Fiat Justitia Ruat Cœlum.

Ladies' Repository.

Philanthropic and Literary.

PRINCIPALLY CONDUCTED BY A LADY.

"WHAT GOOD CAN WE DO?"

Try. You certainly will never benefit the cause of Emancipation by doing nothing; and the result of an experiment at exertion would, we are confi- || dent, give a satisfactory answer to the question. Are you mothers, wives, sisters? In all of these stations you must be conscious of possessing some influence over the minds of others. This influence extends, too, in some measure to your more distant relations, your friends and acquaintances, and through them to a still wider circle of society. You must not expect to work miracles, in raising up helpers to the cause of the Slave, but steady|| perseverence will do much, and even though you should seem to effect scarcely any thing, your efforts will be rewarded by the consciousness of at least having done your duty-of having done what you could towards rescuing thousands of miserable fellow creatures from the grasp of tyranny. If there is a female Anti-Slavery Associ. ation within your reach, join it; if there is not, endeavour to get one established in your neighborhood as soon as possible. No matter if there are not more than half a dozen members, at the commencement-if persevered in it will increase and

do good. Renounce the use of slave wrought articles. Act individually as if the whole decision of the fate of the slaves rested on your exertions and your self-denial, and in six months you will have no need to repeat the question, what good can we do?

WANTED,

A number of Female Anti-Slavery Associations, in all parts of the Union. Any female who is desirous that the sum of human misery and iniquity may be lessened, has it in her power to promote that desirable object, at a very small expense of time, exertion, and talents, by engaging in the cause of the Abolition of Slavery. Should any one doubt the magnitude of the claims of their enslaved fellow creatures on their benevolence, or their own ability of serving them, we entreat their attention to the few following paragraphs.

Is it right-is it in accordance with the law of God, that human beings should be bought and sold, scourged and manacled, robbed of the reward of their labours, and crushed beneath a weight of ignorance from which they are allowed no means of escaping? The two millions of slaves in the United States are exactly in this situation. One million of these are females. Contrast their situation with your own-remember that they dwell in the same land and under the same gov.

ernment with yourselves,-that they are immortal beings like yourselves, with all the fine and keen sympathies of a human nature thronging round their bosoms-and then say if there is any misery on the wide earth, that more needs female interference and female exertion, or that has a stronger claim on your benevolence?

Can you aid those unhappy beings?-Can you doubt it? Will the influence, the example, the pleadings, that in all other cases are universally acknowledged to be so powerful, here alone fail of their effect?

Further; Slavery is not self-supported. It is not the mere love of sin and injustice, that induces christian hands to clench, with so firm and unholy a grasp, the "inalienable rights" of their fellow creatures. The lure is self-interest-gold-the profit arising from the sale of their extorted produce. Can they who offer them the bait, by purchasing that produce, be innocent of their offence?

SELF DISTRUST.

Were we to judge of the general opinion people entertain of themselves, by their own idea of their capability of advancing the enfranchisement of where self conceit was totally out of fashion. We the slaves, we might suppose we lived in a world seldom meet with an individual of our own sex who does not, when the subject is mentioned, express a sympathetic feeling for the slaves, and a time the greater portion seemingly rest perfectly wish for their emancipation; while at the same satisfied on the credit of these feelings, and shelter themselves against all arguments to active exertion, behind the plea of their alleged insignificancy. That one false sentiment, ‘I can do no good,' does, we doubt not, more injury to the cause of emancipation, and tends more to secure the fetters of the slave, than all the arguments and open opposition of those who find their interest in supporting the oppression of their fellow creatures.

LADIES' ANTI-SLAVERY SOCIETY IN ENGLAND. We give, below, some extracts from the Seventh Report of the "Ladies' Negro's Friend Society, for Birmingham," &c. Its great length forbids the insertion of the whole. We are pleased to observe that Hannah Williams, of Philadelphia, is one of the appointed Correspondents of the Society. We have not room for further remarks at present.

EXTRACTS FROM THE REPORT.

The present year has opened upon us with tidings from Jamaica of the rebellion of Slaves! and what two words can more naturally be placed in conjunction than "slaves" and "rebellion!"The slave (so called) vindicates his right to his own body. "Rebel, it is mine," says the white man, and the title is traced up to an act of the foulest piracy;* to an act, now punishable by the * See the Examiner.

