mbers to repair the ravages of travel, we
united in the pleasant supper room, where the table was laid before a
bright coal fire: no unimportant feature this fire, I can assure you, in
a raw cloudy evening. A glass door from the supper room opened into a
conservatory, brilliant with pink and yellow azalias, golden
calceolarias, and a profusion of other beauties, whose names I did not
know.

The side tables were strewn with books, and the ample folds of the drab
curtains, let down over the windows, shut out the rain, damp, and chill.
When we were gathered round the table, Mr. Sturge said that he had
somewhat expected Elihu Burritt that evening, and we all hoped he would
come. I must not omit to say, that the evening circle was made more
attractive and agreeable in my eyes by the presence of two or three of
the little people, who were blessed with the rosy cheek of English
children.

Mr. Sturge is one of the most prominent and efficient of the
philanthropists of modern days. An air of benignity and easy good
nature veils and conceals in him the most unflinching perseverance and
energy of purpose. He has for many years been a zealous advocate of the
antislavery cause in England, taking up efficiently the work begun by
Clarkson and Wilberforce. He, with a friend of the same denomination,
made a journey at their own expense, to investigate the workings of the
apprentice system, by which the act of immediate emancipation in the
West Indies was for a while delayed. After his return he sustained a
rigorous examination of seven days before a committee of the House of
Commons, the result of which successfully demonstrated the abuses of
that system, and its entire inutility for preparing either masters or
servants for final emancipation. This evidence went as far as any thing
to induce Parliament to declare immediate and entire emancipation.

Mr. Sturge also has been equally zealous and engaged in movements for
the ignorant and perishing classes at home. At his own expense he has
sustained a private Farm School for the reformation of juvenile
offenders, and it has sometimes been found that boys, whom no severity
and no punishment seemed to affect, have been entirely melted and
subdued by the gentler measures here employed. He has also taken a very
ardent and decided part in efforts for the extension of the principles
of peace, being a warm friend and supporter of Elihu Burritt.

The next morning it was agreed that we should ta