lished the slave-trade! How precious is time! How valuable and dignified is human life, which in general appears so base and miserable! How noble and sacred is human nature, made capable of achieving such truly great exploits!"

No vainglory marred the pure and heavenly satisfaction which filled the soul of Wilberforce. "Oh! what thanks do I owe the Giver of all good," he devoutly exclaims, "for bring ing me, in his gracious providence, to this great cause, which, at length, after almost nineteen years labour, is successful!"

The slaves did not receive the full benefit of this triumph until the year 1842. Eight hundred thousand blacks were liberated in the West Indies on one day, at a cost of twenty million pounds sterling, paid by the British nation to the planters to purchase their freedom.

On the night preceding the day of freedom, the Wesleyan missionaries in the West Indies kept "watch night" for the slaves. At one of the chapels, in St. John's, the spacious house was filled with Africans. All was animation

and eagerness.

A mighty chorus of voices swelled the joyful song. The prayer of the missionary was drowned in general acclamations of thanksgiving, and praise, and blessing, and honour, and glory to God, who had come down for their deliverance.

The hour of midnight arrived. The stroke of the bell was the announcement of their freedom. The immense assembly fell on their knees, and in sublime silence, the silence of intense emotion, listened to the twelve slow notes of the bell. "Peal on peal, peal on peal, rolled over the prostrate throng, in tones of angels' voices, thrilling among the desolate chords and weary heart-springs. Scarcely had the clock sounded its last note, when the lightning flashed vividly around, and the loud peal of thunder roared along the sky-God's pillar of fire, and trump of jubilee! A moment of profound silence passed, then came the burst; they broke forth in prayer; they shouted, they sang 'glory hallelujah!' they clapped their hands, leaped up, fell down, clasped each other in their free arms, wept, laughed, and went to and

But

fro, tossing up their unfettered hands. high above the whole there was a mighty song, which ever and anon swelled up; it was the uttering of a broken negro dialect of gratitude to God."

The rest of the night was spent in calmer religious exercises, and in listening to the missionaries, who explained to them the nature of the freedom just received, and exhorted them to be industrious, steady, obedient to the laws; and to show themselves worthy of the high boon which God had conferred on them.

THE VICTORY OF AGINCOURT.

ENGLAND has always been a nation of great warriors; from the days when the ancient Britons drove the renowned Cæsar from our shores, down to those which have witnessed our triumphs over Napoleon, and our marvellous exploits in India.

Before the invention of gunpower, our bowmen were the chief warriors, and our kings the chief generals of the national wars. At the battle of Agincourt, the most wonderful perhaps in our annals, where every man was a hero as far as individual valour went, it was Henry V. who led, and the English archers who really won the victory. Henry had invaded France e;

believing with all his nation that his title to the crown of that realm was just. And it was certainly more just than many a regal title, but the will of the French nation was against him, and that should have been enough. Henry, after some triumphs and many misfortunes, was obliged to retreat. The French chivalry all gathered to oppose his passage to Calais, at a spot which those who now travel to Paris by St. Omer and Abbeville, must pass over. Agincourt is a commune, or parish. The commune of Tramecour adjoins it, and between these two the battle was fought. In a wood of Tramecour the English warrior-king concealed his bowmen from the enemy.

The French army was to the English as ten to one, and in splendid array. They were drawn up in three lines on the plain of Agincourt. When first they were seen by the English, Sir Walter Hungerford exclaimed, "I would there were with me now so many good soldiers as are at this hour within England." The king hearing him, said, "I would not wish a man more here than I have; we are indeed in comparison to the enemies but a few; but if God of his clemency