, as well as from what they said, I
should imagine that the Quakers generally pursue this course of entire
separation from all connection with slavery, even in the disuse of its
products. The subject of the disuse of slave-grown produce has obtained
currency in the same sphere in which Elihu Burritt operates, and has
excited the attention of the Olive Leaf Circles. Its prospects are not
so weak as on first view might be imagined, if we consider that Great
Britain has large tracts of cotton-growing land at her disposal in
India. It has been calculated that, were suitable railroads and
arrangements for transportation provided for India, cotton could be
raised in that empire sufficient for the whole wants of England, at a
rate much cheaper than it can be imported from America. Not only so, but
they could then afford to furnish cotton cheaper at Lowell than the same
article could be procured from the Southern States.

It is consolatory to know that a set of men have undertaken this work
whose perseverance in any thing once begun has never been daunted. Slave
labor is becoming every year more expensive in America. The wide market
which has been opened for it has raised it to such an extravagant price
as makes the stocking of a plantation almost ruinous. If England enters
the race with free labor, which has none of these expenses, and none of
the risk, she will be sure to succeed. All the forces of nature go with
free labor; and all the forces of nature resist slave labor. The stars
in their courses fight against it; and it cannot but be that ere long
some way will be found to bring these two forces to a decisive issue.

Mr. Sturge seemed exceedingly anxious that the American states should
adopt the theory of immediate, and not gradual, emancipation. I told him
the great difficulty was to persuade them to think of any emancipation
at all; that the present disposition was to treat slavery as the pillar
and ground of the truth, the ark of religion, the summary of morals,
and the only true millennial form of modern society.

He gave me, however, a little account of their antislavery struggles in
England, and said, what was well worthy of note, that they made no
apparent progress in affecting public opinion until they firmly
advocated the right of every innocent being to immediate and complete
freedom, without any conditions. He said that a woman is fairly entitled
to the credit of this suggestion. Elizabeth Heyrick of Leicester