It was a noble national action, and one the morality of which was in advance of its time, that the British Parliament should vote the enormous sum of twenty million pounds to pay compensation to the slaveholders, and so to remove an evil with which the mother country had no immediate connection.

It was as well that the thing should have been done when it was, for had we waited till the colonies affected had governments of their own it could never have been done by constitutional methods.

With many a grumble the good British householder drew his purse from his fob, and he paid for what he thought to be right.

If any special grace attends the virtuous action which brings nothing but tribulation in this world, then we may hope for it over this emancipation.

We spent our money, we ruined our West Indian colonies, and we started a disaffection in South Africa, the end of which we have not seen.