to know whether I shall receive your sympathies and prayers, or whether I have done wrong and am considered a heathen. If the former, I can bear my affliction with fortitude; but if the latter, I feel that my life hangs by a slender thread that my days are numbered. In the meantime, brethren, pray for me; sisters, remember me in your prayers.

"I must cease, for the last paper in my possession is nearly covered over. And now, my brethren, when you meet to pray for heathen lands, remember, O! remember our own country. Watch over the declining steps of my parents; 'tis the greatest boon I can ask, for I fear that this intelligence will bring the grey hairs of loving father and affectionate mother to the grave. Comfort them with the thought that we may meet in heaven.'"

NOTE II., p. 68.

Even in Virginia, once the most civilised of the States, to speak, though in another State, against slavery is punished by exile.

This crime was committed by a Mr. Underwood, a Virginian, on the 26th of June, 1856. We copy a letter to him from his wife, warning him of what was to come, and also the sentence inflicted on him by a self-constituted tribunal.

"MY DEAR JOHN C.,

"June 23rd, 1856.

"A friend communicated to me yesterday that there existed the greatest excitement and indignation against you for making, as reported in The Herald, an anti-slavery speech. told our friend, they were watching at Piedmont on Saturday for your arrival, and he had no doubt

if you had come that day, you would have met with personal violence. At Markham Station the leaders say they go for giving you notice, and a reasonable time to wind up your business and leave the State. I send this morning to Alexandria to mail this letter at that place, and telegraph to you to remain in New York till you receive it. I know not what to advise. I am afraid the excitement will meet you if you come. You know I am a Jackson, and I could not have Jackson blood in my veins without resisting till the last drop is shed in defence of life and liberty; but I do not believe in courting mob law or martyrdom. I feel greatly troubled at this state of things, and fear if your speech can be obtained it will exasperate the people here greatly. I hope you will be prudent; remain awhile in New York. Write immediately, and tell me what to do on the farm, and I will try to have your wishes carried out as nearly as I can.

"With sorrow and much love, I remain, as ever, "Your devoted wife,

"M. G. UNDERWOOD."

FROM "THE VIRGINIA SENTINEL," JUNE 27TH, 1856.

"At a large and respectable meeting held at Piedmont Station, on the 26th instant, for the purpose of expressing their sentiments in relation to the course pursued by John C. Underwood, of Clarke County, and George Rye, of Shenandoah, at the Black Republican Convention, recently held at Philadelphia

"Resolved, That a committee be appointed to wait upon Mr. Underwood, to inform him of the just feelings of indignation created by his course in the Convention, together with his former (reputed) course in regard to the institution of slavery, and that they deem it just and advisable that he should leave the State as speedily as he can find it in his power so to do.

"Resolved, That the Alexandria Gazette, Alexandria

Sentinel, Virginia papers generally, the National Intelligencer, and Baltimore Sun, are requested to insert the above as an act of justice to the citizens of our State.

"EDWIN S. ASHBY, Secretary.

"ROBERT SINGLETON, Chairman."

Mr. Sumner's speech will be made more intelligible to an English reader by the following extract from a sermon preached by the Rev. Dudley Tyng in Philadelphia, on the 29th June, 1856:

"On the 30th of May, 1854, the Territory of Kansas was thrown open to settlers by act of Congress, and the privilege of determining the character of its institutions accorded to those who should become residents of its soil. Attracted by this opening for industry and enterprise, large numbers of persons from all sections of the country emigrated to the Territory, and soon made its prairies to smile with cultivation, and dotted its surface with towns and villages. Never country opened with brighter prospects. But how soon was the bright morn overcast ! On the 29th of November, 1854, the infant Territory was to elect a Delegate to appear and speak in its behalf in the National Congress. On that day more than one thousand armed men from an adjoining State invaded the Territory, drove judges and legal voters from the polls, and, by fraudulent ballots, elected a man of their own. On the 30th of March, 1855, the inhabitants of Kansas were to have elected their Territorial Legislature. More than four thousand armed men from the same State again invaded the Territory, took possession of the polls and elected their own candidates, some of them residents of their own State. The recent investigations of the Congressional Committee have proved that of five thousand five hundred votes cast on that day, less than one thousand were of actual residents of the Territory.

Surely it was bad enough to see a Legislature imposed on them by force and fraud. But what sort of laws did they pass? Hear and ask yourselves whether

we live in the Nineteenth Century, and in a free and Christian Republic. They re-enacted in a mass all the slave laws of Missouri, merely adding that wherever the word 'State' occurs in them it shall be construed to mean 'Territory.' They made nonadmission of the right to hold slaves in the Territory a disqualification for sitting as Juror. They enacted that to say that persons have not a right to hold slaves in that Territory should be punished with two years' imprisonment at hard labour; that writing, printing, or circulating anything against slavery should be punished with five years' imprisonment at hard labour; that the harbouring of fugitive slaves should be punished with five years' imprisonment at hard labour; that assisting slaves to escape from any Territory, and take refuge in that Territory, should be punished with death; that the printing or circulation of publications calculated to incite slaves to insurrection should be punished with death; to secure these laws perpetuity, they enacted that all who do not swear to support the Fugitive Slave law should be disqualified as voters, but that any one might vote who will pay one dollar and swear to uphold the Fugitive Slave law and the Nebraska bill. And, still further to guard against all contingencies, they appointed non-residents to town and county offices for six years ahead."

"Thus, by one stroke of combined fraud and force, the great questions of social rights, whose settlement had been pledged to the citizens themselves, were decided by an invading army, whose agents establish Slavery against the wishes of the people, disfranchise all who oppose it, open the polls to all pro-slavery non-residents, and shut up all who speak, write, print, or circulate anything against it with long imprisonment at hard labour. What has become of