Fiat Justitia Ruat Cælum.

Their

laws of Great Britain with an ignominious death. I have been taken to rescue several more. The enslaved Negroes are said to have broken names and residences may be learnt by those inout into rebellion, under a mistaken notion that terested in their welfare, from the Treasurer or the liberty which they believed was granted by Secretary of this Society. For many reasons they the King to them all, and not to those only who cannot be mentioned in this Report; neither the were held to be the property of the Crown, was names of the kind friends in the Colonies, who are illegally withheld from them by their masters. so good as to aid us in this work of mercy, and And yet the destruction of the King's subjects, whose labours and assistance have given us the supposed to be so deluded, is described in the Co- greatest satisfaction. Some of these interesting lonial Papers with a savage satisfaction, which and virtuous young women have been delivered few on this side the Atlantic can note without a from situations of dangerous temptation. A young thrill of horror. Mr. Macdonald, the magistrate enslaved woman was to be ransomed, together of Trelawney, writing at this time from Jamaica, with her infant, (whom she would then be able says, that his advice was to take as few prisoners to press, not as a slave, but as free, to her bosom.) as possible; obviously meaning, that no quarter | It is intended to employ her as a teacher, where should be given; and yet this very gentleman ad- probably she will have thirty or forty young chil mits, that the insurgent Negroes have had provo-dren under her care; and there is no doubt, from cation for their violence; for he alludes to certain her ability and piety, that she will be a credit to individuals, against whom vengeance had been those who engage her services. particularly directed, and couples it with an observation, that the insurrection would have been avoided by kindness, such as was shown to the Negroes on the estates under his charge. Sir Willoughby Cotton, commander in chief, requires instant examples of "the infamous wretches." And "British Officers, Soldiers, and Seamen, who would not hesitate a moment to take the life of any man who should attempt to reduce them to Slavery, or to treat their sisters, daughters, wives, and mothers, with indignity, are employed in the horrible task of putting not men only, but women to death!" What more cruel results could have happened from the immediate emancipation of the enslaved negroes? Yet we fear that many are still bewildered by timid and imaginary doubts and fears, and are continually closing their eyes to the real difficulties of the case. In viewing the Negro, as he stands chained and fettered before them, the only question arising in their mind is, whether he be "fit" for emancipation, or not; and speedily deciding in the negative, they then propose, as their best recipe for making him "fit" for it, to keep him an indefinite length of time in the demoralizing bondage of British slavery. During the term of his pupilage, it is considered that the fittest persons to be entrusted with the care of him, are the Slaveholder, and his Attorney, Manager, and Driver. From them he is to learn the laws of God, and especially the "new commandment" of Christ, "that we should love one another." May this " new commandment" of the Lord Jesus constrain us still to use every proper exertion to obtain a bloodless triumph over this most cruel and sanguinary of all despotisms.

After the frightful scenes of devastation and of
slaughter which have recently occurred in Ja-
maica, will any one be found still bold enough to
plead for the slow and gradual relinquishment
of sin? in other words, for continued rebellion
agaist God, and continued wrong to man? We
earnestly desire, that the Slaveholder may learn,
even in this his eleventh hour, from the events

now passing around him, that his interests here
are best promoted by his "letting the oppressed
free."

go
We rejoice to state, that since our last meet-
ing, an excellent young woman has been ransom-
ed from Slavery,* and some preliminary measures

* The deed of Manumission was read to the An-
nual Meeting, and we had the pleasure of learning
that fourteen Slaves had been ransomed by a fund
raised by Mr. and Mrs. **** to which this Society
has now added 107. to aid in continuing their benevo-
lent exertions.

A long and interesting correspondence has been published from various parts of England, which shews that a great interest can be taken in this cause. Where the Agents have pleaded for the oppressed, some use their utmost exertions that no one connected with, or influenced by, Slaveholders, should be Members of Parliament. Some form Societies and disperse information in their own localities; whilst others forward assist. ance to the Parent Society in London, whose exertions have been much impeded for want of funds; some try to ransom an innocent fellow creature from Slavery; and others pledge themselves no longer to pay what has been well called "a poll tax to oppression,"* and believe that the peaceable liberation of the Negroes may be effected by increased abstinence from Slave-cultivated Sugar.

