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have accrued to them through the bondage of their race in America. They have exchanged slavery in a barbarous country for slavery in a civilized and Christian country. They have in consequence been more or less brought under the influences of civilization and Christianity. And hence they have all exchanged an absolute barbarism for a comparative civilization. Hundreds of thousands have obtained their freedom, and are in many of the states endowed with the franchises of American citizens. Multitudes of them have become educated. Indeed, education was progressing more and more among the slaves, until the incendiary publications of Abolitionists led the southern states to enforce stringent laws against the education of slaves. But even now education is not absolutely prevented. And as to the preaching of the Gospel, it is prohibited to none. The negro race, too, in consequence of American slavery, have established a republic on the coast of Africa, giving a promise of civilization and Christianity to the whole continent. Now, I say, that the minds of the negroes, instead of being inflamed by intemperate and indiscriminating declamations upon their wrongs, and the atrocities of the whites, ought, rather, to have been made to estimate the good which surrounds them, and the still greater good which is opening to them in the future, by the necessary and progressive melioration of their condition. They ought to have been taught that their masters, no more than themselves, were the original perpetrators of the wrong. That both were born in their respective conditions; and that both have to contend with an evil which it requires forbearance, patience, and wisdom to remove. The rampant abolition

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ists, both of England and America, have only thrown obstacles in the way of a melioration which had begun before they took the field. Believe me, you here in England are wont to take very superficial views of this subject. It is broader and deeper than you are aware of. You brought the evil upon us, but you must leave us to ourselves to manage it. Continue your wholesale and indiscreet reproaches and you alienate a people who are disposed to be united to you by the links of a generous amity and reciprocity. We wish first of all to preserve our Union. Its dissolution would only throw disastrous omens over the prospects of the slave, and the hopes of freedom in the world. The sovereign states of America entered into a compact with each other, which they must honorably observe. A morbid affection is speedily put an end to by destroying life: but we believe it better to preserve our national life, and then use our best endeavors to expel the morbid affection.

Well, our long talk must come to an end, for yonder is the old city of Oxford, which I now visit for the first time.

Englishman. I hope you will be gratified with your visit. Oxford has many objects of interest. In bidding you good-bye, I must acknowledge that you have given me new views on the subject of American slavery.

Oxford.

OXFORD — at first, probably, known only as a ford

for oxen; then a rude hamlet, it may be; then the locality of a convent, where priests established schools for the instruction of youth; then, growing to a sizeable town; became at length a great seat of learning with many colleges and vast libraries. Its origin is very ancient, but unknown. It was a seat of learning before the time of William the Conqueror. But, although no one can tell how it came to be, there it is.

We were scarcely seated at dinner, when an elderly stout man stept in, and very civilly uncovering a bald head, said, "Please, sir, do you want a guide to see the colleges?" I handed him some letters which had been given me, addressed to some of the professors and fellows. He soon

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returned to inform me, they were all absent. It was vacation, and very few remained upon the ground. After dinner we commenced to make the circuit of the colleges, under the direction of my cicerone. We went, first of all, to the Bodleian Library. The founder of this library, whose name it bears, is immortalized by it in a way most worthy of human ambition. A great library, like this, affects one with an emotion of sublimity. It is a grand pyramid—a pyramid of knowledge. What gives it an additional value-perhaps I should say, its real practical value-is its being connected with a great university. Placed in the midst of a promiscuous community, it would not be without its value: but, here its richest treasures would remain unappropriated. Placed in the midst of a learned community of professors and fellows and students, amounting to nearly six thousand individuals, it becomes a magnificent workshop of science and literature, with workmen who know how to use the tools. A university is a feeble institution without an ample library: a great library separated from a university, is for the most part a splendid show. Nor is the library of the British Museum in London an exception to this remark: for, besides the London University and other literary institutions in that city, Cambridge and Oxford are scarcely separated from London, supplying it with scholars, exerting their influence upon its population, and able to avail themselves of all that the Museum contains.

Attached to the library is a noble and extensive portrait gallery, where immortal genius looks down upon you from Of all the portraits, there was none which im

the canvas.

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pressed me like that of Locke, the candid, honest, liberal and acute thinker. It is painted by Kneller in his best style: but no human face ever offered a finer subject to the pencil. I have long had an admirable engraving of this picture by Vertue, and have always regarded the face of Locke as one of the highest style of intellectual and moral beauty.

As we were leaving the library, I offered the attendant at the door what I understood to be the customary fee-an English shilling. "Sir," said he, "we always receive two shillings for showing the Bodleian Library," emphasizing the word Bodleian. The sight of it was a gratification not to be estimated by shillings; and I could not but feel that any fee was below the dignity of the place.

Oxford is an interesting old city in itself: but it is the University, of course, which constitutes its attraction. The whole town seems as if absorbed in its twenty-three colleges. The oldest was founded in 872, the youngest in 1547. These venerable buildings are generally built in the form of a quadrangle with cloisters. They are very massive, some of them of a mixed order of architecture, but generally of a Gothic cast, and most of them showing on their exterior the rough fingering and the sombre incrustations of time. Within the quadrangles the grass is closely shaven, and of a rich velvet green. Without, are gardens, and parks, and meadows, and enchanting walks under old overshadowing trees. I was informed that two thousand acres are thus appropriated.

Oxford stands at the junction of the Cherwell and the Isis. The meadows stretch along these beautiful streams; and bordering the streams are avenues of majestic trees, so