There are two subjects involving religious, moral, and political considerations, on which the stricter (and in so many things juster) spirit of the last fifty years has exercised a most important influence. The death-blow of slavery may be said to have proceeded from Exeter Hall; and the abolition of capital punishment, except for atrocious crimes, is the result of the same religious feeling. Seventy years ago Granville Sharpe proved slavery to be illegal in England. Sixty years ago Bishop Porteus preached against the Slave Trade. A quarter of a century elapsed, and in 1807, after arduous struggles, the trade is abolished. Another quarter of a century runs its course, and in 1833 an Act is passed for emancipating every slave in the British dominions. The agitation of this question for seventy years, the discussions to which it led of the rights of humanity and the principles of justice and Christianity, were singularly favourable to the development of the peculiar spirit which has its altars at Exeter Hall. For some years the struggle was chiefly confined to Parliament, aided by friends of abolition here and there. The public were spectators rather than actors, deeply interested ones no doubt, but not assembling in "conventions" and great" abolition meetings," to concentrate public opinion in its utmost strength, as they have done since the formation of the Anti-Slavery Society in 1823. It was in 1792 that many of the friends of abolition determined to abstain from the consumption of West India produce, so long as it was raised by slaves. "We use East Indian sugar entirely," writes Mr. Babington to Mr. Wilberforce," and so do full two-thirds of the friends of abolition in Leicester." Mr. W. Smith says to Wilberforce, "Please to take notice that I have left off sugar completely and entirely for some time past, and shall certainly persevere in my resolution, though I am not yet at all reconciled to the deprivation of the most favourite gratification of my palate." Associations were rapidly formed to stop the consumption of West India produce, and Wilberforce, it appears, was at first disposed to recommend this course, but he afterwards decided "that it should be suspended until, if necessary, it might be adopted with effect by general concurrence." The struggle excited a bitterness of feeling amongst some of the West Indian body which fifty years ago showed itself in ways calculated to astonish those who are accustomed to the more tolerant spirit of the present day. "The box in which our petition is enclosed," says a Glasgow correspondent to Mr. Wilberforce, has been directed to another, that its contents may be unsuspected." Residents in Liverpool, of the same rank in life as Dr. Currie, asked of Mr. Wilberforce, "If you write, be pleased to direct without franking it." biographers of Wilberforce state that the anti-slavery correspondence was in many instances conducted "in unsigned letters, sent under the covers of unsuspected persons." In a letter which did not at all allude to West Indian matters, and was therefore openly transmitted to Mr. Wilberforce, Dr. Currie adds this postscript, "Trusting this letter to our post-office with your address, I shall be anxious to hear of its safe arrival." Besides the selfishness of traders there were other obstacles to be encountered, and the strength of the parliamentary opposition may be judged of from the fact that in 1804 four of the royal family came down to the House of Lords to vote against the abolition of the Slave Trade: it had, however, been carried in the Commons.

66

The

The amelioration of our sanguinary criminal laws encountered difficulties

It is

almost as great as those which retarded the abolition of the Slave Trade. but justice to state that in 1750 a committee of the House of Commons on the laws relating to felonies reported "that it was reasonable to exchange the punishment of death for some other reasonable punishment;" and a Bill founded on this resolution passed the House of Commons, but was rejected by the Lords. The question rested here for above half a century, until, in 1808, Sir Samuel Romilly brought forward his first motion for the reform of the criminal laws, and an Act was passed for abolishing the punishment of death for pocket-picking (stealing privately from the person to the value of five shillings). In 1810 Sir Samuel Romilly's Bill to abolish capital punishment for the crime of stealing privately in a shop to the amount of five shillings was rejected in the House of Lords by a majority of 31 to 11. In the majority were not fewer than seven prelates, namely, the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Bishops of London and Salisbury, Dampier, Bishop of Ely, Luxmore, Bishop of Hereford, Sparke, the new Bishop of Chester, and Porter, an Irish bishop. It was alleged as a reason for not going further that the crime of pocket-picking had alarmingly increased since the capital punishment for it had been abolished; but it was forgotten that the increased number of convictions was rather a proof of the success of the former measure, for the previous inordinate severity of the law prevented those who had been robbed from prosecuting, and crime was encouraged by impunity. In 1813 the Bill to repeal the Shoplifting Act was again thrown out in the Lords, and two royal dukes and five bishops were in the majority, with the Lord Chancellor and the ministers. In 1816, although the measure had several times passed the Commons, it was still pending; and on Romilly bringing it forward this year, he stated that a boy of only ten years of age had been convicted at the Old Bailey under the Act, and was then lying under sentence of death in Newgate; and he drew attention to the fact, because, some time before, the Recorder of London had declared from the bench that it was the determination of the Prince Regent, in consequence of the number of boys who had been lately detected in committing felonies, to make an example of the next offender of this description. A few months afterwards a boy of sixteen was actually hung at Newgate for highway robbery. The Bill was again rejected. In February, 1818, it was again brought in by its author, who alluded to the ill success of excessive severity in repressing forgery; for though the Crown seldom pardoned, the offence was rapidly increasing. Sir Samuel Romilly died in the autumn of the same year, and the progress of enlightened opinion has enabled others to carry out his benevolent views, while time has proved that they were not less benevolent than practically successful in securing the object at which he aimed. In 1819, 20, 21, 22, there were 426 persons executed in England and Wales, and in the four years ending with 1841, only 36. Persons being less reluctant to prosecute, the number of convictions has increased from 58 to 72 out of every 100 offenders. The proportion of atrocious offences has been gradually diminishing, and those against property committed without violence have increased from 73 per cent. in 1834 to 79 per cent. in 1841. These facts show that, on some important questions, there is not only the enthusiasm of warm and generous tempers in the Exeter Hall spirit, but at times excellent sense and sound philosophy. The State Lotteries fell before the same power. Lastly, the

