SHERRY WILLIAMS; THE DANHEE OF BEING RELIGIOUS LAND OF SLAYERY. TiK years ago, a coloured man, with an honest straight¬ forward countenance, and long, dark hair, thinly striped with grey, walked irresolutely backwards and forwards before the window of a bookseller’s shop, in the city of Philadelphia. Now he paused for a moment to gaze wishfully at some richly bound Bibles, just within the glass; now he -waited without the half-open door; and finally, as if any certainty were better than suspense, he entered. For several years, this faithful Christian had laid aside all he could spare from his scanty earnings, on wdiat is called the “ Eastern shore” of Maryland, in the hope of procuring for himself and his children a copy of the ^Yord of God. I know not by what strange Providence it happened; but this coloured man knew how to read, and as he stood on that clear, sunny morning, by the bookseller’s side, and turned over the leaves of that long-desired volume, feeling that it cost more than he could spare, his heart ached, and the tear sprang to his always pensive eye. “ Come,” said the book¬ seller, coaxingly, “ you shall have it five cents lower, and I -will throw in this hymn book.” Sherry took the hymn book, and turned over its leaves. He caught the first lines of well-remembered hymns, and a glimpse of some short stories, that his curly-headed boys would climb his knees to hear. One or two pictures decorated tlie book, and the innocent man, looking on a coarse cut of a slave, holding out his hand for the iron, and another of the overseer, with his cow-skin at his side, little thought that these plain repre¬ sentations of fact, would he termed “ libellous and insur¬ rectionary ” hy the government under which he lived. He forgot that ho was in a free, and hound for a skive State; he thought only of his Bible and his songs; and trusting to God to forgive his e.vtravagance, he emptied his pockets and went away. The happy little faces that clustered about him on his return, banished all anxious thoughts of his improvidence. The hymn book came to be cherished like the Bible. Often had he hummed his baby to sleep by the joyous carol of “ Canaan, happy Canaanwhile the mournful strains of “ Come, ye disconsolate,” had cliecked full many a Sunday frolic of the older boys. At night, it was carefully laid upon the shelf; but all day it nestled in the otherwise empty pockets of SheiTy ^yilliams, and full two years had now gone by without his ever missing the money it had cost. He was by trade a mason; and on another bright and gorgeous morn¬ ing, with a far lighter heart than that with which he had waited the bookseller’s decree. Sherry threw his hod over his shoulder, and taking his trowel in his hand, started for a neighbouring farm-house, where his services were wanted. He threw his jacket over the settle, and climbed up the spacious chimney of the old kitchen. While he was pro¬ ceeding with his re])airs, he heard the full sweet voice of Dinah, the cook, singing what he called “ spiritual songs,” below; and his work speeding all the lighter for this accom¬ paniment, he was soon down again. To his surprise, his favourite book was gone; but Dinah, who had spied a corner of it peeping from his pocket, soon came to relieve his sus¬ pense, to beg him to stay to dinner, and read her some of the pretty hymns, which she had not the learning to spell out. “ Yes,” said Sherry, “ if you will sing me one of those sweet songs that made my heart dance while I was up in the chimney, I will read you all I know.” Dinah promised; while SheiTy ate, she sang, and when they had finished, he opened his dear book. While they were both bending over its pages, a son of the master of the house, a pining country lawyer on the “ Shore,” came lounging in. I am glad I do not know his name. He may liave come of lionest blood, and I would not give it an ignoble fame. He was longing for a client, and found it in bis native State. Poor Maryland, tboii bast miicb to answer for. Standing on the brink of the free States, tbou bast not been able wliolly to check the flood of light which bath invaded thy border; nevertheless, tbou bast turned thy back on its glory, and chosen the rather to gaze moodily on tliine own dark shadow! .i glance sufficed to reveal to the white man the character of the book, and he humbly begged to borrow it of Sherry, who smothering his love for its worn pages, unhesitatingiy complied with the request. Sherry, be it understood, was a free man, aad after waiting a reasonable number of weeks, he went to the lawyer’s office for his book. The pettifogger put him oft to an hour which ho named. Sherry ivent again, and found himself in tlie power of tlie sheriff; his book, indeed, in his pocket, but manacles on his free hands. He was torn from wife and children, and carried to Baltimore to he tried; for it is thus, 0 Slavery! that thou dost protect thy¬ self ! Fifteen witnesses testified, U]ion the trial, that Sherry was honest, pious, industrious, and content; ho had never been hoard to complain; was the last man in the world to create an e.xcitement. In short, nothing could be proved against him, but the fiict that such a hymn book u'as in his possession. Weeping children and a heart-stricken wife surrounded him ; but their tears flowed over cheeks of jialest bronze, and so made no impression in the heart of a judge far darker and harder. The law had taken hold of him, and it w'ould not retract. The statute, under which he was con¬ victed, sentences the coloured man, who shall be found with an incendiary publication in his possession, to an imprison¬ ment in the penitentiary of not more than twenty, nor less In consideration of the evidence to character, adduced upon his trial, and in despite of the public e.xcitement on the subject, poor Sherry was sentenced to ten. The pettifogger was satisfied; his