which have been framed against the slave trade have hitherto entirely failed to counteract the deeply-rooted influence and greedy daring of the slave-dealers in the Island of Cuba. The undersigned will not prolong this note by inquiring to what causes this is attributable; it is a subject which unfortunately has too often occupied the correspondence of the two governments; but the fact itself will not be disputed, and the fact alone will explain the reluctance of her majesty's government to extend to the West Indian colonies of Spain the favour which they have gladly accorded to her possessions in the east; but which, in Cuba, could not have failed to give a great additional stimulus to the guilty exertions of the slave-dealer." And his Lordship adds:-"This has been the sole motive of her majesty's government in adhering strictly to the letter of the treaties between Great Britain and Spain. Apart from this consideration, they have no wish more warmly at heart than that the two countries should in commercial, as in other matters, be united by the closest ties of friendship and interest." And in maintaining this policy we are glad to perceive the government are likely to have the powerful aid of a nobleman whose virtues endear him to all classes of men in this country, and whose talents entitle him to the highest place among statesmen. Lord Morpeth, in the great speech which he delivered, on his late triumphant return for the West Riding of Yorksire, said: "I am not sure, though I know that therein I differ from many of my friends, and from many ardent free-traders in general, I am not sure, I say, that I shall feel myself called upon to dissent from the differences which he still wishes to retain between the admission of

slave-grown and free-grown sugar (Cheers.) My doubt is whether he can in practice realize that difference. But if he can, great as are the lengths I would always go in behalf of free-trade, I must ever disconnect from all fellowship with that glorious cause the blood-red flag of the slave-trade.” (loud cheers.)

His lordship has seen slavery face to face; he has been brought into personal contact with the victims of the slave trade; he has witnessed the horrors and degradation, the sufferring and death connected with both; and is capable of appreciating the motives which influence, and the arguments which sustain, the conscientious recommendation of those who, like himself, would ever disconnect from all fellowship with the glorious cause of free trade, the blood-red flag of the slave trade.

Since the annexation of Texas, a perfect mania appears to have seized the Southern politicians of the United States. Not content with having devoted the fairest portion of the North American continent to the demon of slavery, they are now casting their longing eyes on Haïti. They wish to re-enslave its free inhabitants. Availing themselves of the intestine feuds and distractions which, at present, unhappily, rend the island, they are using the basest arts for the accomplishment of their, nefarious purposes.

Mr. Calhoun sent an agent to Haïti, in the autumn of last year. His labors were, however, confined to the Spanish portion of the island; there he is represented to have prepared the way for its recognition as an independent republic, in strict accordance with the policy or plan which was pursued towards Texas, and which has led to its absorption into the United States.

The papers which represent Mr. Calhoun and his party, exult in

what they believe is a near event, namely, the subjugation of, what they term, "the black and bloody republic," by the arms of "the white and more civilized races "of the country. These men, or 66 calling upon the United States rather traitors, are represented as with out-stretched arms to protect them." Nor do they call in vain. An American vessel, it is said, was recently fitted out at Boston for Haïti, the crew of which were under engagement, when they arrived there, to "serve for the Dominicans against the Haïtians," who are called "a barbarous and savage race of blacks, without morals, religion, or civil order; a prey to every species of licentiouness and crime." Such are the means resorted to by unprincipled men, in the United States, to bring about their infamous designs.

"such a

The idea of possessing Haïti has filled the slave-holders at Washington with delight. One of them says, in a letter to a New York paper, that he should not be surprised to learn that a large force would shortly go thither. "They want," he says, force there at this time to rescue the island from negro domination, and restore it to the white race to whom it properly belongs," and he coolly adds "there are no existing treaties between the United States and Haïti, to prevent our citizens from going there in any character they please, and I know from what I have learned on the subject, that assistance of this sort would be accepted by the Dominican government, and ample provision made for those who would emigrate there for the purpose of sustaining the white government and people against the black savages, with whom they are contending for liberty and independence." Oregon and Texas are, for the moment, cast into the shade in presence of this new enterprize.

