r exhibitions.
The gentleman at whose table we had the pleasure to dine, was _born a
slave_, and remained such until he was seventeen years of age. After
obtaining his freedom, he engaged as a clerk in a mercantile
establishment, and soon attracted attention by his business talents.
About the same period he warmly espoused the cause of the free colored
people, who were doubly crushed under a load of civil and political
impositions, and a still heavier one of prejudice. He soon made himself
conspicuous by his manly defence of the rights of his brethren against
the encroachments of the public authorities, and incurred the marked
displeasure of several influential characters. After a protracted
struggle for the civil immunities of the colored people, during which he
repeatedly came into collision with public men, and was often arraigned
before the public tribunals; finding his labors ineffectual, he left the
island and went to England. He spent some time there and in France,
moving on a footing of honorable equality among the distinguished
abolitionists of those countries. There, amid the free influences and
the generous sympathies which welcomed and surrounded him,--his whole
character ripened in those manly graces and accomplishments which now so
eminently distinguish him.

Since his return to Barbadoes, Mr. H. has not taken so public a part in
political controversies as he did formerly, but is by no means
indifferent to passing events. There is not, we venture to say, within
the colony, a keener or more sagacious observer of its institutions, its
public men and their measures.

When witnessing the exhibitions of his manly spirit, and listening to
his eloquent and glowing narratives of his struggles against the
political oppressions which ground to the dust himself and his brethren,
we could scarcely credit the fact that he was himself born and reared to
manhood--A SLAVE.

BREAKFAST AT MR. THORNE'S.

By invitation we took breakfast with Mr. Joseph Thorne, whom we met at
Mr. Harris's. Mr. T. resides in Bridgetown. In the parlor, we met two
colored gentlemen--the Rev. Mr. Hamilton, a local Wesleyan preacher, and
Mr. Cummins, a merchant of Bridgetown, mentioned in a previous chapter.
We were struck with the scientific appearance of Mr. Thorne's parlor. On
one side was a large library of religious, historical and literary
works, the selection of which displayed no small taste and judgment. On
the opposite side of the ro