Page:Walks in the Black Country and its green border-land.pdf/63

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and its Green Border-Land.
49

to their unrequited toil under British or American masters. No man in England ever gave more thought and effort to their emancipation and enlightenment than he did. But all he felt and worked for them did not affect the rotundity of his philanthropy; indeed it seemed to perfect as well as expand its sphere; and in that sphere he laboured so steadily and evenly, that now he is gone, one can hardly say for what enterprise of benevolence he was most distinguished. If he had not wrought in so many different fields, he might have been called the John Howard of the anti-slavery cause. But the cause of universal peace and brotherhood of the peoples was equally dear to his great heart, and no man living or dead ever gave to that cause a warmer sympathy, a greater hope, a larger or steadier faith, or a more generous and munificent hand. No one knows this by more personal and intimate evidence than myself. His heart was shining at its full with the same sunlight when journeying by night through Russian snows to St. Petersburgh to say an earnest word for peace to Nicholas, as when he walked among the negro cabins in the torrid zone to gather evidence of their condition for the British Parliament. It was the same light that beamed like the smile of God on his broad serene face as he walked from cottage to cottage in the desolated hamlets of Finland after the Crimean