ry Society, a peace convention, a suffrage extension
meeting, and a temperance convention, and spoke also at a reception
where efforts were made to induce him to remain in England, and money
subscribed to bring over his family. As will be seen hereafter, he
chose the alternative of returning to the United States.

On August 7, 1846, Douglass addressed the World's Temperance
Convention, held at Covent Garden Theatre, London. There were many
speakers, and the time allotted to each was brief; but Douglass never
lost an opportunity to attack slavery, and he did so on this occasion
over the shoulder of temperance. He stated that he was not a delegate
to the convention, because those whom he might have represented were
placed beyond the pale of American temperance societies either by
slavery or by an inveterate prejudice against their color. He referred
to the mobbing of a procession of colored temperance societies in
Philadelphia several years before, the burning of one of their
churches, and the wrecking of their best temperance hall. These
remarks brought out loud protests and calls for order from the
American delegates present, who manifested the usual American
sensitiveness to criticism, especially on the subject of slavery; but
the house sustained Douglass, and demanded that he go on. Douglass was
denounced for this in a letter to the New York papers by Rev. Dr. Cox,
one of the American delegates.

Douglass's reply to this letter gave him the better of the
controversy. He sometimes expressed the belief, founded on long
experience, that doctors of divinity were, as a rule, among the most
ardent supporters of slavery. Dr. Cox, who seems at least to have met
the description, was also a delegate to the Evangelical Alliance,
which met in London, August 19, 1846, with a membership of one
thousand delegates from fifty different evangelical sects throughout
the world. The question was raised in the convention whether or not
fellowship should be held with slaveholders. Dr. Cox and the other
Americans held that it should, and their views ultimately prevailed.
Douglass made some telling speeches at Anti-slavery League meetings,
in denunciation of the cowardice of the Alliance, and won a wide
popularity.

Douglass remained in England two years. Not only did this visit give
him a great opportunity to influence British public opinion against
slavery, but the material benefits to himself were inestimable. He
had left the United St