It is a miserable book indeed that cannot be sold, in cloth boards, for ninepence, to any old bookseller. If I should be able to carry out my plan, I shall not only have supplied a lot of cheap books to the poor myself, but have stimulated or obliged others to supply books cheaper as well. Let it once be seen that good and useful books can be got for ninepence a volume, and the book trade will be revolutionised inevitably. The booksellers will not be able to sell good books of nine sheets, bound, for nine-pence, but they will come down one-half, or threequarters perhaps, and let you have their eight shilling books for two-and-sixpence, and their three shilling books for one. And this will be something gained. And this reduction in the price of books will not reduce the wages of printers, &c.; it will rather increase them. For it will increase the demand for books beyond calculation. And when labour is in demand, it will always be well paid in countries like ours. I can supply books at ninepence a piece, and yet give better wages than any printer out of London is giving I should be ashamed to offer cheap books at the expense of my men. I would not do such a thing. I hope those who are friendly to the cause of Reform, will assist me in this work to the utmost of their power. I feel persuaded that we can never have an enlightened, a reformed, and a happy race of men, without a plentiful supply of useful books and tracts to the masses of the people. Men may preach, and build schools, and form Mechanics' Institutes, and give courses of lectures, but nothing will do without a plentiful supply of tracts and books. Preaching, and lectures, and schools, and Mechanics' Institutions will all do good: but still they must be accompanied with a cheap literature, if the people are to be instructed. It is the Press that must have the chief part in enlightening and governing the world, for the times to come. It is at home, by their own firesides, that men are to be educated. Nine out of ten of those who gain much knowledge, gain it, not from the pulpit, not in the lecture room, not at the school, but at home. It is there that they learn to think. It is there that they form or modify their opinions. It is there that their souls get gradually fired with the love of truth, the love of righteousness, the love of God, and the love of man. It is there that reforms and revolutions are bred. It is there that the world must be saved. Let the country be supplied with abundance of good cheap tracts and books, and great and glorious changes in society will take place inevitably. Give me the Press, and the power to keep it going, and I will shake every corrupt institution in the land. I will shake the whole world. I will undermine every false creed, and every false system of philosophy in the universe. I will paralyse the advocates of error at once. I will silence both the false priest and the blaspheming infidel; or if I do not silence them, I will make their talking, like the idle wind, which men regard not. In short, let the followers of Christ, -let the lovers of truth and righteousness, the friends of knowledge and the friends of man use the Press as they ought, and they shall rule the world; they shall rule both the kings and the people; they shall rule both men's bodies and souls! It is known that I am myself what most of the Sects call heterodox, and I do not wish to conceal the fact, that several of the Theological Works which I purpose to publish, are what would be called heterodox. Still, my object in proposing to publish this Library, is something far better and higher than the mere spread of heterodox opinions. What I want is, to make people truly wise, and great, and good,-To lead forth to useful action their thinking and their moral powers, and make them Christ-like and God-like men and women. Only let them be brought to read, and taught to think, and led to live for God. and for their kind, and I will trust them to form their opinions for themselves. Hence most of the books on religion, that I propose to publish, are of a general and practical character, I have chosen them, simply because they are calculated to rouse, invigorate, and free the soul, and fit it for the service of its Maker, and for the service of mankind. JOSEPH BARKER. MEMOIRS AND DOCUMENTS RELATING TO AMERICAN SLAVERY, AND THE GLORIOUS STRUGGLE NOW MAKING FOR COMPLETE EMANCIPATION. LONDON: CHAPMAN, BROTHERS, 121, NEWGATE STREET. PRINTED BY J. BARKER, WORTLEY, NEAR LEEDS. MDCCCXLVI. PREFACE. THIS volume is the first of a Library which the publisher intends to send out. For the present, he expects to send out a volume a month, but so soon as the number of subscribers or purchasers reaches five thousand, he will send forth one a fortnight, or one a week. The second volume containing a life of Wm. Penn, with selections from his writings, may be looked for in about four weeks. The third, containing the most useful works of the late Robert Hall, may be looked for in March. As to the worth of the volumes, the readers must judge for themselves. All I can do, is, to publish such works as appear to me to be most needed, and most likely to prove useful. What I wish is, to improve people's minds and characters, to make them wiser, and better, and happier men,-to bring them to live and labour like sons of God,-like that great instructor and example of our race set before us in the Gospels. I wish to see men interesting themselves in every branch of useful knowledge, and in every work of charity. I wish to see them labouring for the injured and unhappy everywhere; and toiling for the universal spread of truth and righteousness, of purity, and liberty, and joy. My first volume points to the American slave, and calls for help in his behalf. In the United States of America, there are upwards of three millions of persons held in the most. abject and miserable slavery. The people of England can deliver those millions from their wretchedness, if they will. The object of this volume is, to awaken their will, and to direct its movements. It will give you first a view of the system of slavery, unfolding something of its crimes and horrors. It will show you next, the connexion of this system with the American and English churches, making it manifest, that slavery derives its strength from the silence or sanction of those churches, and that if once those churches can be brought to do their duty in this matter, the system will be overthrown. It will point out what 7 that duty is, and show how all may contribute towards inducing the churches to do their duty. I grant that the subject of slavery is not an enticing one for a specimen volume, but that cannot be helped. It is a subject of great importance, and it is time it was studied and understood. And our object should be, not to find pleasure, but to do good: not to divert ourselves, but to aid the cause of truth, of righteousness, and of human happiness. If there be any who prefe a moment's personal pleasure, to the freedom and the welfare of their race, we are sorry for them. Men calling themselves Christians, ought to be pleased with nothing so much as plans and labours for the improvement and happiness of their race. Nay, reason itself might show us, that the proper end of life is to do good, to honour God by blessing men. And the day will come when all who have reason left them, will think all things little, and low, and trifling but this; and when their only comfort will be the consciousness that they have done something for the improvement and the welfare of their brethren. He alone acts like a Christian, or a rational being, and he alone can secure the full and proper blessedness of a human being, who makes the welfare of his fellow-men the great end and endeavour of his life. › But we are far from thinking that the volume before us is not interesting; on the contrary, we consider it one of the most The narinteresting volumes that has issued from the press. rative of Lewis and Milton Clarke is as joiesting as it well can be. It would please even a novel reader if it were only a TALE. And the account of Jonathan Walker and his BRANDED HAND is much the same. And the other matters, though not fiction, are stranger than fiction. Still, if you cannot bring your minds to read the book, go and do something else that is good, and we shall be satisfied. Others will read, and profit by their reading, and even you may come back in time. Farewell. 201 |