Mr. Joseph Thorne is a gentleman of forty-five, of a dark mulatto complexion, with the negro features and hair. He was born a slave, and remained so until about twenty years of age.  This fact we learned from the manager of the Belle estate, on which Mr. T. was born and raised a slave.  It was an interesting coincidence, that on the occasion of our visit to the Belle estate we were indebted to Mr. Thorne, the former property of that estate, for his horse and chaise, which he politely proffered to us.  Mr. T. employs much of his time in laboring among the colored people in town, and among the apprentices on the estates, in the capacity of lay-preacher.  In this way he renders himself very useful.  Being very competent, both by piety and talents, for the work, and possessing more perhaps than any missionary, the confidence of the planters, he is admitted to many estates, to lecture the apprentices on religious and moral duties.  Mr. T. is a member of the Episcopal church.

BREAKFAST AT MR. PRESCOD’S

We next had the pleasure of breakfasting with Mr. Prescod.  Our esteemed friend, Mr. Harris, was of the company.  Mr. P. is a young man, but lately married.  His wife and himself were both liberally educated in England.  He was the late editor of the New Times, a weekly paper established since the abolition of slavery and devoted chiefly to the interests of the colored community.  It was the first periodical and the only one which advocated the rights of the colored people, and this it did with the utmost fearlessness and independence.  It boldly exposed oppression, whether emanating from the government house or originating in the colonial assembly.  The measures of all parties, and the conduct of every public man, were subject to its scrutiny, and when occasion required, to its stern rebuke.  Mr. P. exhibits a thorough acquaintance with the politics of the country, and with the position of the various parties.  He is familiar with the spirit and operations of the white gentry—­far more so, it would seem; than many of his brethren who have been repeatedly deceived by their professions of increasing liberality, and their show of extending civil immunities, which after all proved to be practical nullities, and as such were denounced by Mr. P. at the outset.  A few years ago the colored people mildly petitioned the legislature for a removal of their disabilities.  Their remonstrance was too reasonable to be wholly disregarded.  Something must he done which would at least bear the semblance of favoring the object of the petitioners.  Accordingly the obnoxious clauses were repealed, and the colored people were admitted to the polls.  But the qualification was made three times greater than that required of white citizens.  This virtually nullified the extension of privilege, and actually confirmed the disabilities of which it was a pretended abrogation.  The colored