Since we first endeavoured to draw attention to the fact, that the consumers of West India Sugar are the real supporters of West India Slavery, many who aided us greatly have been called from suffering below, to triumph above. To one of these, who, in the past year, has entered into her rest, may be applied, as singularly and strictly appropriate, the words in which Sir James Mackintosh bears testimony to the worth of the female character, when exerting its energies in the cause of the abolition of Slavery; he says," he had more than once congratulated the friends of this cause, on the exertions made by females to advance its success. In several parts of England he had witness ed their zeal, and he had uniformly observed, that in proportion as they possessed the retiring virtues of delicacy and modesty, those chief ornaments of woman, in that proportion had they come forward to defend the still higher objects of humanity and justice." And never perhaps by any pen, certainly never by the pen of any female, were those objects ever more strongly, more clearly, and more righteously defended, than by the writer of the "Letters on the Prompt Extinction of British Slavery."+

||
thropic efforts of Hannah Kilham, is inserted in

The following statement, relative to the philan

* See the Wesminster Review, No. 28, which contains most spirited comments on the supporters of British Slavery: the wit of these remarks can only be equalled by their justice.

+ Printed by Hatchard. Supposed for some time to have been written by the talented Robert Hall, who never saw the publication till after it was out of the press.

[We much regret that the name of this lady is not mentioned. Can it, possibly, be the celebrated, the philanthropic Elizabeth Heyrich?—G. U. E.]

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an appendix to the above Report. This excellent lady died last summer, on her voyage from Liberia to Sierra Leone. To make room for this notice, we omit an article, relating to her decease, from the Liberia Herald. Long will the Africans have cause to mourn the loss of one so heartily devoted to their cause.

At a committee of the London Female Anti

Slavery Society, held the 21st of November, 1831, it was resolved to send to each of the lady's associations a copy of the following statement, trusting that the claim will be deemed by them legitimate and desirable as a collateral one, and that an appeal for a few pounds annually may be met with out weakening their interest in the primary object of anti-slavery associations.

For some years past, Hannah Kilham has assiduously directed her attention to the importance of attempting to instruct the natives of Africa, through the medium of their own languages; and for this purpose she has successfully prepared vocabularies, and in some instances, elementary books in various dialects spoken on the western coast, chiefly comprising those nations who are the victims of the slave trade.

This devoted Christian philanthropist is now in Sierra Leone, paying her third visit to that colony, having left England in the autumn of 1830. In this, as in her former visits, her attention has been peculiarly directed to promoting education, and applying the lessons she had prepared. Soon after her arrival at Sierra Leone, the way opened in a manner she had not previously anticipated, for her settling down in one of the liberated African villages, called Charlotte, and taking charge of about twenty-two girls, chiefly such as had been rescued from slave ships, speaking one or two different languages; but on the arrival at Free Town of another captured slave ship, which contained a number of children, she was induced to apply to the governor for an addition, and eventually increased her charge by upwards of seventy girls. The government provide a dwelling, and also the food and clothing of these children, and pay for a part of the superintendence; and by funds placed at Hannah Kilham's disposal, by some benevolent friends, the other charges, including the salary of a Matron, are at present defrayed.

The enlarged establishment had existed six months, when the last accounts were received, the whole family had been brought into order, they were receiving instruction in their own language, and already exhibiting the effect of that care which it is so earnestly the wish of Hannah Kilham to bestow. It is Hannah Kilham's intention, should life and health be spared, to remain at Sierra Leone till the approch of the rainy season, in 1832; and it is her anxious desire, that, in order to give her arrangements a fair trial, she should have it in her power to engage suitable superintendence for the school on her withdrawing from it. The expense of such superintendence, together with some other incidental charges, not defrayed by government, it is calculated would amount to from £80 to £100 per annum. To meet this expense, the present statement is addressed to lady's associations, soliciting them to give a small annual quota each, for the term of three years, if required; the first payment of which to be made on or before the 1st of the 4th month, (April) next."