But the chivalry of the south' are not only panting to fly to the rescue of "the suffering thousands of their own race and religion," to which their "humanity" prompts them; but, influenced by a high sense of justice, they propose "in the event of conquering the Haïtian part of the island to restore to those French citizens of the United States, or their descendents, the whole of the property of which they were plundered by the blacks at the period of the outbreak;" and, "by this just reversion of immense quantities of public domains to our citizens, to make the island of St. Domingo thoroughly American in the broadest sense of the term." What madness, or what infamy, is here! We doubt not that a plot is hatching against Haïti; and we fear that the citizens of more than one country are engaged in it.

war.

Well, having obtained Haïti, what next? Cuba must be added to the union! The arguments used to justify this are irresistible with the southern gentry. Here they are in epitome: "The planters of Cuba look to the United States as the only power to protect their slavery. They are apprehensive of England, whose embrace is fatal to their peculiar institution. The government of Spain is powerless to protect them in the event of an European The annexation of Cuba is now a cherished object with our slave-holders, and having a decided majority in the senate, by the the addition of the senators of Florida and Texas, they are able with the addition of three or four such states as New Hampshire, Maine, and Illinois, to command two-thirds of the senate, so as to ratify a treaty of purchase, though the amount paid were fifty millions of dollars." And here is the motive :-" Cuba would send some four or six slave-holding senators, and fifteen or twenty representatives to Congress, making a great preponderance of the slaveholding power in this republic, without the aid of any more Mexican provinces." But will the acquisition of these magnificent portions of the Antilles satisfy their territorial cupidity? By no means: It is the destiny of the United States, say they, to "unite and incorporate in one great and mighty republic, in one wonderful confederation of regular democracies, the whole of the continent of North America, with the islands thereunto belonging." Such are the ambitious projects of slave-holders, and their servile upholders in the free states.

Sensible men, on this side of the Atlantic, may marvel at these things, and question whether they be meant in sober seriousness. For our parts, we have no doubt that such is the case. Mr. Levy, the senator from Florida, who, in December last, proposed the celebrated resolution in reference to the annexation of Cuba, is not blamed for having entertained the project, but commended. It is merely thought that he "incautiously exposed the next great acquisition in contemplation, forgetful that secrecy is necessary in this case." It is historically true that the United States is, above all things, desirous of possessing Cuba; but, supposing Spain were too weak to hold it, or even willing to part with it for money,

there is another power that must be consulted before the annexation can take place.

It is painful and humiliating in the extreme to find the majority of the statesmen of the United States wedded to the institution of slavery; and, regardless both of their honour and of their duty, devoting their country and its institutions to the scorn of mankind, and to the wrath of God. For that his retributive providence will repay them double for their iniquities no one can doubt, who believes that "HE IS JUST."

The friends of the anti-slavery cause will be gratified to learn that the manufacture of free labour cotton goods has commenced. We understand that a limited quantity of white and printed calicos, manufactured solely from cotton raised by free labour, may be seen or had on application to Mr. Joseph Chrimes, Marsden-square, Manchester. We earnestly hope that the benevolent originators of this enterprize will fully realize their best expectations. In connexion with this announcement, we would direct attention to an extract from a letter addressed to Joseph Sturge, from a friend at Philadelphia who is engaged with others in a similar undertaking.

Cast on that negro-chief thy glance,
Who cooly smokes his hookah there,
With calm and unmoved countenance
Amid that anguish and despair,
Seeming no sympathy to know
With human torture, human woe.

Turn on that prostrate wretch thine eye,
His brutal captor strides him o'er,
His age, his wind, his strength to try,
But to enhance his price the more;
And by his life's protracted span
To make his market of the man!

Or look on that young female slave,

On whom the ruffian brands his name,

The baser grovelling brute, who gave
His dross to buy her slender frame;
For what? Nay, ask not! Wherefore know
The lowest depths of girlhood's woe.
With a yet deeper loathing turn

TO HIM-the demon of the scene,
Who with phlegmatic unconcern

Presides o'er all with callous mien ; Driving with cold unaltered mood, Bargains in human flesh and blood.

Yet he, too, was of woman born!
Nay, he may bear the Christian name!
But other feelings than thy scorn,

That abject creature still may claim:
Beyond e'en those he holds in thrall,
He is the vilest slave of all!
Bond slave of satan and of sin,

Of sordid passions low desires; 'Tis his a livelihood to win

By deeds where mercy's self expires,
His victims may have hope on high,
Which his poor gains can never buy.

Pass we the dying and the dead,
Who figure in this hapless throng,
And still the weary eye is led

To coming scenes of cruel wrong;
Bringing more slaves their captor's prize
To swell this Moloch sacrifice.

