oppression of the master can vex no more, when equal rights are enjoyed by all, and all have a common interest in the general prosperity—­be impressed with a sense of their having an equal share in the promotion of the public welfare; nay, that social improvement, the progress of knowledge, civility, and even refinement itself, will proceed as rapidly and diffuse itself as universally in the islands of the Western Ocean as in any part of her Majesty’s dominions. * * * *

I see no danger in the immediate emancipation of the negro; I see no possible injury in terminating the apprenticeship, (which we now have found should never have been adopted,) and in causing it to cease for slaves previous to August, 1838, at that date, as those subsequent to that date must in that case be exempt. * * * * I regard the freedom of the negro as accomplished and sure.  Why?  Because it is his right—­because he has shown himself fit for it—­because a pretext or a shadow of a pretext can no longer be devised for withholding that right from its possessor.  I know that all men now take a part in the question, and that they will no longer bear to be imposed upon now they are well informed.  My reliance is firm and unflinching upon the great change which I have witnessed—­the education of the people unfettered by party or by sect—­from the beginning of its progress, I may say from the hour of its birth.  Yes; it was not for a humble man like me to assist at royal births with the illustrious prince who condescended to grace the pageant of this opening session, or the great captain and statesman in whose presence I now am proud to speak.  But with that illustrious prince, and with the father of the Queen I assisted at that other birth, more conspicuous still.  With them and with the lord of the house of Russel I watched over its cradle—­I marked its growth—­I rejoiced in its strength—­I witnessed its maturity—­I have been spared to see it ascend the very height of supreme power—­directing the councils of the state—­accelerating every great improvement—­uniting itself with every good work—­propping honorable and useful institutions—­extirpating abuses in all our institutions—­passing the bounds of our dominion, and in the new world, as in the old, proclaiming that freedom is the birthright of man—­that distinction of color gives no title to oppression—­that the chains now loosened must be struck off, and even the marks they have left effaced by the same eternal law of our nature which makes nations the masters of their own destiny, and which in Europe has caused every tyrant’s throne to quake.  But they need to feel no alarm at the progress of right who defend a limited monarchy and support their popular institutions—­who place their chiefest pride not in ruling over slaves, be they white or be they black—­not in protecting the oppressor, but in wearing a constitutional crown, in holding the sword of justice with the hand of mercy, in being the first citizen of a country