An establishment on a plan likely to prove so peculiarly useful, it is hoped will meet with the

cordial support of the lady's anti-slavery associa-
tions.
Any contributions may be forwarded, either to
ELIZABETH DUDLEY, Peckham, or RACHEL Stacey,
Tottenham.

We learn that a meeting of Ladies was held at Philadelphia, on the 23rd inst. at which resolutions were adopted to memorialize the Legislature of Pennsylvania, against the passage of a bill, now before that body, to prohibit the migration of free coloured persons, from the slave-holding states. We can scarcely credit the supposition that the Legislature of that enlightened commonwealth

can be induced to enact a law which would be so cruel and unjust in its operations; yet it would be well for the public sentiment to be expressed, in every section of it, relative to this subject.

For the Genius of Universal Emancipation.

THE SOLD.

I'll to the dance! what boots it thus,
To brood o'er ills I cannot quell?
Amid the revel shout of mirth,
My bitter laugh shall mingle well.
I've toiled beside my matos to-day,
To-night we'll join in seeming glee,
But when we part with morning's light,
For aye that parting glance will be.
will not go! this fire within,

I

Would choke me with its smothered flames!

How could I tell the dear ones there,
Of that detested tyrant's claims?

I

could endure the fetter's weight,
That I have borne with them so long,
But not to wear a stranger's chain,
And crouch beneath a stranger's thong.
Yet this must be my morrow's fate!

To part from all that gave my doom,
Dark as it was and desolate,

A ray of light amidst its gloom.
To bear the scourge, to wear the chain,

To toil with wearied heart and limb,
"Till death should end my lengthened pain,
Or worn old age my senses dim;—
This I have borne, and looked to bear,

All bitter as such lot may be;
But drearier still my life must wear,
Beneath a stranger's tyranny.
Alas! 'twould be a happier lot,

If ere to-morrow's doom shall come,
My woes and wrongs were all forgot,
Amid the darkness of the tomb!

GERTRUDE.

For the Genius of Universal Emancipation. Religion is at all times, and in all seasons, consolatory, but peculiarly so when we are afflicted. It imparts heavenly peace and comfort to the dying christian; it enables him to bid a final farewell to his weeping wife and children, not only with composure, but with "joy unspeakable;" and, "full of glory," he commits them with confidence to him, who will not lie-who has said, leave thy fatherless children, I will preserve them alive, and

Fiat Justitia Ruat Cœlum.

let thy widows trust in me. It supports the widow, when death has deprived her of him who was her earthly all-on whom she leaned with the deep trust and tenderness of woman, with whom she took sweet counsel, and accompanied to the house of God-yes, when she follows, in the sable garments of woe, his cold remains to the silent home of all, the benignant rays of Religion shed light upon her night of sorrow. She hears the voice of her Redeemer, in accents ineffably sweet, calling upon her: "Dry up thy falling tears, poor mourner; thy Maker is now thy husband; the Lord of hosts is his name;" and she returns from the grave of her departed friend, tranquil, satisfied that her heavenly husband is able and willing to protect her, and though she may not have one friend on earth, she can look up in hea. ven to a friend whom misfortune cannot alter; "who sticketh closer than a brother."

and if thou couldst offer her youth, health, and
fortune, in Liberia, she would not make the ex
change. Oh then, when our enemies would fain
persuade thee that we have no love of country-
no attachment to our home-and ask thy aid to
drive us hence, may fancy bring before thee this
scene; and may the voice of old Mary, in mourn-
ful accents, speak in thy ear, saying: "Put not
thy hand I pray thee to this unrighteous work;"
so shall the blessings of the poor and the oppress-
ed rest on thee and thine forever.
Philada. Feb. 1833.

SOPHANISBA.

For the Genius of Universal Emancipation.
SLAVERY.

Had heaved the floods, and fixed the trembling land,
"Eternal Nature! when thy giant hand
When life sprung startling at thy plastic call,
Endless her forms, and Man the lord of all;
Say, was that lordly form inspired by thee,
To wear eternal chains and bend the knee?
Was man ordained the slave of man to toil,
Yoked with the brutes, and fettered to the soil;
Weighed in a tyrant's balance with his gold?
No! Nature stamped us in a heavenly mould;
She bade no wretch his thankless labor urge,
Nor, trembling, take the pittance and the scourge:
No homeless Libyan, on the stormy deep,
To call upon his country's name, and weep."

