viii.
the bloody lash from the hand of the wicked driver and dashed it into a thousand pieces. The gory wounds now bleeding while I write will be joyfully healed with the oil of gladness from your hands. You will have sealed up the fountain of tears which for centuries has been opened; you will have placed your sisters in a position where their chastity can be protected as yours now is; you will have struck the death-blow to this giant evil. I appeal to you because you can do much in this matter. I appeal to you because the Slave cannot. I plead the cause of the widow and the orphan. "I open my mouth for the dumb." The power of turning the scale against the tyrants and in favour of freedom, commercially speaking, is in the reach of England's mighty grasp. England is depending on America for Cotton. Millions of her people are employed by means of it. The existence of thousands hangs upon this feeble thread. It is with the Slaves whether they shall live or die; it is with the Slaves in the United States whether they shall walk the streets of this beautiful country perfect vagabonds, or be employed in making an honest living. Suppose the Slaves were to cease cultivating Cotton unless they were paid for it, which they have a perfect right to do, what would become of millions now depending on them for a living, who are employed in manufacturing the raw material which they cultivate? What would the capitalists do in Lancashire? Their large manufactories must be closed; your streets would be filled with beggars, the dying and the dead. The very moment the Slave declares in the strength of his God he will cultivate Cotton no longer without wages, England's commercial operation must cease; starvation would pervade the land; her mighty ships, the mistress of the seas, would be com-
