epugnance
to its adoption. On the 10th of January, 1848, Enoch Price wrote to Mr.
Edmund Quincy offering to sell Mr. Brown to himself or friends for 325
dollars. To this communication the fugitive returned the following pithy
and noble reply:--

"I cannot accept of Mr. Price's offer to become a purchaser of my body
and soul. God made me as free as he did Enoch Price, and Mr. Price shall
never receive a dollar from me or my friends with my consent."

There were, however, other reasons besides his personal safety which led
to Mr. Brown's visit to Europe. It was thought desirable always to have
in England some talented man of colour who should be a living lie to the
doctrine of the inferiority of the African race: and it was moreover
felt that none could so powerfully advocate the cause of "those in
bonds" as one who had actually been "bound with them." This had been
proved in the extraordinary effect produced in Great Britain by
Frederick Douglass in 1845 and 1846. The American Committee in
connection with the Peace Congress were also desirous of sending to
Europe coloured representatives of their Society, and Mr. Brown was
selected for that purpose, and duly accredited by them to the Paris
Congress.

On the 18th of July, 1849, a large meeting of the coloured citizens of
Boston was held in Washington Hall to bid him farewell. At that meeting
the following resolutions were unanimously adopted:--

"_Resolved_,--That we bid our brother, William Wells Brown, God speed in
his mission to Europe, and commend him to the hospitality and
encouragement of all true friends of humanity.

"_Resolved_,--That we forward by him our renewed protest against the
American Colonization Society; and invoke for him a candid hearing
before the British public, in reply to the efforts put forth there
by the Rev. Mr. Miller, or any other agent of said Society."

Two days afterwards he sailed for Europe, encountering on his voyage his
last experience of American prejudice against colour.

On the 28th of August he landed at Liverpool, a time and place memorable
in his life as the first upon which he could truly call himself a free
man upon God's earth. In the history of nations, as of individuals,
there is often singular retributive mercy as well as retributive
justice. In the seventeenth century the victims of monarchical tyranny
in Great Britain found social and political freedom when they set foot
upon Plymouth