sufferings.  At the moment when the wretched victims were about to fall off—­when they could no longer bring down the mechanism and continue the movement, they were suspended by their arms, and at each revolution of the wheel received new wounds on their members, until, in the language of that law so grossly outraged in their persons, they “languished and died.”  Ask you if a cringe of this murderous nature went unvisited, and if no inquiry was made respecting its circumstances?  The forms of justice were observed; the handmaid was present, but the sacred mistress was far away.  A coroner’s inquest was called; for the laws decreed that no such injuries should take place without having an inquiry instituted.  Eleven inquisitions were held, eleven inquiries were made, eleven verdicts were returned.  For murder?  Manslaughter?  Misconduct?  No; but that “they died by the visitation of God.”  A lie—­a perjury—­a blasphemy!  The visitation of God!  Yes, for of the visitations of the Divine being by which the inscrutable purposes of his will are mysteriously worked out, one of the most mysterious is the power which, from time to time, is allowed by him to be exercised by the wicked for the torment of the innocent. (Cheers.) But of those visitations prescribed by Divine Providence there is one yet more inscrutable, for which it is still more difficult to affix a reason, and that is, when heaven rolls down on this earth the judgment, not of scorpions, or the plague of pestilence, or famine, or war—­but incomparably the worse plague, the worser judgment, of the injustice of judges who become betrayers of the law—­perjured, wicked men who abuse the law which they are sworn to administer, in order to gratify their own foul passions, to take the part of the wrong-doer against his victim, and to forswear themselves on God’s gospel, in order that justice may not be done. * * * * My lords, I entirely concur in what was formerly said by Mr. Burke, and afterwards repeated by Mr. Canning, that while the making of laws was confined to the owners of slaves, nothing they did was ever found real or effectual.  And when, perchance, any thing was accomplished, it had not, as Mr. Burke said, “an executive principle.”  But, when they find you determined to do your duty, it is proved, by the example which they have given in passing the Apprenticeship Amendment Act, that they will even outstrip you to prevent your interference with them. * * * * Place the negroes on the same footing with other men, and give them the uncontrolled power over their time and labor, and it will become the interest of the planter, as well as the rest of the community, to treat the negro well, for their comfort and happiness depend on his industry and good behavior.  It is a consequence perfectly clear, notwithstanding former distinctions, notwithstanding the difference of color and the variety of race in that population, the negro and the West Indian will in a very few generations—­when the clank of his chain is no longer heard, when the