In pressing the fulfilment of this duty upon you, dear brethren, we have the advantage of being able to say, that it is impeded by no obstacle. There can be no case in which the retension of the prejudice we are combating can be obligatory or imperative. In indulging it, you are only either pampering the pride of your own hearts, or yielding to the current of feeling around you. As Christians, you are called on to mortify the former, and stem the latter. Nothing hinders you from beginning, and even from triumphing, at once. The object may be achieved the first moment you are determined to achieve it. And, permit us to assure you, that, whenever this moment shall arrive, it will be inferior to none in the history of your churches, for honour to the name you profess, for prosperity to the churches you compose, and for prosperity to the country you adorn.

Dear brethren, 66 our mouth is open unto you, our heart is enlarged." But we speak not alone. We call to remembrance, that we are addressing a body, the sentiments of some of whom, and a number rapidly increasing, are in unison with our own. We rejoice in the abundant evidence which has reached us of the fact that the attention of many has been awakened, and that the voices of many have been heard. Yes; America has heard on this subject the voices of many of her sons; and, with delight we have seen among the band of her abolitionists (and many, in spirit, we trust, are such who have not adopted the name), a large number of our own denomination. No words can express the warmth of our sympathy with them, or the ardour of our desire, that, on this great occasion, our entire denomination may be of one heart and one mind. Be assured, dear brethren, that the extinction of oppression, whether of the bond or free, is a work which lies with the churches of Christ. They can do it. They must do it. They will be responsible for the continuance of oppression, with all its crimes and horrors, if they do it not. And, as no portion of the church of Christ in the United States, is more influential than your own, as none has been more abundantly blessed with those extraordinary operations which exhibit religion in its mightiest energies; as none is more prompt or more vigorous in all other works of faith and labours of love, so we entreat you to suffer none to be more forward, or more active, in this good cause. We know that over the same cause both our fathers and ourselves slept too long; but it would be poor evidence that we had been awakened, if we were to use no efforts for the arousing of our brethren. We wish to believe, that whatever slumber remains among you, is but that of inadvertency and inconsideration. It cannot be that

you will refuse to put away this "accursed thing," when its true aspect shall have appeared to you. An enlightened conscience and a melting heart will be far more prompt and effectual than our importunities; and, perhaps, even while we are writing, may be rendering our importunities needless.

Can we, dear brethren, without showing unreasonable fears, again entreat you to receive in kindness, what we have written in the fulness of our hearts? Or, can we hesitate to anticipate that serious consideration of our remarks, that willing acquiescence in evident truth, and that ready fulfilment of admitted duty, which shall fully convince us that you are, indeed, our brethren in Christ, and justify the fervour with which, on the behalf of our brethren at large, we subscribe ourselves,

APPRENTICESHIP SYSTEM.

OUR readers will be gratified to learn, that during the past month four gentlemen have sailed from Falmouth in the Skylark packet for Barbadoes, and the other West India islands, with the view of obtaining a clearer insight into, and a more accurate knowledge of, the working of the apprenticeship system. Joseph Sturge, Esq., of Birmingham; and Mr. Scoble, the respected Secretary of the Society for the abolition of Slavery and the Slave-trade throughout the World, are amongst the number of these disinterested and zealous friends of humanity. We commend them most earnestly to the prayers of all our Christian friends, that they may be preserved from danger, and be guided by infinite wisdom in the discharge of their delicate and difficult duties. They will probably meet with opposition in their self-denying-labours; but, if sustained by the confidence and prayers of British Christians, their mission cannot fail of important and most desirable results. "I commend myself," says one of the deputation, in a letter to the Editor, dated Falmouth, October 16, "and the cause in which I and my companions are embarked, to your prayers. Do not forget us, that we may have wisdom and grace to pursue it, in a right spirit, to a successful issue."

ADDRESS OF THE BAPTIST MISSIONARIES IN JAMAICA TO THE MARQUIS OF SLIGO.

The Jamaica Watchman, of September 7, contains an address presented by the Baptist Missionaries resident in that island, to the Marquis of Sligo, together with his Excellency's reply. Our limits prevent our giving these documents entire, but they are so honourable to both parties that we cannot feel satisfied without making extracts from them. It is highly gratifying to mark the progress of events. A few years since the Baptist Missionaries in Jamaica were the objects of popular odium, and of magisterial oppression. Every means of annoyance and injury were set in operation against them. Their characters were libelled, their labours denounced, and their continuance in the colony was affirmed to be incompatible with its welfare. Like honest men, they met the tide of abuse and calumny which assailed them, and have now received an ample reward. They appealed to the future, and its judgment has been given in their favour.

In their address to the Marquis of Sligo, after adverting to the civil benefits which had accrued from his administration, they thus proceed

Although, however, we thus beg to express our sentiments and feelings with respect to the beneficial changes of a more political kind that are progressing so cheeringly around us, it is principally in the character of Christians and of Christian Missionaries, that we would address your Excellency on the present occasion.

In a colony, where, on the part of the professed representatives of the people, and of the white inhabitants in general, prejudices against Dissenters have ever been proverbial, we have enjoyed the confidence that your Lordship would never suffer our religious privileges to be infringed with impunity; and in no instance of which we are aware, has that confidence proved itself misplaced. Whether as ministers or as private Christians-whether as bond or free, when

Address of the Baptist Missionaries to the Marquis of Sligo.

