THE ENFRANCHISEMENT.

It was a pretty-looking cottage-with its roof half covered with the boughs of a great tree, and vines creeping up about the doors and windows. The garden, with its gay flowers, tempting berries, and fine vegetables, was almost without a weed; while the paling that surrounded both that and the grassplot, in front of the house, fairly glistened with its fresh covering of white-wash.

The old woman was seated in a large arm-chair, just outside of the door. Her countenance was one of the finest I have ever seen. She had probably past seventy summers, but her brow yet remained as dark as the still brilliant eye over which it was arched. The lines of age were distinctly, but not deeply traced upon her cheek and forehead; and her mouth and chin, though wearing them much more visibly than her other features, retained their characteristic marks of firmness and dignity. Her whole face was beaming with mingled benevolence, gratitude, and devotion. By her side was sitting a little dark-faced urchin of some half dozen years-and grouped round them, either seated on the grass, or on a long bench beneath the tree, several other descendants of Africa, whose happy faces, glowing with intelligence and feeling, spoke nothing of that consciousness of abasement and degradation, which is so often written upon the countenances of their race.

Shall I tell you the history of that group? It is a tale of female generosity, and negro gratitude.

That woman-she in the elbow-chair, with the open bible upon her knee-was a native, and till within these few years a resident, of Kentucky. Her husband was an owner of slaves -her father had been-and in her youth she thought but little of the sinfulness of laying unrighteous hands upon the property of God. But when the gentle creatures that called her "mother," gathered about her with their loving eyes, and she listened to their soft voices in the evening twilight, she felt how wretched would be her lot, if it were in the power of man's hand to tear them from her arms forever; and she thought of them, and commiserated the condition of the miserable slave. At first it was compassion only that led her to sympathise with

their unhappy fate; but the conviction soon came to her heart, that slavery was unjustifiable wickedness in the sight of the Almighty. She entreated her husband, almost with the earnestness of one beseeching for her own life, to liberate their slaves. He refused-and she wept secretly and in silence-but by every means in her power she strove with tireless perseverance to alleviate the bitterness of their lot. She was their instructor, their friend, their benefactress, moving about among them more like a parent than a mistress, preserving their respect by the quiet dignity of her manner, and winning their enthusiastic gratitude and love, by her kindness and affection.

When her husband died, they were distributed among their children, who had all married, and left the paternal roof. Again she renewed her solicitations for the freedom of those objects of her care-and again she was repulsed-ay, even by her own children was her prayer refused to be granted. She did not stoop to remonstrance, but her resolution was taken-and great as was the sacrifice, she accomplished the holy purpose of her heart. She purchased those slaves, from the oldest to the youngest she accompanied them here, to Ohio, where she might bestow on them the blessing of liberty-she expended almost her last cent in the performance of her high deed of justice; and they flung themselves at her feet in an overwhelming burst of gratitude-disenthralled-enfranchised!

And they have never forgotten her kindness. She owes all the comforts with which she is surrounded, to their unwearying industry to labour for her, to serve her, and to obey her lightest word, is alike their pride and their happiness—and on this evening they are all met together at her cottage, to celebrate the anniversary of their emancipation.

"Is it a true story?"

Why-recollect 't is summer twilight, and there is the moon, just rising over the tree-tops; so a little embellishment may be pardonable. But the circumstance of that widow having thus purchased and manumitted those slaves, and the story of their gratefully labouring for her support-is really the truth.

CONVERSATION.