Great God! and all these things are done,
By creatures for thy glory made,
Like to thyself, for whom thy Son

His spotless life a ransom paid;
For he that matchless offering gave,
Both for the oppressor and the slave.

How long, O righteous Lord! how long
Will thy forbearance yet allow,
Scenes which nor painter's art nor poet's song,
In their atrocity can show;

To brand with infamy's worst shame
The human and the Christian name.
Thou who hast made and fashioned all,
That all might praise and honour Thee,
To these Thy children held in thrall,
A Father still vouchsafe to be:
Be Thou the slave's strong refuge tower,
Sustain him by thine arm of power.

And in thy own appointed time,

Break by thy might's resistless stroke,
The links which craft and force and crime,
Have forg'd to frame their galling yoke;
Like Samson's wythes these links shall be,
When thou shalt speak the words, "BE FREE!"
For them-thine erring children still,

Who thus thy creatures dare oppress;
And by foul wrong and outrage fill,
Their brimming cup of bitterness;
Even from these, though hard of heart,
Let not thy mercies clean depart!
Thou canst the obdurate bosom melt,
Unseal blind eyes, unstop deaf ears,
And give to those who ne'er have felt

For Afric's wrongs-contrition's tears;
Leading them by thy gospel's ray,
To put the accursed thing away!

But once more turn we, ere we close
The strain, our artist's work to view,
There may be who abhor such woes,
Who own their portraiture is true;
And yet with sickly sympathy
Would veil them from the public eye!
The Spartan-when it was his aim

His son from drunkenness to save;
To brand the vice with added shame,
Made drunk some poor and abject slave,

Whose degradation might impress

That crime in all its odiousness!

Our artist here, with higher skill,

To cure a wider ill hath striven; In misery's depths-a deeper still Hath sounded! and a picture given, Which even "he who runs may read ;" At which the hardest heart might bleed.

It is revolting to our sight;

"Tis but the semblance of a scene, Acted in open day's broad light,

By beings wearing man's proud mien ! Oh! bear in mind this truth sublime, Those who allow it-share the crime!

For ALL allow it who withhold
Their earnest solemn strong protest,
Against its evils manifold,

Until those evils be redrest!
And upon injured Afric's shore,

A slave-ship shall be seen no more!

TRADE IN COLONIAL AND TROPICAL PRODUCE.

The following facts, from some of the principal annual circulars of the present year, will show what is the present state of the supplies of the principal articles of colonial and tropical produce, and what has been the progress of the trade in those articles during the last five years.

The article of sugar is that in which the largest amount of British capital is invested, and it is gratifying to see that the quantity of this article raised by the emancipated negroes in the West Indies and the Mauritius, and by the free labour in British India, is now larger than that raised either by free or slave labour in any other country in the world. The imports from the West Indies, the Mauritius, and the East Indies, have been as follows during the last five years :

:

In 1841, the quantity raised in the West Indies had fallen off most alarmingly, partly owing to dry seasons, and partly to the want of a good understanding between the negro labourers and the planters. That year it only amounted to 121,925 hogsheads and 12,225 tierces. From that time it has continued to increase steadily, until last year it amounted to 157,200 hogsheads and 20,075 tierces. The import in each year was as follows:

Hhds. 157,200 20,075

Tierces.

138,150 16,395

141,100 13,640

135,910 15,985

121,295 12,225

As the weather was very favourable to the crops last year, and as the West India agriculture is improving daily, there is every reason to hope that the importation from the West Indies this year will not fall far short of the average imports in the time of slavery, and certainly there is much less complaint amongst the planters and the West India interest at present, than there was during the last fifteen years of slavery.

From the East Indies, which did not exceed 10,000 tons of sugar to this country in 1830, there was received last year 774,960 bags. This is the largest quantity ever imported from India; larger by 50,000 bags than the importation of 1841, when the price of sugar was nearly double what it is at present. As the prices are now several shillings a cwt. higher than they were when the supply of last year was shipped, a still greater increase is expected to take place this year. Some of the estimates go as high as 110, or even 120,000 tons. The following is the return of imports from the East Indies, for the last five years :—

Bags, &c.

The total quantity of cotton imported into this country last year was 1,856,866 bales; of which 1,500,368 were American, 111,728 Brazilian, 155,045 East Indian, 81,423 Egyptian, and 8,225 West Indian.

