thodox Congregationalism. Congregationalists are sometimes of late seized with this mania for denominational Colleges. We regret this; for it is a disease from which, according to the laws of their constitution, they ought to be exempt. And yet we sympathize with them; they have some apology for it: they have been rudely treated by their partners in some coöperative enterprises. But we think they mistake both the remedy for the evil, and the spirit of their Congregational brethren. The true remedy of the evil is not to endorse and sanction that very denominational exclusiveness and littleness by which their rights have been wrested from them, and to add to the number of denominational Colleges, by organizing others in the interest of Congregationalism; but to give their countenance, support, and strength, to those Colleges which are true to coöperative Christian principles, and to frown on all others, in whatever denomination found.

They mistake, too, the principles and tastes of the great Congregational brotherhood. We have misread our brethren of that connexion, or they will coöperate in Colleges on the basis we have advocated, much more cheerfully and efficiently than in those pledged to any denomination-even their own. They stand with their fathers. They would consecrate the College, "Christo et ecclesia," and neither they nor their fathers have yet dreamed that "ecclesia" means Congregationalism. Whatever may be true in other denominations, Congregationalists are under no necessity of shriveling themselves within the narrow limits of sect, for the sake of humoring the prejudices of their masses. If Congregational ministers and leaders will act on universal Christian principles, the Congregational brotherhood will sustain them. We think we do not speak" without the book;" and we hope that that spirit of cooperative charity which we know widely pervades the Congregational brotherhood, will be found to be not less abundant in other denominations also.

ARTICLE IV.-THE REOPENING OF THE AFRICAN

SLAVE TRADE.

An abstract of the evidence delivered before a Select Committee of the House of Commons, in the years 1790 and 1791, on the part of the petitioners for the abolition of the Slave Trade. American Reform Tract and Book Society. Cincinnati. 1855.

Africa and the American Flag. By Commander ANDREW H. FOOTE, U. S. Navy, Lieut. commanding U. S. Brig Perry, on the coast of Africa, A. D. 1850-1851. New York: D. Appleton & Co. 1854.

Address of the Hon. JEFFERSON DAVIS, before the Democratic State Convention, in the City of Jackson, Miss., July 6th, 1859. New York Tribune.

Modern Reform Examined, or the Union of North and South on the subject of Slavery. By JOSEPH C. STILES. Philadel

phia: Lippincott & Co. 1857.

Livingstone's Travels and Researches in South Africa. New York: Harper & Brothers. 1858.

Barth's Discoveries in North and Central Africa. Harper & Brothers. 1858.

The Independent. New York.

SLIGHT observation convinces the more intelligent that there are two antagonistic principles now at work in human society, two kinds of leaven permeating the body politic of the world. One is freedom, the other is bondage. The one is equal rights, the other is oppression. The two are here in the land of the American Revolution, in the land of the Pilgrims and Puritans. Their forces, like two great armies, are moving toward each other; they dispute a common territory, and a pitched

battle, or a series of battles, must be added to the encounters already experienced, until one or the other of these two irreconcilable principles is completely and forever victorious. A new march on one side is now commencing. Whether we may interpret it as a sign of weakness and of partial defeat in past conflicts, or of courage and hope under the flush of supposed victory, it is a movement which must be met. It will be pressed to an engagement. And the issue will not leave both sides with their former advantages. We refer to the revival of the African slave trade. It is already reopened, or, if never closed, has received a prodigious increase. That which had been doomed to death under the ban of piracy has found a resurrection. Not indeed as yet with the consent of national law, but despite law. And the fear is that rulers and other men are viewing the transgressions as though the isolated statutes were, or would become, only a dead letter. This traffic winked at will reinstate itself in successful and extensive operation, as sure as two continents stand and an ocean rolls between. Once inaugurated in full career, terrible must be the conflict that can afterward destroy it.

But we may speak in advance of the queries of some of our readers. "Is the slave trade reopened? Is there danger that the laws against it may be repealed or become dead?" Others may say, "Is the slave trade certainly wrong? Is it actually contrary to justice and a violation of human rights?" Or, "Is it so enormously wrong as some represent? May it not be a mixture of good and evil, with so much of the former as to make the traffic tolerable? Ought it not to be respected as the chief act in a train of great and conspicuous missionary events?" These are questions that should be met.

