But with that illustrious Prince, and with the father of
the Queen, I assisted at that other birth, more conspicuous still.
With them, and with the head of the House of Russell, incomparably
more illustrious in my eyes, I watched over its cradle--I marked
its growth--I rejoiced in its strength--I witnessed its maturity;
I have been spared to see it ascend the very height of supreme
power; directing the councils of state; accelerating every great
improvement; uniting itself with every good work; propping all
useful institutions; extirpating abuses in all our institutions;
passing the bounds of our European dominion, and in the New World,
as in the Old, proclaiming that freedom is the birthright of
man--that distinction of colour gives no title to oppression--that
the chains now loosened must be struck off, and even the marks
they have left effaced--proclaiming this by the same eternal law
of our nature which makes nations the masters of their own
destiny, and which in Europe has caused every tyrant's throne to
quake!
"But they need feel no alarm at the progress of light who defend a
limited monarchy and support popular institutions--who place their
chiefest pride not in ruling over slaves, be they white or be
they black, not in protecting the oppressor, but in wearing a
constitutional crown, in holding the sword of justice with the
hand of mercy, in being the first citizen of a country whose air
is too pure for slavery to breathe, and on whose shores, if the
captive's foot but touch, his fetters of themselves fall off.
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