The only two countries in which the growth of cotton for the English market appears to be increasing are the United States and Egypt. In Brazil the quantity raised last year, though rather larger than that raised in the years 184], '42, and '43, is less than that raised in 1833 and 1834. In the supply from the East and West Indies the decrease is still greater, as will be seen from the following table :-

218,880

35,770

This decline in the quantity of cotton imported from the British possessions is chiefly owing to the low price of that article in the English market, which has had the double effect of discouraging the growth of cotton in India, and of directing the greater part of what is grown to the markets of China. At the present low prices, cotton barely pays (if it does pay) the American planter, who, however, still goes on growing, because there is nothing else which he can grow, except in that part of Louisiana which is suitable for sugar. The English laws, however, give the East Indian cultivator a share of the monopoly of supplying the English market with sugar; until lately they gave him high protecting duties on his indigo, and the great demand in this country for tea and other articles of Chinese produce give him a practical monopoly of the opium market. Hence he turns his attention chiefly to those articles, paying comparatively little attention to cotton, on which there is not now a farthing of protection. Under these circumstances, the importation of East India cotton into this country is likely to decrease every year, unless, indeed, president Polk and General Cass should succeed in involving this country in a war with the United States. Should that happen, the price would immediately rise, and if the war should continue half a dozen years, the Indian, Egyptian, Brazilian, and West Indian cotton-growers would get so strong a hold on the cotton market as would render it exceedingly difficult to displace them

at the end of it.

Another very remarkable fact in connexion with the cotton trade is the yearly increase of the quantity stored in this country from season to season. At the close of the year 1835, the stock of cotton in this country only amounted to 230,900 bales, and of this not more than 102,270 was American. From that time it had increased rapidly, until the total stock at the close of 1845 was 1,055,270, of which not less than 690,450 bales were American.-Liverpool Times.

The quantity of foreign sugar imported last year was greater than in any previous year, except 1841 (when our own supply was so extensively deficient), and the quantity refined in bond was also much greater.

Of molasses, the quantity imported last year was 47,690 casks of British, and 21,555 of foreign; and of rum, 34,605 puncheons of West Indian, 6,540 of East Indian, and 865 of foreign.

The quantity of coffee imported from the West Indies appears to have diminished in nine years from 12,325 tierces and 6,270 barrels, to 7,360 tierces and 5,405 barrels; that of Ceylon (where coffee cultivation is extending wonderfully, owing to the large supplies of labourers who can be obtained from India for picking the berry, and who come over like the Irish labourers in harvest time) to have increased from 58,020 bags in 1841, to 133,290 bags in 1845; that of the East Indies to have increased considerably, that is, from 48,680 casks in 1844, to 63,530 in 1845; and that of foreign to have increased as rapidly as that of Ceylon, that is, from 58,480 casks to 138,000.

The history of the cotton trade is so well known, that only one or two points connected with it require to be referred to.

Colonial Intelligence.

JAMAICA. The news from this colony is of no great importance, beyond the fact that the governor, Lord Elgin, is devoting his best energies to secure its prosperity. The Falmouth Post represents him as Striving by all possible means to improve the system under which estates are so dreadfully mismanaged;" and adds, "the hope entertained of returning prosperity has been to a great extent realized. The sugar crop of 1845, has caused an increase in the value of property, and although the returns this year will not be so abundant, the prospect before us is far from being of a discouraging nature. Science and British capital have come and are continuing to come to our aid."

The Post, however, does not give a very flattering account of the Jamaica legislature. It says :-"The fact is, that the Jamaica House of Assembly has no patriots to boast of-and there are in it, but a few-a very few men, who are actuated by honest and independent principles. Many get returned for the purpose of looking after the "loaves and fishes;" the object of others is to serve] with slavish obedience the "will and pleasure" of their employers in England; a third party seeks to mystify the clauses of every bill that is introduced, in order to create differences of opinion and expensive law suits." Under this state of things it despairs of seeing secured to the colony "a system of pure and creditable legislation."

