as on the previous day, but made no demonstration towards the preservation of the peace. In the afternoon, the Society met at the house of WILLIAM P. POWELL, every public room in the city being refused, and there elected its officers, passed its resolutions, and despatched its affairs. Altogether, we retired from New York, strong in the conviction that we had never fought a better fight upon that ground, and that, though the enemy remained in the possession of the field of battle, all the advantages of victory were ours.

THE NEW ENGLAND CONVENTION.

The New England Anti-Slavery Convention again vindicated its claim to be the most attractive of all the gatherings, for benevolent and religious purposes, that occupy the Week of Anniversaries. Indeed it was more attractive than usual, judging from the crowds that thronged it, from the very hour of its opening. The numbers of persons who got some sprinkling of this baptism was very great; for the audience was continually shifting. Besides the crowd that was in constant attendance, the edges of the meeting, the galleries and aisles, were in a continued state of flux and efflux; so that a very great multitude heard some portion of the preached word, before it was over. The town, too, is full at that time of ministers and devout men and women from all parts of New England, who come up to one or another of the sectarian feasts, of which that is the Holy Week; and very few of them can help finding themselves within reach of our moral manipulation, for a longer or shorter time. This is one of the appointed means of acting on the general mind; and it is through its faithful application, among others, that so great a change has been created in its tone and expression. People find fault with the language, the temper, the spirit, the taste of the Abolitionists; but all the time they are moulded by them as the clay is shaped by the hand of the potter. What else has made Congress a great Anti-Slavery Debating Society, and forced the whole nation to fix its attention on this one question? What has compelled the Churches and religious papers to assume an Anti-Slavery virtue, at least, and politicians and political presses to put on the decent disguise of opposition to Slavery? Nothing but the Anti-Slavery Agitation.

The day sessions were held in the Melodeon; the two first evening meetings in Cochituate Hall; and the concluding one in Faneuil Hall.

The interest was sustained to the last moment. The speeches were of the highest character for eloquence and thoroughness, and the general impression, obviously, of a most salutary nature. Faneuil Hall was crowded to its extremest limits, and though there was a small number of disorderly persons who attempted to make an uproar, and who did at times produce a temporary confusion, the proceedings went regularly on to the close, and the Convention had a triumphant ending, worthy of the success which had marked it throughout.

FOURTH OF JULY AND FIRST OF AUGUST.

The members and friends of this Society again celebrated the birthday of American Independence in the beautiful grove at Abington, where we have held our open air meetings in former years. Notwithstanding the very threatening aspect of the early morning, there was even a larger attendance than we have ever had before. Nearly as many as usual went by the Special train from Boston, more than usual from Plymouth and from the region round about. Had the morning been reasonably fine, it would probably have been the largest assemblage ever collected in Massachusetts. It was affirmed that every horse, for twenty miles round, was engaged for the occasion, and proportionable preparations made for the coming up of the Faithful. But, as it was, we counted our numbers by thousands, and they that persevered were rewarded by one of the finest of days. Though it rained in Boston with great violence in the afternoon, every circumstance of the Celebration was as auspicious as Nature and Man could make it.

Mr. GARRISON was in the Chair and opened the meeting in his happiest manner. With great felicity of language and illustration he contrasted the professions and the practice of the American people and the spirit of the former days and of these. It was striking to see the rapt attention of the immense auditory and the thirst with what they drank in truths which they seldom hear from press, priest, or politician. His strong natural logic, his terrible earnestness, the Demosthenian simplicity and force of his language give him a power over the audience not probably surpassed by any contemporary orator, certainly not by any in this country. He was succeeded by a fresh Fugitive from Slavery, of whom there were no less than four on the platform. Messrs. QUINCY, PHILLIPS, CLAUDIUS BRADFORD, N. H. WHITING, WILLIAM I. BOWDITCH, and MORTON, Occupied the rest of the time

devoted to speaking. Mr. PHILLIPS made a speech of great brilliancy and power, full of witty illustration and forcible demonstration. Mr. BOWDITCH dissected the charges, brought against the Abolitionists, of Blasphemy and Treason, with a lawyer-like acumen which must have made their absurdity palpable even to men of the meanest understandings. And, surely, there can be none of meaner than some of those that have been parroting these weak inventions of the enemy. After a delightful day, the vast concourse dispersed themselves to their homes 'shut up in measureless content," satisfied that the day had had at least one appropriate Celebration.

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The Anniversary of West India Emancipation was celebrated again this year, at Worcester, in the spacious Town Hall of that city. It was filled with a numerous auditory from Boston, Worcester, and the country round about. Speeches from Messrs. GARRISON, MAY, BURLEIGH, CARPENTER, of England, QUINCY, PHILLIPS, FOSTER, and SYME, formerly of Edinburgh, were interspersed with appropriate Odes and Hymns of Thanksgiving. The American Abolitionists will, we hope, continue to keep this memorable day among their most solemn and joyful feasts, until it shall be superseded by the one that shall witness the deliverance of our own enslaved countrymen.

ARRIVAL OF GEORGE THOMPSON.