AMONG the methods employed by the female friends of emancipation, to benefit the unhappy slave, and extend to other bosoms the sympathy for his situation, which they themselves feel, must not be overlooked the useful and very obvious one, of frequent conversation on that subject. Those who are already interested will, by pursuing this course among themselves, find their feelings still more deeply engaged in the cause of freedom, their purposes strengthened, and their minds excited to more sedulous perseverance; while an allusion to the subject, in the presence of others, may open the door to an instructive discourse, awaken the dormant sensibilities, and perhaps arouse into action those who have never before had their attention directed to the subject. Opportunities for this are rarely wanting in society, and a few words so uttered may perhaps leave an abiding impression on a mind previously unoccupied by prejudices, and prepare it to receive, with attention, any future information relative to the system. Let not any be discouraged from adverting to this topic by the belief that they shall fail to interest their hearers; it is better to risk the mortification of being listened to with repulsive coldness, than to fail of using every proper exertion, in a cause where so much is needful in order to ensure success. Besides, where there is least expectation of securing attention, the attempt to do so is sometimes rewarded by a more than ordinary display of it ;or, if productive of no immediate effect, the words may be like bread, which, being "cast upon the waters, shall be found after many days." If those who are now most deeply interested for our slave population endeavour to trace those feelings of interest to their spring, they will, probably, in many instances, find that they have their rise from quite as trifling a source as a casual conversation. Cowper's beautiful_poem, "The Negro's complaint," was distributed all over England under the title of "A subject for Conversation at the Tea-table ;" and was supposed to be productive of so much good effect that Clarkson has thought it worthy of notice in his "History of the Abolition." An abstinence from slave produce, if of no other service, would be valuable on account of its frequently giving rise to such conversations, and we hope that the few advocates of that system, will suffer no suitable opportunity for representing its advantages to pass unimproved.

THERE is something inexpressibly solemn in the silence of a starry moonlight. The splendour of the moon is beautiful, but it has less of high magnificence, less of the upliftedness of thought, with which we gaze on those immeasurably distant constellations. The moonless sky has nothing of that surpassing loveliness that presses with a tangible weight of pleasure upon the heart; but there is more unearthliness in the high imaginations that gather around the spirit, when the dark blue. concave is bended over the raised brow, and written all over with a visible sermon of light, teaching the heart a holy lesson with its unapproachable purity.

The wearying toil of the day has given way to a deep repose, and the very slave hath sunk into a short-lived slumber. Alas, alas, bright watchers! that ye should look down in your pure light upon a world of so much sinfulness. That ye should behold man fettered by his brother, and the heart of woman crushed by those who should seek to shelter it from the blasts of all sorrow. Woe for man's cruelty! that hath made so many anguished hearts to keep ward with you, and send up the beseeching cry of wretchedness, instead of the deep hymn of adoration, beneath your beams!

PREJUDICE.

WHEN we consider the strength of early impressions, and the readiness with which even our own more matured minds receive a bias from trifling circumstances, the necessity will easily be perceived of using the utmost watchfulness, in order to guard the minds of the young from the influence of erroneous impressions. Upon the friends of the negro we would particularly impress the duty of extreme wariness, in order to preserve those under their care from the contagion of the prevailing prejudices against that unhappy race. Suffer not those who are rising into life to enter its arena, as too many of ourselves have done, with their feelings warped by early misrepresentations, and

their ideas of a dark skin inseparably connected with unworthiness of character. There are few females who have not, in some way or other, a degree of influence over the mind of childhood. Let them exert that influence for the benefit of their negro brethren. Let them carefully search out, and endeavour to eradicate from the minds of their young friends or relatives, any feelings of dislike or contempt, that may have been acquired from derogatory opinions of the coloured race, which have been expressed in their presence; and thus fit them, in after-life, to be the friends and advocates of the cause of the slave.

We do not say, that the vices of the negro should be glossed over, and his faults concealed or palliated, in order to effect this. But it is surely most unjust, because many of them have been hitherto degraded beings, to insinuate the idea into the mind of the child, that all are, and must ever remain so. If he is told that they are ignorant and debased, let the inducing causes of their situation be pointed out to him;-let him see the difficulties they have to contend with; and let him be told, that some among them have nobly succeeded in conquering all the opposing force of untoward circumstances, and rising into high respectability. He will then form a true estimate of their respective situations. He will see that the negroes have not risen to a higher grade in society because their efforts to do so have been continually baffled and discountenanced, by the contempt and unrelenting prejudices of the whites; and instead of despising them for what they are, he will endeavour to elevate their character, and to infuse a higher tone of moral feeling into their minds, by inspiring them with self-respect, and teaching them that they may, by exertion, reach a station in life worth contending for.

OBEDIENCE.

OUGHT it not to be a source of shame to us, when we reflect upon the unhesitating enthusiasm with which many of the votaries of a heathen faith enter into the performance of what they deem their religious duties, that our own obedience to the commands of our Eternal Lawgiver should be so tardily ren