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the morning before they sailed from Gravesend came with infinite power and sweetness-Not a hair of their heads shall perish.""

It was not long, however, before Lady Huntingdon had the satisfaction of learning the safe arrival of the remainder of the missionaries in America, and the cordial reception which they received from the friends of the late Mr. Whitefield.

Immediately on their arrival, they proceeded to the Orphan House, from whence they soon issued forth to spread the knowledge of the doctrine of their crucified Lord. As they had all preached in England, and considered themselves authorised to do so on their general plan, they travelled about the country and preached with much acceptance among serious Christians of different denominations. Their labours were crowned with singular success-many, by their ministry, received the light of the Gospel; and vast numbers of our sable-coloured brethren were called, by their preaching and conversation, to the knowledge and love of our Lord Jesus Christ. The regions where they itinerated furnished happy evidences of the powerful word of a crucified Jesus among the wild wanderers in the forests and the boundless plains of that vast continent.

The spirit of activity manifested by the missionaries to make known the glory and to erect the kingdom of our Immanuel in the hearts of men, roused the dormant zeal of many to send the Gospel to their heathen neighbours, and endeavour to evangelise the Indian tribes. A door of hope for the entrance of the everlasting Gospel being thus opened, and the cordial approbation expressed and the affectionate regard testified towards those whom Lady Huntingdon had sent over, induced many to make earnest application to her Ladyship for further assistance, to keep alive the spirit of zeal and activity which had been excited to spread the glorious Gospel around them.

"America (says Lady Huntingdon) is honoured by the mission sent over. The province of Georgia have made proposals to build a church at their own expense, and present me with it, that the College of Georgia may have their ministry in that part honoured. The invitations I have for our ministry in various parts of America are so kind and affectionate, that it looks as if we were to have our way free through the whole continent...... My last letters from America inform me, our way appears to be made to the Cherokee Indians; and in all the back settlements we are assured the people will joyfully build us churches at their own expense, and present

* Two Africans, members of a church in the Countess of Huntingdon's Connexion in Sierra Leone, under the pastoral care of Mr. John Ellis (also a man of colour, now ninety years of age, and probably one of these brethren) have lately visited London. Meetings were held to receive them at Sion Chapel, Northampton Tabernacle, &c. They returned to Sierra Leone on Wednesday, June 19th, 1839.

Some great, very great,

them to us, to settle perpetually for our use. work is intended by the Lord among the heathen. Should this appear I should be rejoiced to go myself to establish a College for the Indian nations. I can't help thinking but before I die the Lord will have me there, if only to make coats and garments for the poor Indians. I am looking when some from among us shall be called to the Jews--but the Gentiles by us will surely hear the voice of the Lord."

CHAPTER XLI.

Destruction of the Orphan House by fire-Observations of Mr. Berridge-Slave Trade Remarks on Mr. Whitefield and Lady Huntingdon―Slave Trade at the Orphan House-Lady Huntingdon purchases Slaves-Anthony Benezet -Writes to Lady Huntingdon on the Slave Trade-Death and Funeral of Anthony Benezet-American War.-Mr. Piercy-Mr. Keene and Lady Huntingdon-Colonel Tattersal-Lord George Germaine-Sir James WrightHon. Henry Laurens committed to the Tower-Mr. Channing-Mr. Laurens returns to America Rev. John Johnson-Orphan House seized by the Georgians-General Washington-Sir James Jay-Dr. Franklin.