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ever a well authenticated case of persecution for conscience' sake has been submitted to your lordship, you ever have manifested your sympathy with the oppressed; your respect for the rights of private judgment; your hatred of religious intolerance, and your firm determination, like that of our beloved Monarch whose Representative you are, not only to maintain inviolate the provisions of the Act of Toleration, but to unite with the noble descendants of Fox, and other distinguished advocates of freedom, in their exertions to extend its protection and benefits until every law which infringes on the liberty of conscience be expunged from the statute book of England, and of her colonies.

With a mind thus noble and enlightened, perceiving the great bearing of religious education on the civilization of the apprentice portion of the community, and on the aspects and happiness of society at large, your lordship immediately, on assuming the reins of the government, began the formation of a plan for general education on the most liberal and extended scale, inviting the cooperation of all sects and parties in its completion; and, although the generous and self-denying efforts of your Excellency were in this respect repeatedly defeated by colonial prejudice and power, your Excellency has, notwithstanding, so aided by your influence and property, the efforts made by individuals and Societies of different denominations in this great and interesting work, that we hesitate not to say, such a rapid and wide diffusion of the great blessings of Scriptural education, within so comparatively 'short a period as that, during which your Excellency has presided over us, has scarcely ever been surpassed, if equalled, in any age or in any part of the world.

Your Excellency's resignation of the government of the colony would have awakened our regret and apprehensions at any time, and under the most common circumstances; but your departure at the present crisis, when, after a conciliatory, firm, and benevolent course of action, you have, to a considerable degree, disarmed opposition to your public measures; when under all the disadvantages with which your Lordship has had to contend, from being the possessor of slave property, from being the author as they supposed of the apprenticeship scheme, and of all the novel systems of punishment it introduced, you have succeeded in securing the confidence and homage of all the intelligent of the apprentice population; at a time when the salutary effects of your Lordship's administration in the peace and prosperity of the country were begining to be realized, and when the worst fears were entertained of efforts to impede the progress of reform so auspiciously advancing,—we should feel at a loss for suitable terms in which to convey our disappointment and concern, were we not to resolve all events, however seemingly adverse, to the controlling influence of that almighty and benignant Being, who worketh all things "after the counsel of his own will," and who can never be at a loss for suitable agencies with which to secure the perfection of his purposes,

In his reply the Governor bears very high and honourable testimony to the character and labour of the Missionaries. Referring to their address, he says

The independence of character which has marked the conduct of the Missionaries, whose labours have been directed to the religious improvement of Jamaica, and which has occasioned all the vexations which have in times past attended the duties of your office, makes the very handsome tribute of your good opinion which I have just received from you, the more honourable to me,

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as I feel that, were it not the conviction of your minds that it was applicable, I should not have received it at your hands.

This is not, however, the only service I have to acknowledge myself indebted to you for. I cannot forget, that when solicited by me to further the cause of good order and the maintenance of the law, by the exertions of the influence you possess in your ministerial character, you readily afforded to me your assistance. The efficiency of those efforts has reached me from quarters totally unconnected with your peculiar religious persuasion, and most unjustly should I act, did I not express to you my feelings on the subject.

I am fully sensible that the Missionaries of this island, of all persuasions, are now looked upon in a totally different light from what they were formerly; and I trust, confidently, that, ere long, a conviction of the utility of religious instruction will render those pious individuals who devote their lives to the promotion of the good cause, as popular as they have heretofore been the

reverse.

Such language, proceeding from the representative of the British king, must have been highly gratifying to the estimable men to whom it was addressed, and will be read, we are convinced, by the religious people of this country with feelings of unmingled satisfaction.

Dear Sir,

EXTRACTS FROM LETTERS TO THE EDITOR.

Anti-Slavery Office, New York,
September 23rd, 1836.

The Executive Committee of the American Anti-Slavery Society, at its meeting on the 21st inst., in view of the great sin and danger of American Slavery, voted to recommend to all the friends of the oppressed, special humiliation, fasting, and prayer to Almighty God, on the last Monday of October next.

Should this notice reach you in season, we hope many of our British friends will unite their prayers with ours, on that day, that God in his great mercy would quicken the consciences and soften the hearts of American slave-holders; that He would bring his professed church to repentance for the support it is giving to this system of robbery, lust, and murder; and that He would speedily deliver our colored brethren from the double yoke of slavery and prejudice; and our nation from ruin, by the peaceful agency of His own truth.

You will doubtless be pleased to learn, that our Society is greatly enlarging its operations, and especially by increasing the number of its lecturing agents. Heretofore, we have rarely had more than ten or twelve in the field at once. Not that we were satisfied with so small a number, but it seemed impossible to get the men we wanted to cast loose from their quiet moorings, and launch out upon the troubled sea

of this "agitating subject." In vain we called upon distinguished abolitionists in the ministry. They loved the cause, but they would not risk all for it. At last we resolved to send one of our ablest lecturers, Theodore D. Weld, the principal of the Lane Seminary recusants, on a special mission, to press men into the service-a sort of Anti-Slavery recruiting officer. He has already succeeded in enlisting for the war, nearly 50 agents of the right sort. Among them are men of the highest powers and the most extensive influence. Nearly all of them will commence their work before the close of October. It is not the intention of the Committee to stop here, but to go on increasing their lecturing corps, till the cause of the slave is carried home to the bosom of every man, woman, and child, that can be reached with God's blessing on human means. How important that, in thus enlarging the scale of our operations, we should humbly resort, in fervent prayer, to the God of the poor and the needy!

May the blessings of the perishing be upon you for your "Slavery in America." Let the world be filled with such publications. You have, ere this, heard of the outrage upon the press of our excellent friend Birney at Cincinnati, perpetrated on the eve of the first of August. It is working well for the cause. The paper will reappear in a few days with a greatly increased list of subscribers.