angry client gained her cause, and the miserable family of the prisoner begged their way back to the “ Shore.” I have forgotten how many children Williams had, hut I am sure it was a round dozen, and the oldest boy was the only one able to help himself. God help him, poor man, as he climbs those prison stejis, and feels the little hands fast tugging at his heart! But Sherry knew his duty, and was faithful to what was given him to do. Every one in the building loved him; and when I saw him six years after his imprisonment, he had risen, so said the overseer, to be the head baker of the establishment. In the meantime, his friends had not been idle. New England blood had boiled as it listened to his story, and scores of Baltimore merchants signed, once and again, a petition to the governor in his behalf. The last ettbrt was founded on his exemplary con¬ duct during the six years of his imprisonment, and was presented to a new governor, just after he had taken his chair, and while his heart, it was thought, tvould be inclined to mercy. Alas! how far -were the petitioners mistaken ! He was a little man, and measured all things by a little standard. “ Gentlemen,” said he, “ if I were to take any action in this matter, in the present state of the public mind, a favourite though I am, I should be impeached !” and there the matter ended; till it was carried to a higher court, and the governor became defendant. This happened just before my first arrival in Baltimore, two years ago. I went to see Sherry, whose tall frame had bent, and whose dark hair had whitened all over during those six painful years. He was busy at his oven, his apron was white with flour, and he seemed only intent on serving the hungry men about him; but, deeply engraven on his fine manly features was a look of unsatisfied anxiety that I shall never forget. Once only, during those six years, had ho heard from his home; for neither he nor his cliildren could write; and that once, by dint of miserly thrift, his oldest son had made the long journey, and brought him welcome tidings of health, and peace about his hearth. His hymn book, of course, had been taken from him; but his Bible, whose “Anti-slavery and revolutionary” principles, the govern¬ ment of Maryland is not yet sharp-sighted enough to discern, was his only companion in his cell. As I looked upon the grey-haired man, and saw his lip quiver, as he spoke of his family, my heart throbbed almost to bursting, and I deter¬ mined that something should be done to relieve him. Once and again, my husband had communicated with influential persons concerning him; but all who knew any thing of the matter, more espec’ally the intimate personal friend of the governor, declared that all proper means had been tried; hut one resource was left him, calmly to ^Year ont the re¬ maining part of his sentence; the government had determined to pardon no persons convicted on such counts. So I desisted; hut often since, when I w'ould have closed my eyes for a night’s rest, has the image of that injured man, groy-haired . and stooping, come between me and sleep, and the tears have started to my eyes, as I regretted that I did not present that petition in ray single woman’s strength. There were two things which made Sherry’s case seem peculiarly hard. The hrst was that uniform testimony to his probity and e.vcellence of character, which prevented slave-holders themselves from doubting his account of the manner in which he obtained the book; and the other was the fact, that the statute which made it criminal to hold it, did not become a law till Sherry had had it full two years in his possession, and he was as ignorant of the statute itself as he was of any sinister interpretation which the government of Maryland might choose to put upon plain representations of fads. But two years of imprisonment remain to him, and doubtless he prays more and more earnestly that life may be spared, till he shall gaze once more upon his precious family circle. Yet, who but the all-wise Father of us all, can tell whether it be best that his prayer should be heard; whether that gaze w'ould not be one of agony ? We will not doubt the fidelity of his wife, wo will believe that the spoiler has tainted none of those whom he, by the grace of God, kept holy; but at least, he will find her whom he loved bent under the sense of social degradation, the weight of unusual cares, and the pressure of poverty. He will hardly know her sunken eye and anxious brow. The babe who was un¬ conscious of his fate, will have grown to the active hoy; the girls who clustered about his knee, will be wives, perhaps mothers; and God grant that none of that dear circle may have been sold into servitude to pay the poll tax or secure the livelihood of the rest. Yet this and more things might have been in those long ten years. However joyful the re¬ turn, Sherry will see with pain that the hours when he was needed in his house have passed by: principles are already decided for his children; and if they could not read the Ian- 0 guage in wliicli their Bible is written before he went awaj, tliey probably never will. I have written his history without comment, simply as it occurred. It seems to me that an expression of strong indig¬ nation would weahen the anti-slavery argument contained in these pages. Let the story burn in your hearts, American freemen, and kindle there the fire of tiaith. The time shall vet come, wdien we shall sec her torches blazing on all our Kills, and her God-lit barks floating even on the bosom of the Chesapeake. A system which, to sustain itself among men, feeds alike on the heart’s blood of slave and freeman, trampling every where, at the North and South alike, on human right and human law, so surely as God is true, con- tub.s within itself the seeds of its own death. C.\noLi.\E W. He.