Three Years in Europe by William Wells Brown

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The Temperance people made the next reformatory move. This meeting took
place in Exeter Hall, and was made up of delegates from the various
towns in the kingdom. They had come from the North, East, West, and
South. There was the quick-spoken son of the Emerald Isle, with his
pledge suspended from his neck; there, too, the Scot, speaking his broad
dialect; also the representatives from the provincial towns of England
and Wales, who seemed to speak anything but good English.

The day after the meeting had closed in Exeter Hall, the country
societies, together with those of the metropolis, assembled in Hyde
Park, and then walked to the Crystal Palace. Their number while going to
the Exhibition, was variously estimated at from 15,000 to 20,000, and
was said to have been the largest gathering of Teetotalers ever
assembled in London. They consisted chiefly of the working classes,
their wives and children--clean, well-dressed and apparently happy:
their looks indicating in every way those orderly habits which, beyond
question, distinguish the devotees of that cause above the common
labourers of this country. On arriving at the Exhibition, they soon
distributed themselves among the departments, to revel in its various
wonders, eating their own lunch, and drinking from the Crystal Fountain.

And now I am at the world's wonder, I will remain here until I finish
this sheet. I have spent fifteen days in the Exhibition, and have
conversed with those who have spent double that number amongst its
beauties, and the general opinion appears to be, that six months would
not be too long to remain within its walls to enable one to examine its
laden stalls. Many persons make the Crystal Palace their home, with the
exception of night. I have seen them come in the morning, visit the
dressing-room, then go to the refreshment room, and sit down to
breakfast as if they had been at their hotel. Dinner and tea would be
taken in turn.

The Crystal Fountain is the great place of meeting in the Exhibition.
There you may see husbands looking for lost wives, wives for stolen
husbands, mothers for their lost children, and towns-people for their
country friends; and unless you have an appointment at a certain place
at an hour, you might as well prowl through the streets of London to
find a friend, as in the Great Exhibition. There is great beauty in the
"Glass House." Here, in the transept, with the glorious sunlight coming
through that wonderful glass roof, may the taste be cultivated and
improved, the mind edified, and the feelings chastened. Here,
surrounded by noble creations in marble and bronze, and in the midst of
an admiring throng, one may gaze at statuary which might fitly decorate
the house of the proudest prince in Christendom.

He who takes his station in the gallery, at either end, and looks upon
that wondrous nave, or who surveys the matchless panorama around him
from the intersection of the nave and transept, may be said, without
presumption or exaggeration, to see all the kingdoms of this world and
the glory of them. He sees not only a greater collection of fine
articles, but also a greater as well as more various assemblage of the
human race, than ever before was gathered under one roof.

One of the beauties of this great international gathering is, that it is
not confined to rank or grade. The million toilers from mine, and
factory, and workshop, and loom, and office, and field, share with their
more wealthy neighbours the feast of reason and imagination spread out
in the Crystal Palace.

It is strange indeed to see so many nations assembled and represented
on one spot of British ground. In short, it is one great theatre, with
thousands of performers, each playing his own part. England is there,
with her mighty engines toiling and whirring, indefatigable in her
enterprises to shorten labour. India spreads her glitter and paint.
France, refined and fastidious, is there every day, giving the last
touch to her picturesque group; and the other countries, each in their
turn, doing what they can to show off. The distant hum of thousands of
good humoured people, with occasionally a national anthem from some
gigantic organ, together with the noise of the machinery, seems to send
life into every part of the Crystal Palace.

When you get tired of walking, you can sit down and write your
impressions, and there is the "post" to receive your letter, or if it be
Friday or Saturday, you may, if you choose, rest yourself by hearing a
lecture from Professor Anstead; and then before leaving take your last
look, and see something that you have not before seen. Every thing which
is old in cities, new in colonial life, splendid in courts, useful in
industry, beautiful in nature, or ingenious in invention, is there
represented. In one place we have the Bible translated into one hundred
and fifty languages; in another, we have saints and archbishops painted
on glass; in another, old palaces and the altars of a John Knox, a
Baxter, or some other divines of olden time. In the old Temple of
Delphi, we read that every state of the civilized world had its separate
treasury, where Herodotus, born two thousand years before his time, saw
and observed all kinds of prodigies in gold and silver, brass and iron,
and even in linen. The nations all met there on one common ground, and
the peace of the earth was not a little promoted by their common
interest in the sanctity and splendour of that shrine. As long as the
Exhibition lasts, and its memory endures, we hope and trust that it may
shed the same influence. With this hasty scrap, I take leave of the
Great Exhibition.