The past year will be long remembered by the Abolitionists of Massachusetts as the one that witnessed the return of GEORGE THOMPSON to the scene of his former labors and trials. Fifteen years ago his fidelity to the American Slave drove him from our shores, which were no more worthy of him. The blood-thirsty spirit which marked that Reign of Terror, and which had singled him out, in an especial manner, as the most acceptable victim to be offered by its northern worshippers to the Idol of the land, made his return to his own country necessary to the safety of his life. During the long interval we have been in constant intercourse with him. He has kept himself accurately informed of each passing chapter in our history. We have watched his active participation in the great Reforms in his own country, as they have successively presented themselves, and the growth of his influence and fame, until he was raised to the British Senate by the most numerous constituency of the Empire. Often have we longed for his presence amongst us, and earnest have been his

wishes to revisit this country, but insuperable obstacles intervened until the present time. At our last Annual meeting, as we have done frequently before, we invited him to visit us during the current year. But it seemed to him to be impracticable at that time. Early in the autumn, however, we were rejoiced by the intelligence that he had been able so to arrange his affairs as to pass a portion of the vacation of Parliament among us. Accordingly he arrived in this City, October twenty-ninth, and was welcomed with cordial friendship by his old companions in arms and by multitudes who knew him only by report.

We felt it due to him and to ourselves to give him a public reception worthy of his high position as a public man as well as of his services to the cause of Emancipation and Reform. This meeting we held in Faneuil Hall, on the evening of Friday, November fifteenth. Though it commenced with all the prosperity we could desire, Mr. THOMPSON SOON had proof that his former services were not forgotten by his enemies any more than by his friends, and that the old proSlavery spirit was by no means extinct yet. Most of the smaller daily sheets which disgrace this city, such as the Herald, Mail, Times, etc., had been busy in trying to excite a spirit of popular violence against him and the meeting. Their influence, not opposed if not assisted by the fanatic pro-Slavery spirit of the Webster Whigs, had its effect. The galleries were filled, principally by ladies, long before the hour of the meeting. At the time the Committee and their guest entered the Hall, it was filled, apparently, to its utmost capacity, and they had much difficulty in making their way to the platform. This great body was obviously assembled to assist at, or to witness, the legitimate proceedings. When Mr. THOMPSON appeared on the platform, he was welcomed with as loud, long, and enthusiastic cheers as ever made that roof resound, and not the faintest shadow of dissent was heard from any quarter. The meeting was organized without opposition. Mr. GARRISON was warmly received, and his address of welcome to Mr. THOMPSON was listened to with the most profound silence, interrupted only by genuine and hearty applause, for about twenty minutes. Soon after he commenced, a party of men began to enter the Hall, and pushed their way towards the centre. The crowd was so dense, that it was a quarter of an hour before they got into position. Their numbers were variously estimated from a hundred and fifty to five hundred. It was to their discipline rather than to their numbers that their success was due. Shortly before Mr. GARRISON finished, a

signal was given from the front gallery, and the uproar commenced and continued, with slight lulls, till the meeting adjourned. Had the doors been closed at seven o'clock, the meeting would have been triumphantly successful.

Mr. THOMPSON's appearance on the platform was but the signal for a louder uproar, with which, being obviously organized and countenanced by the silent acquiescence of the Mayor and the City Marshal, who were both present, it was useless to contend. Messrs. PHILLIPS and DOUGLASS in vain attempted to obtain a hearing, and the meeting adjourned, to meet at Worcester, without having accomplished its object. The persons who promoted, who performed, and who permitted this riot, regarded only the immediate and vulgar success of their conspiracy. They thought only of inhospitably insulting a gentleman whose presence did honor to the city they have disgraced. As far as he was concerned, their attempt was ignobly impotent. A British Senator, the admired of millions for his brilliant eloquence, the beloved of thousands for his private excellences and personal accomplishments, could be silenced, but not reached, by the ignorant clamors of Boston shop-boys and apprentices. It is not he who was insulted, but the City, whose officers permitted the insult, that was dishonored.

The City Marshal, Mr. TUKEY, being present at the head of the whole disposable force of the police, and having absolutely refused to interfere, at the request of the President of the meeting, though such interposition was incumbent upon him, we maintain, without such request, as the riot was a violation of an express law of the State, we felt it proper to lay a statement of his conduct before the Mayor and Aldermen. On this complaint we had a hearing, and established our points by sufficient evidence. Mr. TUKEY at first endeavored to shift the issue by laying the blame of the riot upon us, as a consequence of the excitement he conceived we had occasioned among the colored people, at the time of the pursuit of WILLIAM CRAFT; but, finally, he rested his defence on the only tenable ground, viz., that he acted under the strict orders of the Mayor, not to interfere, unless in case of actual violence being used. Both he and the Mayor, with more candor than discretion, admitted that they did not know that there was a State law protecting a meeting like ours! We obtained no other redress than that of making clear to all intelligent and impartial citizens the culpáble inefficiency of the Municipal Authorities.

On the next Monday evening there was a most successful meeting