\li;y Dale. Portsmouth, New Enmpsh'.re. From “The Liberty Bell ” for 1847. Lest it should he thought that the foregoing narrative is a malicious libel on the law and practice of Maryland, the reader is presented with the following brief notice of a recent transaction, quoted from an xVmerican newspaper :— “ I.NCEXDI.UIY Pi-Bi.ic.vno.Ns i.v It.iBTi.MniiE.— John C. Pulley, a free coloured man. has been arrested, sa3-s the liultinme Pcitriol of the 5th instant, ‘ on the charge of receiving abolition pagers, knowing them to be such, in violation of section 1st of the act of 1(141, which provides that any free negro or mulatto, who shall knowingly call for, receive, or demand from any Post Ofllce in this State, or have in his posses.sion, any abolition handbill, pamphlet, newspaper, or pictorial repre.sentation of an intlammatoiy character, having a tendency to create discontent among, or stir up to insurrection the people of this State, shall be deemed guilty of felony, and upon conviction thereof, shall he sentenced to undergo a confinement in the Penitentiary of this State for a period of not le.ss than ten nor more than twenty year.s.’ “ The specific charge in this case was the receiving, through the Post Ofifice. the Itnjn’s Horn. [A respectable Anti-slavery newspaper, published in New York.] The accused was held to bail in the sum of 500 dollars for his appearance at the next term of the Baltimore City Court. He can scarcely read, it is said, and the paper was sent him by a friend in this city.'’—A'ew York Anli-stavery Slamtant, August 12, APPEAL TO THE BEITISH PUBLIC. After a perusal of tliese pages, the question will naturally present itself—In what way can we, in this country, promote tlie abolition of the wiclced system here rovealotl'? The re¬ ply is not difficult. Though the Atlantic rolls between England and America, we, as a nation, possess influences, commercial, social, and religious, which, if rightly wielded, would prove mighty to the pulling down this strong hold of oppression. If we are too distant to join American aboli¬ tionists in the assault, we may at least take part in the blockade, and do what we can, by cutting off the supplies, to starve the enemy into a surrender. Slavery would not e.xist unless it wore profitable, and it is only rendered profitable by the purchase of its productions. Consequently, it is the consumers of slave-produce who uphold slavery. Isaac E. Morse, an intelligent member of Congress, and himself a slave-holder, has recorded his opinion to this effect in an American newspaper. Addressing Northern abolitionists, he writes as follows :— *■ There is a very easy way to get rid of slavery in the United States, without interfering with us, without doing one single thing that the nicest caviller could censure, and which, I believe, in sober seriousness, will effect your object as certainly as day succeeds to night, and which, though it may entail ruin and distress upon a large portion of your *HlNDnrxOT "ml 'nxm^pilonucTTs'*'" We believe, that in these few words, the giant of slavery has divulged the secret of his strength, and we exhort every friend of humanity to lose no time in acting on the suggestion. Let us do what in us lies to make American slavery uNPKOFiT.iBLE, by refusing the rice, the tobacco, and the cotton,* extorted from the toil of the negro by the whip and • Large quantities of free-labour cotton are now obtained from the s the blo(xI-hound. Let individuals he faithful, however much the nation may fail in its duty. And although, circum¬ stanced as we are, it may he impossible to carry out this principle in every thing, let us not fail to apply it wherever we have the power, hearing in mind that every additional shillingsworth of free produce we purchase supersedes a like amount of slave-productions, and becomes at once a discou¬ ragement to the slave-holder, and a stimulus to the honest Secondly, Let us do what we can to make slavery disre¬ putable —lose no opportunity, in writing or speaking, to impress all Americans with a sense of the abhorrence with which we regard the system, and of the ridiculous position in which they place themselves, when they make their boast of liberty and equality in a land where three millions of the population are slaves. Let individuals correspond with in¬ dividuals, churches with churches, and societies with socie¬ ties, all uniting in one loud chorus of sorrow and indignation at the conduct of our American brethren. Once convince the slave-holder that he can only continue the hated system at the risk of becoming bankrupt, both in fortune and' reputa¬ tion, and a blow will he struck at slavery that shall send it stastgering to its tomb. A BIBLE SOCIETY IN CHAINS. “The agent of a. Bible society was arrested in New Orleans for offer¬ ing a slave a Bible. The agent declared he did not know the man was a slave; but he was convicted before the City Court, and would have been severely pnnished, but ha an engagement on the part of the of¬ ficers of the Bible society, that strict orders shonld be given to their aa.-u’- never to be guilty of n similar oSeitce."—Brief Xotice of Jmeri- "’"•Ti'KOBLEM FOR THE AMERICAN CHURCHES. “ Dcbixg forty years of missionary labonr, forty thousand pagans have been gathered into the fold of Christianity under the preaching of Ame¬ rican missionaries. The average increase of slaves in this country [tha United Stales] is abont seventy thousand a year, whom to teach to read the Bible is a penal offence. Now, if one thousand pagans are annually evangelized abroad, and seventy thousand native Americans heathenized at home, required the time when ‘ the knowledge of the Lord shall cover the earth as the waters cover the sea.’ "—Burritt's Christian Citizen. PatSTED BY METCALF BOSS, PILGKIM STBEET, NEWCASTLE-UPON-TVME. C. GitPi.x, London : T. B. Babkas, Newca»tle-on-Tjme. 2s. fid. per hundred.