LETTER XIX.

_Oxford--Martyrs' Monument--Cost of the Burning of the Martyrs--The
Colleges--Dr. Pusey--Energy, the Secret of Success._

OXFORD, _September 10th, 1851_.

I have just finished a short visit to the far famed city of Oxford,
which has not unaptly been styled the City of Palaces. Aside from this
being one of the principal seats of learning in the world, it is
distinguished alike for its religious and political changes in times
past. At one time it was the seat of Popery; at another, the
uncompromising enemy of Rome. Here the tyrant, Richard the Third, held
his court, and when James the First, and his son Charles the First,
found their capital too hot to hold them, they removed to their loyal
city of Oxford. The writings of the great Republicans were here
committed to the flames. At one time Popery sent Protestants to the
stake and faggot; at another, a Papist King found no favour with the
people. A noble monument now stands where Cranmer, Ridley, and Latimer,
proclaimed their sentiments and faith, and sealed them with their blood.
And now we read upon the Town Treasurer's book--for three loads of wood,
one load of faggots, one post, two chains and staples, to burn Ridley
and Latimer, L1 5s. 1d. Such is the information one gets by looking over
the records of books written three centuries ago.

It was a beautiful day on which I arrived at Oxford, and instead of
remaining in my hotel, I sallied forth to take a survey of the beauties
of the city. I strolled into Christ Church Meadows, and there spent the
evening in viewing the numerous halls of learning which surround that
splendid promenade. And fine old buildings they are: centuries have
rolled over many of them, hallowing the old walls, and making them grey
with age. They have been for ages the chosen homes of piety and
philosophy. Heroes and scholars have gone forth from their studies here,
into the great field of the world, to seek their fortunes, and to
conquer and be conquered. As I surveyed the exterior of the different
Colleges, I could here and there see the reflection of the light from
the window of some student, who was busy at his studies, or throwing
away his time over some trashy novel, too many of which find their way
into the trunks or carpet bags of the young men on setting out for
College. As I looked upon the walls of these buildings, I thought as the
rough stone is taken from the quarry to the finisher, there to be made
into an ornament, so was the young mind brought here to be cultivated
and developed. Many a poor unobtrusive young man, with the appearance of
little or no ability, is here moulded into a hero, a scholar, a tyrant,
or a friend of humanity. I never look upon these monuments of education,
without a feeling of regret, that so few of our own race can find a
place within their walls. And this being the fact, I see more and more
the need of our people being encouraged to turn their attention more
seriously to self-education, and thus to take a respectable position
before the world, by virtue of their own cultivated minds and moral
standing.

Education, though obtained by a little at a time, and that, too, over
the midnight lamp, will place its owner in a position to be respected
by all, even though he be black. I know that the obstacles which the
laws of the land, and of society, place between the coloured man and
education in the United States, are very great, yet if _one_ can break
through these barriers, more can; and if our people would only place the
right appreciation upon education, they would find these obstacles are
easier to be overcome than at first sight appears. A young man once
asked Carlyle, what was the secret of success. His reply was, "Energy;
whatever you undertake, do it with all your might." Had it not been for
the possession of energy, I might now have been working as a servant for
some brainless fellow who might be able to command my labour with his
money, or I might have been yet toiling in chains and slavery. But
thanks to energy, not only for my being to-day in a land of freedom, but
also for my dear girls being in one of the best seminaries in France,
instead of being in an American school, where the finger of scorn would
be pointed at them by those whose superiority rests entirely upon their
having a whiter skin. But I am straying too far from the purpose of
this letter.