HILL COOLIES.-The Baptist Herald gives a sad account of the state of the Coolies. From a correspondent in the parish of Clarendon, the editor learns that "the Coolies, both men and women work in the field, many of them in a state of nudity, and hardly any of them decently clothed; that many of them are suffering from severe sickness, and are so covered with sores as to be unable to work. According to agreement, these ought to

be provided for, but such, it is reported, is not the case; those who cannot work get no pay. Their complaints on the subject of wages are loud and numerous, and they generally state their determination to leave their employment as soon as they are free; their belief is that they are slaves. By their own driver, or superintendent, they are often severely beaten, and many of them have lately run away from their employment on this account, and have only been induced to return by the interference of the general superintendent. They work in gangs by themselves--the negroes appear sincerely to pity them."

LIBERATED AFRICANS.-From the same source we learn that the young Africans who came to the colony by the Glen Huntly, and were hired out under contract to "act as laborers on the Pen, in minding cattle hoeing grass, picking pimento, and other light work," for which they were to be clothed, fed, lodged, educated, and found in medical attendance when required, have been much neglected and oppressed. The Baptist Herald says:-" Now we can prove that these children were not decently clothed, received no instruction, were sometimes half starved, and were engaged in mending the queen's high-way, carrying and breaking stones, cutting down trees, &c., and were never allowed to go to a school or chapel, or to see their countrymen on a neighbouring property. These things were laid before his excellency the governor, and no examination or redress has taken place."

SLAVE-DEALER CAUGHT.-The Cornwall Chronicle reports the arrival, at Montego Bay, of the American brigantine Integrity, under peculiar circumstances. This vessel, it seems, is commanded by a man named Frisby, and was bound from Hayti to New York. She had encountered severe weather, and was about being taken to Lucea, to procure a supply of water, when she was boarded by a pilot, (a Mr. Shalland,) who recognized in the “skipper" an old acquaintance. It appears that Captain Frisby had visited Montego Bay in the year 1837, and, at the time of his departure, took thence a woman named Rebecca Scarlett, and a black lad, (Edward Dunstone,) the former as a nurse, and the latter as a steward. Both of these persons were "subsequently sold by him as slaves, in the United States of America." For this infringement of the "law of nations" he was brought up in due form, and committed to jail for further examination. The greatest excitement followed his seizure.

TRINIDAD.-LIBERATED AFRICANS.-The barque Isabella Thompson, from Sierra Leone, has just come to anchor. She was one of the transports sent out from London to that] place for immigrants for Trinidad, but to our disappointment she has arrived without bringing one.

The barque Senator arrived yesterday from Sierra Leone, in 23 days, with 235 immigrants, of whom 145 are women. This will prove a timely and acceptable arrival to our planters, who are, just now particularly, in want of additional labour to gather in the crop. The people are chiefly

liberated Africans.-Standard, Jan. 5.

BRITISH GUIANA.-COOLIES.—The barque Nestor, 458 tons, 82 days

from Madras, arrived to-day with 233 immigrants, namely:
:-
188 males

37 females

8 children

233 Total.

The above are to be located on the following estates, viz. :-Coffee Grove, Sparta, Windsor Castle, Hampton Court, Devonshire Castle, and Better Success. We are happy to say that they have all arrived in excellent health, and that there was not one death on board during the passage.Gazette, Dec. 27.

THE FLOGGING ORDINANCE.-This ordinance is exciting the deepest indignation among the emancipated classes in British Guiana. It has passed through two of its stages, and was expected to pass through its last when the mail left. With the exception of the Government paper, the Royal Gazette, it is condemned both as impolitic and unnecessary. Emery's Journal, of the 17th January, speaks of it in the following

terms:

"The danger of suffering a legislature, not amenable to the people, to exercise uncontrolled functions, has been wonderfully exemplified in the history of what is termed 'The Thirty-nine Stripes' Act.' An old law existed, by which the punishment of forty lashes, save one, could be inflicted, for petty crimes, by the inferior criminal court, composed of a sheriff, a gentleman not legally educated, and three or four other gentlemen, the proprietors or factors of estates. Very properly, this provision of the law, so strongly calculated to lead to tyranny on one hand, and the revival of the most odious reminiscences of the slave-time on the other, was permitted to fall into disuse. Nay, the secretary of state would not allow even the supreme court to carry out so degrading an infliction. In an evil hour, the governor and court of policy, designing to augment the jurisdiction of the inferior criminal court, projected the re-enactment of the lashing clause, accompanying it with a clause authorizing the same petty tribunal to exact a pecuniary fine of £20, and to order banishment to the penal settlement for six months.