cruel practices connected with the employment of climbing boys in sweeping chimneys have been abolished.

It must be confessed that a dilettanti spirit of enthusiasm and benevolence, which disregards the attainment of practical objects by plain means, is sometimes rather too prominent at Exeter Hall, though it is true that the influential leaders here are generally at the same time conspicuous for their activity in promoting good works generally; but this is scarcely sufficient to redeem the mass from the charge of an insensibility to evils less remote than those which, in many instances, exclusively bring their sympathies into full play. Carried away by the grandeur of the object they propose to accomplish, they are led to applaud ill-considered and impracticable modes of attaining it. This is very creditable perhaps to their feelings, warmed into excitement by declamatory appeals under which the imagination becomes too powerful for the reason and intelligence of the listeners. Thus the famous Niger expedition, with its model farms and apparatus and schemes for civilizing Africa, finds favour at Exeter Hall, while the safe and practical plan set on foot by the government for promoting the emigration of the natives of Africa to the British Colonies in the West, and who, after acquiring a higher civilization, and valuable knowledge of the arts of life, would return to Africa to disseminate in that barbaric land the seeds of improvement ;-this is a measure, though protected by every necessary check which can be thought of, which is loudly denounced. From Exeter Hall the view of remote evils is more distinct than of those which lie everywhere around us. The eye pierces, as well as it can, into the obscure horizon, but does not behold the objects at hand which stand broadly in the full daylight, because its gaze, though embracing the furthest limits of the globe, is not directed downward as well. This characteristic has led a nervous and powerful writer into one of his striking apostrophes :-" O Anti-Slavery Convention," he exclaims, "loud-sounding, long-eared Exeter Hall! But in thee too is a kind of instinct towards justice, and I will complain of nothing. Only black Quashee over the seas being once sufficiently attended to, wilt not thou perhaps open thy dull sodden eyes to the hunger-stricken, pallid, yellow-coloured free labourers' in Lancashire, Yorkshire, Buckinghamshire, and all other shires? These yellow-coloured for the present absorb all my sympathies: if I had twenty millions, with model farms and Niger expeditions, it is to these that I would give them. Quashee has already victuals, clothing; Quashee is not dying of such despair as the yellow-coloured pale man's. Quashee, it must be owned, is hitherto a kind of blockhead. The Haiti Duke of Marmalade, educated now for almost half a century, seems to have next to no sense in him. Why, in one of those Lancashire weavers, dying of hunger, there is more thought and heart, a greater arithmetical amount of misery and desperation, than in whole gangs of Quashees. It must be owned, thy eyes are of the sodden sort; and with thy emancipations, and thy twenty-millionings, and long-eared clamourings, thou, like Robespierre with his pasteboard Etre Suprême, threatenest to become a bore to us, ' Avec ton Etre Suprême tu commences m'embêter!'"* Thus much it may be remarked in defence of Exeter Hall,-that as the consideration of domestic evils can rarely be separated from questions to which a political character, whether rightly or wrongly, is given, it may be that most of those who, in moral and religious questions, disMr. Carlyle's Past and Present.'

play such strong and fervid feelings, fear nevertheless to plunge into the agitated waters of politics, and content themselves with exertions of a private nature.