Oxford is indeed one of the finest located places in the kingdom, and
every inch of ground about it seems hallowed by interesting
associations. The University, founded by the good King Alfred, still
throws its shadow upon the side-walk; and the lapse of ten centuries
seems to have made but little impression upon it. Other seats of
learning may be entitled to our admiration, but Oxford claims our
veneration. Although the lateness of the night compelled me, yet I felt
an unwillingness to tear myself from the scene of such surpassing
interest. Few places in any country as noted as Oxford is, but what has
some distinguished person residing within its precincts. And knowing
that the City of Palaces was not an exception to this rule, I resolved
to see some of its lions. Here, of course, is the head quarters of the
Bishop of Oxford, a son of the late William Wilberforce, Africa's noble
champion. I should have been glad to have seen this distinguished pillar
of the Church, but I soon learned that the Bishop's residence was out of
town, and that he seldom visited the city except on business. I then
determined to see one who, although a lesser dignitary in the church, is
nevertheless, scarcely less known than the Bishop of Oxford. This was
the Rev. Dr. Pusey, a divine, whose name is known wherever the religion
of Jesus is known and taught, and the acknowledged head of the
Puseyites. On the second morning of my visit, I proceeded to Christ
Church Chapel, where the rev. gentleman officiates. Fortunately I had an
opportunity of seeing the Dr., and following close in his footsteps to
the church. His personal appearance is anything but that of one who is
the leader of a growing and powerful party in the church. He is rather
under the middle size, and is round shouldered, or rather stoops. His
profile is more striking than his front face, the nose being very large
and prominent. As a matter of course, I expected to see a large nose,
for all great men have them. He has a thoughtful, and somewhat sullen
brow, a firm and somewhat pensive mouth, a cheek pale, thin, and deeply
furrowed. A monk fresh from the cloisters of Tintern Abbey, in its
proudest days, could scarcely have made a more ascetic and solemn
appearance than did Dr. Pusey on this occasion. He is not apparently
above forty-five, or at most fifty years of age, and his whole aspect
renders him an admirable study for an artist. Dr. Pusey's style of
preaching is cold and tame, and one looking at him would scarcely
believe that such an apparently uninteresting man could cause such an
eruption in the Church as he has. I was glad to find that a coloured
young man was among the students at Oxford.

A few months since, I paid a visit to our countryman, Alexander Crummel,
who is still pursuing his studies at Cambridge--a place, though much
inferior to Oxford as far as appearance is concerned, is yet said to be
greatly its superior as a place of learning. In an hour's walk through
the Strand, Regent, or Piccadilly Streets in London, one may meet half a
dozen coloured young men, who are inmates of the various Colleges in the
metropolis. These are all signs of progress in the cause of the sons of
Africa. Then let our people take courage, and with that courage let them
apply themselves to learning. A determination to excel is the sure road
to greatness, and that is as open to the black man as the white. It was
that which has accomplished the mightiest and noblest triumphs in the
intellectual and physical world. It was that which has made such rapid
strides towards civilization, and broken the chains of ignorance and
superstition, which have so long fettered the human intellect. It was
determination which raised so many worthy individuals from the humble
walks of society, and from poverty, and placed them in positions of
trust and renown. It is no slight barrier that can effectually oppose
the determination of the will--success must ultimately crown its
efforts. "The world shall hear of me," was the exclamation of one whose
name has become as familiar as household words. A Toussaint, once
laboured in the sugar field with his spelling-book in his pocket, amid
the combined efforts of a nation to keep him in ignorance. His name is
now recorded among the list of statesmen of the past. A Soulouque was
once a slave, and knew not how to read. He now sits upon the throne of
an Empire.

In our own country, there are men who once held the plough, and that
too without any compensation, who are now presiding at the editor's
table. It was determination that brought out the genius of a Franklin,
and a Fulton, and that has distinguished many of the American Statesmen,
who but for their energy and determination would never have had a name
beyond the precincts of their own homes.

