Page:The Collected Works of Theodore Parker volume 6.djvu/309

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296
THE PRESENT ASPECT


London Times. In the "cotton lords," I take it, there is no alteration of doctrine, only an utterance of what they have long thought. The opinion of the British people, I think, has only changed to a yet greater hatred against Slavery. The anti-Slavery party in England has immense power—not so much by its numbers, or its wealth, as by its intelligence, and still more by that justice which, in the long run of time, is always sure of the victory. At the head of this party I must place Lord Brougham, now drawing near the end of a long and most laborious life, not without its eccentricities, but mainly devoted to the highest interests of the human race. Within the four seas of Britain, I think there lives no man who has done so much to proclaim ideas of justice and humanity, and to diffuse them among the people. If he could not oftener organize them into law, it was because he took too long a step in advance of public opinion; and he that would lead a child must always keep hold of its hand. Nearly fifty years ago (June 14, 1810) he fought against the slave trade, and drew on him the wrath of men "who live by treachery, rapine, torture, and murder, and are habitually practising the worst of crimes for the worst of purposes." Long ago he declared—"There is a law above all the enactments of human codes—the same throughout the world, the same in all times; it is the law written by the finger of God on the heart of man; and by that law, unchangeable and eternal, while men despise fraud, and loathe rapine, and abhor blood, they will reject the wild and guilty phantasy that man can hold property in man." When the little tyrant of France revives the slave trade, the great champion of human right roused him once more for battle, and the British Government has taken the affair in hand. The British love of justice will triumph in this contest. Why, the history of England is pledged as security therefore.

Such to-day is the opinion of the four great nations of Christian Europe. What if the despotic power of the French Emperor be against us ; what if, for a moment, the cotton lords of England lead a few writers and politicians to attempt the restoration of bondage; the conscience of England and her history, the intelligence of France and Germany, the example of Russia are on our side. Yes,