ed it in its own colonies, this wretched system had never
fastened its clutches upon the home islands. Slaves had been brought
to England, it is true, and carried away; but, when the right to
remove them was questioned in court, Lord Chief Justice Mansfield,
with an abundance of argument and precedent to support a position
similar to that of Justice Taney in the Dred Scott case, had taken the
contrary view, and declared that the air of England was free, and the
slave who breathed it but once ceased thereby to be a slave. History
and humanity have delivered their verdict on these two decisions, and
time is not likely to disturb it.

A few days after landing at Liverpool, Douglass went to Ireland, where
the agitation for the repeal of the union between Great Britain and
Ireland was in full swing, under the leadership of Daniel O'Connell,
the great Irish orator. O'Connell had denounced slavery in words
of burning eloquence. The Garrisonian abolitionists advocated the
separation of the free and slave States as the only means of securing
some part of the United States to freedom. The American and Irish
disunionists were united by a strong bond of sympathy. Douglass was
soon referred to as "the black O'Connell," and lectured on slavery and
on temperance to large and enthusiastic audiences. He was introduced
to O'Connell, and exchanged compliments with him. A public breakfast
was given him at Cork, and a soiree by Father Matthew, the eminent
leader of the great temperance crusade which at that time shared with
the repeal agitation the public interest of Ireland. A reception to
Douglass and his friend Buffum was held in St. Patricks Temperance
Hall, where they were greeted with a special song of welcome, written
for the occasion. On January 6, 1846, a public breakfast was given
Douglass at Belfast, at which the local branch of the British and
Foreign Anti-slavery Society presented him with a Bible bound in gold.

After four months in Ireland, where he delivered more than fifty
lectures, Douglass and his friend Buffum left Ireland, on January 10,
1846, for Scotland, where another important reform was in progress. It
was an epoch of rebellion against the established order of things.
The spirit of revolt was in the air. The disruption movement in the
Established Church of Scotland, led by the famous Dr. Chalmers, had
culminated in 1843 in the withdrawal of four hundred and seventy
ministers, who gave up the shelter and security o