NoT many months after the arrival of the missionaries at Georgia, the Orphan House was accidentally destroyed by fire. On the first news of her great temporal loss in America, the Countess hastened to London. "No lives being lost in the fire (observes her Ladyship), has made my heart so thankful, that, for the many thousands I have temporarily lost by it, I could never wish it for ONE moment to be otherwise; believing the Lord removed it only out of our way, and that it was not somehow on that right foundation of simplicity and faith our work must stand upon. Though we may be disappointed, God, the Judge of all, is not defeated-all things are ordered according to the counsel of his own will." To the frustration of Lady Huntingdon's fond hopes and the defeat of Mr. Whitefield's design, the venerable Mr. Berridge, the friend of both, refers in a letter to the late Rev. Cornelius Winter, which, from the singularity of the style and sentiment, and as partly agreeing with her Ladyship's idea, is here presented to the reader :

"It excites in me no surprise that the Orphan House is burnt down. It was originally intended for orphans, and, as such, was a laudable design, but has ceased to be an orphan house, in order to become a lumber-house for human learning, and God has cast a brand of his displeasure upon it; but how gracious has the Lord been to Mr. Whitefield, in preserving it during his lifetime! We all live to lay plans,

and you laid one last winter, but your Master has shown you he will not employ you as his counsellor."

"When able

Mr. Whitefield first landed in Georgia in 1778. to look about him (says Dr. Gillies), he found every thing bore the aspect of an infant colony; and, what was more discouraging still, he saw it was likely to continue so, by the nature of its constitution. The people were denied the use of rum and slaves!" This the apostolic Whitefield wrote, and this Dr. Gillies recorded, without any comment. Indeed, Mr. Whitefield considered the denial of rum and slaves, as more than a misfortune to the colony. Hence, he adds (after stating that female heirs were not allowed to inherit lands), "so that, in reality, to place a people there on such a footing, was little better than to tie their legs and bid them walk. The scheme was well meant at home, but, as too many years' experience evidently proved, it was absolutely impracticable in so hot a country abroad."

How differently would Mr. Whitefield write if alive now! But then, he was not wiser than his times on the subject of slavery. Indeed, he soon became a slave owner, when he founded his Orphan House in Georgia. Nevertheless, his sentiments and feelings were very different from the generality of the proprietors of slaves. He soon became an instrument in turning the attention of many to the hard case of the negroes, and of exciting sympathy towards them. His letter from Georgia to the inhabitants of Maryland, Virginia, and North and South Carolina, was printed in 1739, and is as follows:

Sure I

"As I lately passed through your provinces on my way hither, I was sensibly touched with a fellow-feeling for the miseries of the poor negroes. Whether it be lawful for Christians to buy slaves, and thereby encourage the nations from whom they are bought to be at perpetual war with each other, I shall not take upon me to determine. am it is sinful, when they have bought them, to use them as bad as though they were brutes, nay worse; and whatever particular exceptions there may be (as I would charitably hope there are some), I fear the generality of you who own negroes, are liable to such a charge; for your slaves, I believe, work as hard, if not harder, than the horses whereon you ride. These, after they have done their work, are fed and taken proper care of; but many negroes, when wearied with labour in your plantations, have been obliged to grind their corn after their return home. Your dogs are caressed and fondled at your table; but your slaves, who are frequently styled dogs or beasts, have not an equal privilege. They are scarce permitted to pick up the crumbs which fall from their master's table; not to mention what numbers have been given up to the inhuman usage of cruel task-masters, who, by their unrelenting scourges, have ploughed their backs, and at length

brought them even unto death. When, passing along, I have viewed your plantations cleared and cultivated, many spacious houses built, and the owners of them faring sumptuously every day, my blood has frequently almost run cold within me, to consider how many of your slaves had neither convenient food to eat, nor proper raiment to put on, notwithstanding most of the comforts you enjoy were solely owing to their indefatigable labours."

The letter from which this is an extract produced a desirable effect upon many of those who perused it, but particularly upon such as began to be seriously disposed in these times. And as Mr. Whitefield continued a firm friend to the poor Africans, never losing an opportunity of serving them; he interested, in the course of his useful life, many thousands of his followers in their favour.

