Memoirs of Sir Thomas Fowell Buxton, Bart (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1849 edition. Excerpt: ...a man whose timid or tender spirit is unequal to the storm of persecution? Send him to the savage, --expose him to the cannibal, --save his life by directing his steps to the rude haunts of the barbarian. But if there is a man of a stiffer, sterner nature, a man willing to encounter obloquy, torture, and death, let him be reserved for the tender mercies of our Christian brethren and fellow-countrymen, the planters of Jamaica."t The more obnoxious missionaries, particularly Messrs. Knibb and Burchell, were driven from the island, and arrived in England at the very juncture when their evidence before the Com See ' Report of the Committee, ' p. 270. t ' Anti-Slavery Reporter, ' vol. v. p. 149. 1832. EFFECT OF THE DEBATE ON THE GOVERNMENT. 249 mittees was of the utmost value, and went forth to the country under Parliamentary sanction. They then travelled through England and Scotland, holding meetings in all the principal towns, and their eloquent appeals produced a great effect upon the public mind. Nothing, in fact, contributed more powerfully to arouse the " religious world " to a sense of their duty with regard to the question of slavery. Mr. Buxton frequently adverted to the overruling hand of Providence, which had thus turned the intolerance of the system to its own destruction. The investigations of the Committees of both Houses were published together, and the general impression was, that they had established two points: First, that slavery was an evil for which there was no remedy but extirpation; secondly, that its extirpation would be safe. The nation willingly acceded to these conclusions, and impatiently desired to act upon them. How they affected the minds of those in office we shall presently learn. Such was the state...