Campbell.

But there is a portion of our sex, from whom these precious privileges, these glorious consolations, are withheld. The poor slave is not permitted to attend the dying couch of her husband, to perform for him the many nameless offices of affection, to direct his fainting spirit to the sinner's friend. Alas! alas! for my country's guilt-alas! for the guilt of Christians, living in a land of Bibles-she is unacquainted with her Maker; and if she thinks at all of a future state, blindly imagines that the spirit of her husband will await her arrival on the shores of her native land. We who can by faith look to Heaven as a place of reunion Strange! that the human heart should ever bewith our departed friends; we who are favoured come so depraved, the human intellect so darkento know that there is a reality in religion; weed, as to hold a fellow man unrelentingly in the who have seen its holy influence, subduing the lion-like nature of man, and leaving in its stead the meekness of the dove, should bear on our hearts the sorrows, the ignorance, the degradation of our captive sisters; we should make them the subject of our daily conversations, our daily prayers. It is my privilege (yea, I count it a great privilege) sometimes to visit an aged female, who lives in a miserable old garret, the air at this inclement season pouring through many a crevice. She is lame, and altogether dependent on charity for her daily bread. Notwithstanding all this, she is contented and happy. Religion is her support. The holy scriptures are as meat and drink to her. With pleasure and astonishment I have listened to her while reciting hymns, with a beauty and propriety

of intonation that would have done credit to a scholar. Her life is, indeed, a life of praise. I was sitting by her one day, when a friend sent her some provisions. She clasped her hands together, raised her eyes to heaven, and said: "Oh Lord! Oh Lord! help me to praise thee, help me to praise thee for all thy goodness to me a poor miserable creature." Then, turning to me, she said, "when I look around and see how one kind friend after another comes in to see me and read to me, I am lost in astonishment; but, (speaking quickly and laying her hand on my arm) it is the power of God, my child, it is the power of God Oh, fear him, love him, praise him." I would rather be that woman, in her deep poverty, than an eastern princess.

I have frequently wished, when sitting by her side, that I might take some lady who leans to African Colonization by the hand and lead her to the humble door of that old garret. I would say: Look, Lady, at that poor woman, bowed with a weight of years and infirmities-a pensioner on the world's charity-the tenant of a wretched garret; yet it is her home, and therefore it is dear to her;

most cruel bondage, and submit to the disgrace of pleading aught in its excuse! Amidst the flood of light radiating from the christian gospel, and even at the moment they affect to exult in the influence of its purifying beams, men fearlessly oppress those who have been created equal with themselves, and boldly seek to justify the wrong, with arguments that might disgrace the rudest savage. How will future ages look with amazement and indignation on American injustice! will not its authors themselves, amidst the eternity of another existence, look back with grief and shame upon their own conduct? will the sophistry that now falls so smoothly on their cars, serve them to warp, to suit their own purposes, the immutable principles of justice? If it will not, let them turn now, while there is yet time for repentance, and break the fetters from the limbs of their brethren. cora.

For the Genius of Universal Emancipation.

GLOOM.

Do you feel sorrowful? I sometimes do,
When busy thought tells me the sufferings
Of some in our south land. Their brows are not
So fair as thine, by much, but yet they are
Our sisters, for the mighty God hath given
To them the boon of an immortal soul.
Yet are they made through life's long years to toil,
Scourge-driven like the brute; and with the fine,
And delicate pulses of a human heart,
Stirring to anguish in their bosoms, sold!
Aye like the meanest household chattel sold!
Vended from hand to hand, while with each wrench
Their torn hearts bleed at every throbbing pore.
Alas! how can I but feel sorrowful
To think upon their woes?

ELA.

Better to wear the coarsest garb, and eat of the simplest fare, than to partake the fruits of Slavery.

Wm. R. Jones-No. 18, Market Street, Baltimore. William Black, P. M.—Adamsburg.
Abner M. Plummer-Newmarket.
J. Farquhar, P. M.-Union Bridge.