"Is the slave trade reopened or of late largely augmented?" The attempt has been made to cast so much doubt over this inquiry as to give substantially a negative reply. But if we had not a single fact of detected illegal trade of this character, the evident state of public opinion at the South would at least suggest an affirmative. Why all this fever there upon that subject, if no slaves have recently been landed in the southern states from a foreign country? Are not the appetites of many

for this traffic already whetted by the taste? Are they all so law-abiding in the south as rigidly to observe all enactments that they pronounce unconstitutional? Have they suffered

the most profitable of all kinds of commerce to go untouched, while affirming that the prohibition of it is an oppression on themselves? Their state of society prepares us to learn that they have already opened their ports to slavers. The easy course of judges and juries with the "Wanderer," allowing the guilty to go unpunished, violating their solemn trusts under the laws of the land, nearly compels us to believe that this is not an isolated case, and must be followed by a throng. When some two or three years since it began to be prophesied by a few that an attempt would be made to reopen the slave trade, and that by the next Presidential election it would be a prominent topic of discussion and perhaps a plank in the platform of one of the political parties, it was regarded by most as a silly prophesy, and the men who uttered the prediction were held up to derision as fanatical alarmists. Already the facts are that vessels engaged in the slave trade have been captured, other vessels equipped for the trade have been seized by the United States Marshals, and these are enough to show that many more have escaped detection and successfully prosecuted their voyages. The most reliable evidence we have in the case is in effect that at least upwards of twenty slave-ships have safely landed their cargoes on the coast of the Southern states during a few months past. Distinguished political men of the country, not of antislavery sentiments, freely admit this. The Richmond (Texas) Reporter, of late date, contains the following advertisement:

"FOR SALE-Four hundred likely AFRICAN NEGROES, lately landed upon the coast of Texas. Said negroes will be sold upon the most reasonable terms. One-third down; the remainder in one and two years, with 8 per cent. interest. For further information inquire of C. K. C., Houston, or L. R. G., Galveston."

This advertisement shows a fact in the trade itself, and being so openly published becomes only an evident index of many similar cases. It is proved that the ship "Wanderer" brought her cargo of slaves directly from Africa, and landed it

in Georgia. A late number of the Memphis Avalanche, a southern newspaper, has the following:

"Three of the six native Africans brought here a few days since, were sold yesterday at the mart of Mr. West, and brought respectively, $750, $740, and $515. The latter sum was paid for a boy about fifteen years old, who seemed to possess more intelligence than any of the others. These negroes are a part of the cargo of the yacht Wanderer, landed some months since."

According to the most recent information, cargoes of slaves are now frequently being landed along the shores of the Gulf of Mexico. New Orleans papers announce the sailing of vessels for Africa, and contain accounts of the latest arrivals of Congo negroes. Advertisements offer three hundred dollars a head for every thousand negroes from Africa landed on the southern coast of the United States. An eminent and long tried missionary of the American Board affirms that there cannot be less than one hundred American vessels now on the African coast waiting to be freighted with slaves, and that at least sixty or seventy of these are destined for the American shores. Other missionaries now on the western coast of Africa write to their friends in this country that the slave trade there has greatly increased during the last twelve months. Rev. Messrs. Bushnell and Walker of the Gaboon mission agree in the statement that all the missionaries on the coast of Africa from the whole Christian world are not equal in number to the slave ships from the port of New York alone that yearly visit that coast for slaves. One city furnishes more slave ships for Africa than all Christendom does missionaries! These men say that they have seen and conversed with citizens of the United States in the Gaboon country who openly stated that their business there was to prosecute the slave trade.

But the state of public sentiment at the south is still more ominous of evil than all the facts and testimonies concerning the present existence of the slave traffic between Africa and the United States. This species of commerce is at the present moment, and has been for months, gaining favor at the south. Many of the most enthusiastic and energetic men and politi