"If ever human beings, white, black, or brown, had a right to remonstrate, the mass of our population was entitled to do so in this instance. It was not a question of the indiscriminate extension of a franchise. On

the contrary, the more ignorant a peasant was, the more imminent was his liability to stripes and transportation. Meetings of peasants, whose intelligence would astound an absentee, meetings, be it observed, confined to a small district of the colony, have sufficed to prove that the emancipated African, as he can be no longer bought and sold, can be no longer oppressed with impunity. The determination of the several convocations has been, to appeal from the governor, in whom confidence is no longer reposed, to the monarch herself."

The Congregational Record, and the Instructor, are loud in their condemnation of this law; and even the Guiana Times swells the number of its opponents. The Record earnestly exhorts the people to control their feelings and confine themselves to remonstrance and petition. At the same time it entreats the legislators of the colony not to try the people too far "by laws whose natural tendency is to create and give impetus to discontent and revenge." The Instructor says, "the Plantocracy of Guiana wish to bring back a state of things here that shall be as nearly as possible like the state of accursed SLAVERY, from which the African race in this colony, no thanks, however, to the Plantocrats, have been permitted to escape." The cry of all the friends of good government is " REFORM," and truly it is needed in the colony of British Guiana.

ST. LUCIA. - REFUGEES.-Five refugees, from Martinique slavery, arrived here safely on the 26th of December, having outwitted and outsailed their pursuers, who, soon after their landing on our wharf, appeared at the offing, in an armed schooner.-Palladium, Jan. 3.

BARBADOS.-In glancing hastily over our files from this colony, the first thing that attracts our eye as important, is a marked improvement in the public revenue, showing an increase on the last year of no less than £10,000 sterling over the expenditure.

DOMINICA:-EXPORTS AND IMPORTS. The produce shipped in 1845, 3,189 hogsheads, 738 tierces, and 2628 barrels of sugar; molasses, 1,055 puncheons and 8 hogsheads; rum, 298 puncheons, 13 hogsheads, and 7 qr. casks; coffee, 75,427 lbs.; cocoa, 17,916 lbs. The imports during the year have amounted to £641,015.

Foreign Intelligence.

UNITED STATES :-The following extracts from the American press will no doubt interest our readers :

has recently paid a visit to New York, and addressed, in his usual fervid NEW YORK.-Cassius M. Clay, the eloquent champion of freedom, style, a large body of its citizens on the subject of abolition. One of the together under one roof in that city, and says that "Mr. Clay was New York papers describes the audience as the largest ever gathered of the press," so shamefully violated in his case at Lexington, Kentucky. received with three deafening cheers for himself, and three for the liberty We give a few extracts as illustrations of Mr. Clay's opinions on the subject of emancipation :

"Whilst I am not insensible to the injuries inflicted on the African race→→→ the almost countless miseries and tortures which many of them have endured for centuries; whilst I admit fully that God has given rights which are marked as clearly on the most dusky face of that injured racestill I must insist that I am mainly actuated by a still higher motive-the greater motive of achieving the complete independence and liberty of my own, the white Anglo-Saxon, race of America! (Much applause.) And God has so ordered it that you cannot trench upon any—the humblest, meanest link, in the great chain of humanity--but the injury will reach to the highest link, and draw all down with it to destruction. (Applause.) I advocate, then, not only the interests and liberties of the African, but also those of the 18,000,000 of whites who should have been freemen on this soil of the United States. (Loud applause.)

"He did not, he said, assume the credit of any peculiar sagacity in advocating emancipation. He had only to look around him to see the evils of slavery, He drew a vivid contrast between the free and slave states, in the arts and sciences, in mechanics, in agriculture, in education, in morality, and all that makes a people great, virtuous, and intelligent. He said: I know that there are shrewd men and intelligent as they are accounted, who contend that it is better to keep these 3,000,000 of human beings in slavery, because we get the proceeds or profits of their labours. But if this be true-which it is not-if this were true-frightful as it would be thus to obtain wealth only by human suffering and blood-by trampling into the dust all human rights and blessings-how horrible must it be to find that with all this outrage such is not the case. That gold being the god they worshipped-when by violation of all laws, human and divine, they expected to grasp it, and found nothing but an ashen apple remained to their utter destruction. (Much applause, mingled with a few hisses.)