Liverpool was at first to the antislavery cause nearly what New York has
been with us. Its commercial interests were largely implicated in the
slave trade, and the virulence of opposition towards the first movers of
the antislavery reform in Liverpool was about as great as it is now
against abolitionists in Charleston.

When Clarkson first came here to prosecute his inquiries into the
subject, a mob collected around him, and endeavored to throw him off the
dock into the water; he was rescued by a gentleman, some of whose
descendants I met on this occasion.

The father of our host, Mr. Cropper, was one of the first and most
efficient supporters of the cause in Liverpool; and the whole circle was
composed of those who had taken a deep interest in that struggle. The
wife of our host was the daughter of the celebrated Lord Chief Justice
Denman, a man who, for many years, stood unrivalled, at the head of the
legal mind in England, and who, with a generous ardor seldom equalled,
devoted all his energies to this sacred cause.

When the publication of Uncle Tom's Cabin turned the attention of the
British public to the existing horrors of slavery in America, some
palliations of the system appeared in English papers. Lord Denman,
though then in delicate health and advanced years, wrote a series of
letters upon the subject--an exertion which entirely prostrated his
before feeble health. In one of the addresses made at table, a very
feeling allusion was made to Lord Denman's labors, and also to those of
the honored father of the two Messrs. Cropper.

As breakfast parties are things which we do not have in America, perhaps
mother would like to know just how they are managed. The hour is