It is not always those who have the best advantages, or the greatest
talents, that eventually succeed in their undertakings; but it is those
who strive with untiring diligence to remove all obstacles to success,
and who, with unconquerable resolution, labour on until the rich reward
of perseverance is within their grasp. Then again let me say to our
young men--Take courage; "There is a good time coming." The darkness of
the night appears greatest just before the dawn of day.

LETTER XX.

_Fugitive Slaves in England._

The love of freedom is one of those natural impulses of the human breast
which cannot be extinguished. Even the brute animals of the creation
feel and show sorrow and affection when deprived of their liberty.
Therefore is a distinguished writer justified in saying, "Man is free,
even were he born in chains." The Americans boast, and justly, too, that
Washington was the hero and model patriot of the American
Revolution--the man whose fame, unequalled in his own day and country,
will descend to the end of time, the pride and honour of humanity. The
American speaks with pride of the battles of Lexington and Bunker Hill;
and when standing in Faneuil Hall, he points to the portraits of Otis,
Adams, Hancock, Quincy, Warren, and Franklin, and tells you that their
names will go down to posterity among the world's most devoted and
patriotic friends of human liberty.

It was on the first of August, 1851, that a number of men, fugitives
from that boasted land of freedom, assembled at the Hall of Commerce in
the City of London, for the purpose of laying their wrongs before the
British nation, and at the same time, to give thanks to the God of
Freedom for the liberation of their West India brethren, on the first of
August, 1834. Little notice had been given of the intended meeting, yet
it seemed to be known in all parts of the city. At the hour of half-past
seven, for which the meeting had been called, the spacious hall was well
filled, and the fugitives, followed by some of the most noted English
Abolitionists, entered the hall, amid the most deafening applause, and
took their seats on the platform. The appearance of the great hall at
this juncture was most splendid. Besides the committee of fugitives, on
the platform there were a number of the oldest and most devoted of the
Slave's friends. On the left of the chair sat Geo. Thompson, Esq., M.P.;
near him was the Rev. Jabez Burns, D.D.; and by his side the Rev. John
Stevenson, M.A., Wm. Farmer, Esq., R. Smith, Esq.; while on the other
side were the Rev. Edward Mathews, John Cunliff, Esq., Andrew Paton,
Esq., J.P. Edwards, Esq., and a number of coloured gentlemen from the
West Indies. The body of the hall was not without its distinguished
guests. The Chapmans and Westons of Boston, U.S., were there. The
Estlins and Tribes had come all the way from Bristol to attend the great
meeting. The Patons of Glasgow had delayed their departure, so as to be
present. The Massies had come in from Upper Clapton. Not far from the
platform sat Sir Francis Knowles, Bart., still farther back was Samuel
Bowly, Esq., while near the door were to be seen the greatest critic of
the age, and England's best living poet. Macaulay had laid aside the
pen, entered the hall, and was standing near the central door, while not
far from the historian stood the newly-appointed Poet Laureat. The
author of "In Memoriam" had been swept in by the crowd, and was standing
with his arms folded, and beholding for the first time (and probably the
last) so large a number of coloured men in one room. In different parts
of the hall were men and women from nearly all parts of the kingdom,
besides a large number who, drawn to London by the Exhibition, had come
in to see and hear these oppressed people plead their own cause.

The writer of this sketch was chosen Chairman of the meeting, and
commenced its proceedings by delivering the following address, which we
cut from the columns of the _Morning Advertiser_:--