The object of the Orphan House was to furnish scholastic instruction to the poor, and to prepare some of them for the ministry. Mr. Whitefield, ever attentive to the cause of the poor Africans, thought that this institution might have been useful to them also; but soon after his death they who succeeded him bought slaves, and these in unusual numbers, to extend the rice and indigo plantations belonging to the College. This fact might have been concealed, now that there are Americans who may employ it in their own justification; but we have not hid it, because even they cannot hide from themselves the fact, that the Countess of Huntingdon, or her chaplain, ought never to have held a slave. It was not like themselves-it was unworthy of them to do so! So it is of every American Christian. "I wot that through ignorance they did it, as did their and our fathers." They would not do it now. Who does not instinctively feel this? How difficult it is to believe that ever. Mr. Whitefield or his noble patroness could have written the following words! In his memorial to the Governor of Georgia, for a grant of lands to found a College, he urges his request by stating that "a considerable sum of money is intended speedily to be laid out in purchasing a large number of negroes." In his memorial to the King, praying for a charter to the intended College, he pledges himself to "give up his trust, and make a free gift of all lands, negrocs, goods and chattels, of which he now stands possessed in the province of Georgia, for the present founding, and towards the future support of a college to be called Bethesda." He makes a similar appeal to the Archbishop of Canterbury, informing him that the number of negroes, young and old, is about thirty; and proving to him, that by laying out only a thousand pounds in purchasing an additional number of negroes," the income of the college would be easily

and speedily augmented." (There were fifty slaves, men, women, and children, at the Orphan House in 1770.) On the receipt of the first remittance from the Orphan House estate and property bequeathed to Lady Huntingdon by Mr. Whitefield, her Ladyship writes thus to Josiah Tatnall, John Glenn, and Nathaniel Hall, Esqrs., agents and attorneys for the Orphan House trust:

"The bill for 26l. 10s. 5d., remitted by you, as a draft payable to me, upon Mr. Channing, and as arising from the trust estate of the Orphan House in Georgia, and my own property there (intended by me to be for ever united to it), must be returned to you, for the purposes of that trust, and expended by my order upon it, as having thus reached my immediate direction. I must, therefore, request that a woman-slave may be purchased with it, and that she may be called SELINA, after me, in order best to establish that period of my only receipt of money during the whole course of my possessing that trust, or my own property there, and that in your accounts it may fully fix and determine the time of this remittance, taking care that it may appear as by my special appointment of it. This will be needful, as it will so stand in my accounts of this trust when delivered in by me."

We may well exclaim, "Lord, what is man!"

The encouragement thus given to the slave trade excited the attention of the excellent and venerable Anthony Benezet,*

* Anthony Benezet was the personal friend of Mr. Whitefield, who frequently lodged at his house whenever he visited Philadelphia. His father was one of the many Protestants who, in consequence of the persecutions which followed the revocation of the edict of Nantes, sought an asylum in foreign countries. After serving an apprenticeship in an eminent mercantile house in London, he removed to Philadelphia, where he joined in profession the Quakers. He considered the accumulation of wealth as of no importance, when compared with the enjoyment of doing good; and he chose the humble, despised, but beyond appreciation useful, and honourable, situation of a schoolmaster, as according best with this notion, believing, that by endeavouring to train up youth in knowledge and virtue, he should become more extensively useful than in any other way to his fellow creatures. His works on the calamitous state of the enslaved negroes in the British dominions contained a clear and distinct developement of the subject, and became eminently instrumental in disseminating a proper knowledge and detestation of the trade. He died at Philadelphia in the spring of 1784. The interment of his remains was attended by several thousands of all ranks, professions, and parties, including some hundreds of those poor Africans, who had been personally benefitted by his labours, and whose behaviour on the occasion showed the gratitude and affection they considered to be due to him as the benefactor of their whole race. It was at this amiable philanthropist's funeral, when hundreds of weeping negroes stood round, that an American officer said, "I would rather be Anthony Benezet in that coffin, than General Washington with all his fame."

A branch of the Benezet family remained in England, and intermarried with the family of Dr. Claude Fournereau, of Christ Church Park, in the county of Suffolk. His descendant, the late Major Benezet, was a resident at Margate for many years, where he acquired considerable property, a great portion of the new town having been built on land belonging to him. The name is now nearly extinct only one person remaining, an old bachelor, upwards of seventy years of age.

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