemn treaties with other Powers, in which the British Government stipulated for a monopoly of the traffic, and aspired to the character and office of Kidnapper General for the world. By the treaty with Spain in the year 1713, commonly called the Treaty of Ayuntamiento, it was stipulated that Great Britain should have the exclusive privilege of importing slaves into the Spanish colonies for thirty years, and that during that period she should import not fewer than 144,000, or

4800 per annum.

The privilege had previously been enjoyed by the French Guinea Company, and it was considered an important object gained for the nation to have it transferred to Great Britain.

It was in this state of feeling throughout the civilized world towards the unfortunate children of Africa, that certain of the British colonies of America became slaveholding colonies. Certain, indeed, of the American colonists petitioned, from time to time, that the importation of negroes into these colonies might be discontinued; but the trade-the Slave-trade-was a source of profit to Britain, and the petitions were not granted. In process of time the American colonies rebelled against the tyranny of the mother-country, and forming a League for their mutual defence, proclaimed themselves Sovereign and Independent States. By this League, the independent sovereignty of each of these States was distinctly recognized by all the rest, and the permanence of the civil institutions it had enjoyed during its colonial existence guaranteed from all interference from without. This League was subsequently matured into the Constitution of the United States; and to the Government created by that Constitution, each of the Sovereign and Independent States surrendered the administration of certain matters of general concernment, retaining their independent and sovereign jurisdiction in reference to all others. Those matters of general concernment that were thus intrusted to the General Government were-1st. Intercourse with Foeign Powers, or the Concerns of War and Peace. 2nd. The Regulation of Foreign Trade, and the Department of Customs. 3rd. The Administration of the Post Office; and 4th. The Management of the Public Lands. In all matters, therefore, that cannot be distinctly arranged under one or other of these heads, the Government of the United States is precluded from intermeddling. The civil institutions of society

throughout the Union are left by that Government as it found them, to be modified or changed agreeably to the sovereign will and pleasure of each sovereign and independent state.

But why, it may be asked, did the Americans not abolish slavery when they proclaimed their national independence? In other words, why were the Americans at the Revolution not at least half a century in advance not only of Great Britain, but of the whole civilized world? Unfortunately the mercury had not then risen so high in the thermometer of public opinion in any part of the world, as to indicate the wrongs of Africa-the monstrous injustice with which her children were treated in every country and by every nation. The perception of the enormity of the Slave-trade, and of the whole system of slavery, was, so to speak, a sixth sense which was only slowly communicated even to the British nation, within the last forty years, through the labours of Clarkson.

It may be asked, however, with much greater propriety, why did the British Parliament not abolish slavery in America when it had the power-when it claimed "the right to make laws to bind the colonists in all cases whatsoever ?" The opportunity of abolishing slavery in America was then lost for ever by the British Parliament-lost through its own gross mismanagement and tyranny, a circumstance that only aggravates its guilt. But it is absurd to talk of the British Parliament abolishing slavery in America at the period referred to: more than a quarter of a century was suffered to elapse after this period before it abolished the Slave-trade.

The existence of slavery, therefore, under the Constitution of the United States, was the necessary result of the circumstances and feelings of the times in which that constitution was framed-it was the necessary result of the British training and education of the patriots of American Independence. It was no disparagement