Still in thought as free as ever,

What are England's rights I ask, Me from my delights to sever,

Me to torture, me to task ? Fleecy locks and black complexion,

Cannot forfeit Nature's claiin; Skins may differ, but affection

Dwells in white and black the same

Why did all-creating Nature

Make the plant for which we toil Sighs must fan it, tears must water,

Sweat of ours must dress the soil. Think, ye masters, iron-hearted,

Lolling at your jovial boards; Think how many backs have smarted

For the sweets your cane affords.

Is there, as ye sometimes tel} us,

Is there one, wlio reigns on high? Has he bid you buy and sell us,

Speaking from his throne, the sky? Ask him, if your knotted scourges,

Matclics, blood-extorting screws, Are the means that duty urges

Agents of his will to use?

Hark! lie answers-wild tornadoes,

Strewing yonder sea with wrecks ; Wasting towns, plantations, meadows,

Are the voice with which he speaks. He, foreseeing what vexations

Afric's sons should undergo, Fix'd their tyrants' habitations

Where his whirlwinds answer--No.

By our blood in Afric wasted,
Ere our necks receiv'd the chain

; By the mis'ries that we tasted,

Crossing in your barks the main,

By our sufferings since ye brought us

To the man-degrading mart;
All-sustain'd by patience, taught us

Only by a broken heart;
Deem our nation brutes no longer,

Till some reason ye shull find
Worthier of regard, iind stronger

Than the colour of our kind.
Slaves of gold, whose sordid dealings

Tarnish all your boasted pow'rs,
Prove that you have human feelings,

Ere you proudly question ours !

PITY FOR POOR AFRICANS.

Video mcliora proboque,
Deteriora se:quof ......

TOWN I am shock'd at the purchase of slaves,
And fear those who buy them and sell them are

knaves;

What I hear of their hardships, their tortures, and

groans, Is almost enough to draw pity from stones.

I pity them greatly-but I must be mum-
For bow could we do without sugar and rum?
Especially sugar, so needful we see?
What, give up our desserts, our cofiee, and tea!

Besides, if we do, the French, Dutch, and Dancs,
Will heartily thank us, no doubt, for our pains :
If we do not buy the poor creatures, they will,
And tortures and groans will be multiplied still.

If foreigners likewise would give up the trade,
Mucn inore in lelalf of your wish might be said ;
Bui, wliile they got riches by purchasing blacks,
Pray tell me wlay we may not also go snacks ?

Your scruples and arguments bring to my mind
A story so pat, you may think it is coin'd
On purpose to answer you out of my mint:
But I can assure you I saw it in print :

A youngster at school, more sedate than the rest,
Had once his integrity put to the test;
His comrades had plotted an orchard to rob,
And ask'd him to go and assist in the job.

He was shock'd, sir, like you, and answerd_" Oli no!
What! rob our good neiglihour! I pray you don't go;
Besides, the man's poor, his orchard's his bread,
Then think of his children, for they must be fed "
" You speak very fine, and you look very grave,
But apples we want, and apples we'll have;
If you will go with us, you shall have a sliare,
If not, you shall have neither apple nor pear."

They spoke, and Tom ponder'd I see they will go ;
Poor man! what a pity to injure him so !
Poor man! I would save him his fruit if I could
But staying behind will do him no good.

bl If the matter depended alone upon me,
His apples night hang till they droppid from the troe;
But since they will take them, I think I'll go to,
He will lose none by me, though I get a few."

His scruples thus silenc'd, Tom felt more at ease,
And went with his conirades the apples to seize;
He blam'd and protested, but join'd in the plan :
He shar'd in the plunder, but pitied the man.

"TWAS in the glad season of spring,

Asleep at the dawn of the day, I dream'd what I cannot but sing,

So pleasant it seem'd as I lay. I dream'd, that on occan afloat,

Far hence to the westward I sail'd, While the billows high lifted the boat,

And the fresh-blowing breeze never fail'd

In the steerage a vonan I saw,

Such at least was the forin that she wore, Whose beauty impress'd me with awe,

Ne'er taught me by woman before. She sat, and a shield at her side

Shed light like a sun on the waves, And smiling divinely, she cried

“I go to make freemen of slaves.”Then raising her voice to a strain

The sweetest that ear ever hicard,
She sung of the slave's broken chain,

Wherever ler glory appear'd.
Soine clouds, which had over us hung

Fled, chas’d by her melody clear,
And methought while she liberty sung,

'Twas liberty only to hear.

Thus swiflly dividing the flood,

To a slave-cultur'd island we came, Where a demon her enemy stood

Oppression his terrible name.

In his hand, as the sign of his sway,

A scourge lung with lashes he bore, And stood looking out for his prey

From Africa's sorrowsul shore.

But soon as approaching the land,

That goddess-like woman he view'd, The scourge he let fall from his hand,

With blood of his subjects imbru'd. I saw him both sicken and die,

And the moment the monster expir'd, Heard shouts that ascended the sky,

From thousands with rapture inspir'd.

Awaking, how could I but muse

At what such a dream should betide : But soon my ear caught the glad news,

Which scrv'd my weak thought for a guide. That Britannia, renown'd o'er the waves

For the hatred she cver has shown To the black-scepter'd rulers of slaves,

Resolves to have none of her own.

THE

NIGHTINGALE AND GLOW.WORM

A NIGHTINGALE, that all day long
Had cheer'd the village with his song,
Nor yet at eve his note suspended,
Nor yet when eventide was ended,
Began to feel, as well le night,
The keen demands of appctite ;