"The Chairman, in opening the proceedings, remarked that, although the
metropolis had of late been inundated with meetings of various
character, having reference to almost every variety of subject, yet that
the subject they were called upon that evening to discuss differed from
them all. Many of those by whom he was surrounded, like himself, had
been victims to the inhuman institution of Slavery, and were in
consequence exiled from the land of their birth. They were fugitives
from their native land, but not fugitives from justice, and they had not
fled from a monarchical, but from a so-called republican government.
They came from amongst a people who declared, as part of their creed,
that all men were born free, but who, while they did so, made slaves of
every sixth man, woman, and child in the country (hear, hear). He must
not, however, forget that one of the purposes for which they were met
that night was to commemorate the emancipation of their brothers and
sisters in the isles of the sea. That act of the British Parliament, and
he might add in this case with peculiar emphasis, of the British nation,
passed on the 12th day of August, 1833, to take effect on the first day
of August, 1834, and which enfranchised 800,000 West Indian slaves, was
an event sublime in its nature, comprehensive and mighty in its
immediate influences and remote consequences, precious beyond expression
to the cause of freedom, and encouraging beyond the measure of any
government on earth to the hearts of all enlightened and just men. This
act was the commencement of a long course of philanthropic and Christian
efforts on the part of some of the best men that the world ever
produced. It was not his intention to go into a discussion or a
calculation of the rise and fall of property, or whether sugar was worth
more or less by the act of emancipation. But the abolition of Slavery
in the West Indies, was a blow struck in the right direction, at that
most inhuman of all traffics, the slave trade--a trade which would never
cease so long as slavery existed, for where there was a market there
would be merchandise; where there was demand there would be a supply;
where there were carcases there would be vultures; and they might as
well attempt to turn the water, and make it run up the Niagara river, as
to change this law. It was often said by the Americans that England was
responsible for the existence of slavery there, because it was
introduced into that country while the colonies were under the British
Crown. If that were the case, they must come to the conclusion that, as
England abolished Slavery in the West Indies, she would have done the
same for the American States if she had had the power to do it; and if
that was so, they might safely say that the separation of the United
States from the mother country was (to say the least) a great misfortune
to one-sixth of the population of that land. England had set a noble
example to America, and he would to heaven his countrymen would follow
the example. The Americans boasted of their superior knowledge, but they
needed not to boast of their superior guilt, for that was set upon a
hill top, and that too, so high, that it required not the lantern of
Diogenes to find it out. Every breeze from the western world brought
upon its wings the groans and cries of the victims of this guilt. Nearly
all countries had fixed the seal of disapprobation on slavery, and when,
at some future age, this stain on the page of history shall be pointed
at, posterity will blush at the discrepancy between American profession
and American practice. What was to be thought of a people boasting of
their liberty, their humanity, their Christianity, their love of
justice, and at the same time keeping in slavery nearly four millions of
God's children, and shutting out from them the light of the Gospel, by
denying the Bible to the slave! (Hear, hear.) No education, no marriage,
everything done to keep the mind of the slave in darkness. There was a
wish on the part of the people of the northern States to shield
themselves from the charge of slave-holding, but as they shared in the
guilt, he was not satisfied with letting them off without their share in
the odium. And now a word about the Fugitive Slave Bill. That measure
was in every respect an unconstitutional measure. It set aside the right
formerly enjoyed by the fugitive of trial by jury--it afforded to him no
protection, no opportunity of proving his right to be free, and it
placed every free coloured person at the mercy of any unprincipled
individual who might wish to lay claim to him. (Hear.) That law is
opposed to the principles of Christianity--foreign alike to the laws of
God and man, it had converted the whole population of the free States
into a band of slave-catchers, and every rood of territory is but so
much hunting ground, over which they might chase the fugitive. But while
they were speaking of slavery in the United States, they must not omit
to mention that there was a strong feeling in that land, not only
against the Fugitive Slave Law, but also against the existence of
slavery in any form. There was a band of fearless men and women in the
city of Boston, whose labours for the slave had resulted in good beyond
calculation. This noble and heroic class had created an agitation in the
whole country, until their principles have taken root in almost every
association in the land, and which, with God's blessing, will, in due
time, cause the Americans to put into practice what they have so long
professed. (Hear, hear.) He wished it to be continually held up before
the country, that the northern States are as deeply implicated in the
guilt of slavery as the South. The north had a population of 13,553,328
freemen; the south had a population of only 6,393,756 freemen; the north
has 152 representatives in the house, the south only 81; and it would be
seen by this, that the balance of power was with the free States.
Looking, therefore, at the question in all its aspects, he was sure that
there was no one in this country but who would find out, that the
slavery of the United States of America was a system the most abandoned
and the most tyrannical. (Hear, hear.)"

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