On the following evening the anniversary of the Bible Society was held in the Moravian school-room.  During the day we received a note from the Secretary of the Society, politely requesting us to be present.  The spacious school-room was filled, and the broad platform crowded with church clergymen, Moravian ministers, and Wesleyan missionaries, colored and white.  The Secretary, a Moravian minister, read the twenty-first annual report.  It spoke emphatically of ’the joyful event of emancipation’, and in allusion to an individual in England, of whom it spoke in terms of high commendation, it designated him, as one “who was distinguished for his efforts in the abolition of slavery.”  The adoption of the report was moved by one of the Wesleyan missionaries, who spoke at some length.  He commenced by speaking of “the peculiar emotions with which he always arose to address an assembly of the free people of Antigua.”  It had been his lot for a year past to labor in a colony[A] where slavery still reigned, and he could not but thank God for the happiness of setting his foot once more on the free soil of an emancipated island.

[Footnote A:  St. Martin’s]

Perhaps the most interesting meeting in the series, was the anniversary of the Wesleyan Missionary Society of Antigua.  Both parts of the day were devoted to this anniversary.  The meetings were held in the Wesleyan chapel, which was filled above and below, with the usual commixture of white, colored, and black.  We saw, as on former occasions, several colored gentlemen seated among the ministers.  After the usual introductory exercises of singing and prayer, the annual report was read by the Secretary, Rev. E. Fraser, the colored minister already mentioned.  It was terse, direct, and business like.  The meeting was then addressed by a Moravian missionary.  He dwelt upon the decrease of the sectarian spirit, and hailed the coming of Christian charity and brotherly communion.  He opened his Bible, and read about the middle wall of partition being broken down.  “Yes, brother,” said Mr. Horne, “and every other wall.”  “The rest are but paper walls,” responded the speaker, “and when once the middle wall is removed, these will soon be burned up by the fire of Christian love.”

The next speaker was a Wesleyan missionary of Nevis.  He spoke of the various instrumentalities which were now employed for the conversion of the world.  “We welcome,” said he, “the co-operation of America, and with all our hearts do we rejoice that she is now beginning to put away from her that vile system of oppression which has hitherto crippled her moral energy and her religious enterprise.”  Then turning and addressing himself to us, he said, “We hail you, dear brethren, as co-workers with us.  Go forward in your blessed undertaking.  Be not dismayed with the huge dimensions of that vice which you are laboring to overthrow!  Be not disheartened by the violence and menaces of your enemies!  Go forward.  Proclaim to the church and to your countrymen