We have, however, paused too long on the threshold, and will now notice. Exeter Hall itself. In 1829 the Strand was deformed by an ill-shaped clumsy building called Exeter 'Change, of which an account has already been given.* The wild beasts at Exeter 'Change were lions of the town quite as much as those of the Tower. The menagerie was removed in 1832. Passing one day," says Mr. Leigh Hunt, "by Exeter 'Change, we beheld a sight strange enough to witness in a great thoroughfare—a fine horse startled, and pawing the ground, at the roar of lions and tigers. It was at the time probably when the beasts were being fed." When it was determined to pull down the old 'Change and widen the street, several persons of influence in the religious world proposed a scheme for building a large edifice, which should contain rooms of different sizes, to be appropriated exclusively to the uses of religious and benevolent societies, especially for their anniversary meetings, with committee-rooms and offices for several societies whose apartments were at that time crowded in houses taken for the purpose, as is the case at present with several scientific bodies, who might take a hint on the subject, and erect a large building for their joint accommodation. Exeter Hall was completed in 1831. It attracts little attention from the passenger, as the frontage is very narrow, and the exterior simply consists of a lofty portico formed of two handsome Corinthian pillars, with a flight of steps from the street to the Hall door. But when any great meeting is assembled, or is about to break up, there is no mistaking the place. The building stretches backward and extends to the right and left a considerable space. The Strand entrance leads to a wide passage, which at the extremity branches off into transverse passages. Two flights of steps, which meet above, lead to the great Hall, ninety feet broad, one hundred and thirty-eight long, and forty-eight high. It will hold four thousand persons, and, with scarcely any discomfort, a much larger number. The ranges of one half the seats rise in an amphitheatrical form, and the platform, at one end, is raised about six feet, and will accommodate five hundred persons. The "chair" in the front is not unlike that of Edward the Confessor in Westminster Abbey. The speakers, near the front, are accommodated with chairs, behind which rise rows of benches. Two flights of steps extend from the front row to the entrances at the back. Eight or nine years ago the capacity of the great Hall was enlarged by the erection of a gallery at the end opposite the platform, and two or three years afterwards the curve of the platform on each side was extended into galleries reaching a considerable distance into the middle of the room along the walls. When the Hall is quite filled the sight is grand and striking. An habitual attendant at Exeter Hall, in his 'Recollections,' has described the (to him) familiar aspect of the place on these occasions:-" The finest view is from the deep recesses behind the platform. Below you lies the platform, slanting downwards, and extending into a crescent shape, with its crowds sitting or standing; beyond them is the large flat surface of the area, its close benches all filled, and the avenues among them occupied by chairs or by persons who are fain to stand for want of sitting-room. Behind this are the raised seats, gradually appearing one behind another, and occupying a space equal to half the size of the whole room; all again fully * No. XXXVI., vol. ii., p. 174.

crowded, and the descending steps among the benches filled by the standing multitude. Over their heads, the whole scene is crowned by the back gallery, at a height of many feet. Those who wish to realise the idea of a sea of heads should take this view of Exeter Hall on some popular occasion. When such an assembly rises, for prayer or praise, at the beginning or end of a meeting, the sight is still more stupendous, and the degree of sound they are able to produce, in the way of cheering or singing, is almost incredible. There have been occasions when that vast room has rung with the voices of those assembled within its walls; and a second peal of cheers succeeding, before the echos of the first have died away, the noise altogether has been of a nature that few persons could hear unmoved." Underneath the great Hall is a smaller one, with a gallery and platform adapted to the size of the apartment, but it has no raised seats. There are sometimes meetings in both halls at the same time, and the acclamations of the larger audience reverberating in the smaller hall, a speaker unaccustomed to the place perhaps pauses until the plaudits have died away, thinking they proceeded from the audience he was addressing. From April to the end of May about thirty different societies hold their anniversary meetings at Exeter Hall, either in the larger or smaller hall, the latter of which will hold about a thousand persons; and there is one still smaller which will hold about a fourth of this number. On great occasions the street entrance is often crowded for some time before the doors are opened, which is usually about two hours before the chair is taken. Instances have occurred in which persons have been waiting for the opening of the doors from the early hour of seven in the morning. To fill up the vacant time, books and newspapers are resorted to, and even needle-work is taken out; but in general, if the visitor arrive an hour before the chair is taken, there will be no difficulty in obtaining room. The number of tickets issued is always greater than the Hall will contain, as those experienced in such matters are able to form a tolerably correct estimate of the number who, from various circumstances, will not be able to attend. A singular instance of mistaken reckoning on this point occurred on Thursday, the 1st of June, 1843, when the largest meeting assembled which had ever been known at Exeter Hall. The weather had been for some time so unfavourable that about ten thousand tickets were issued, under the idea that a full meeting would not be obtained without making an unusually large allowance for the absence of those whose attendance would be prevented by the weather; but the object of the meeting was felt to be so important that the muster was two or three times as great as was anticipated, and though the smaller hall received the overflowings of the larger one, there were still two or three thousand persons who could not gain admittance after the doors were opened at eight o'clock in the morning. Many of these assembled at Great Queen Street Chapel, which was filled by about fifteen hundred persons. The object of the meeting is interesting as an illustration of the Exeter Hall spirit, being for the purpose of promoting Christian union among the different religious bodies in this country. On the platform were to be seen clergymen of the Established Church and ministers of all the dissenting communities of Christians. A report was read in which the desire was expressed that the meeting should "forget their distinctive opinions in the contemplation of their common Christianity as a sufficient ground of fraternal regard and confidence." The document went on to say that "no practical object is connected