CHAP. XXXV.

Leave Columbus for Macon-Outbreak of public feeling at Talbotton-Arrival at Macon-Narrow escape from being tarred and feathered-Conduct of the Macon mob to an AbolitionistRoad from Macon to Milledgeville-Great political convention Reduction of the legislators to one-half their number Journey to Warrenton-Pleasure of meeting countrymen abroad -Journey to Augusta-Illness and detention there-Anecdotes of religious society - Nice distinctions respecting the sin of dancing-Religious revivals in Georgia and Carolina.

AFTER being detained longer than we wished, from the difficulty of getting conveyances for Macon, we considered ourselves fortunate in being at length released from our confinement at Columbus. On our first passing this way to the South, there were three lines of public stages in competition with each other; and then, every facility was afforded to the traveller. Since then, one had been given up; and the other had been bought off, so that there was now only one line running, and it made the most of its monopoly. The proprietors being the only persons having horses or coaches, would not let an extra or private conveyance to any one, but preferred keeping them at the hotel till their regular stage-coach should have vacancies, and then they were taken up to fill them. This was our case; we could get no extra, or private conveyance of any kind, and were kept at the hotel for several days, while the coach went through full. The first vacancy that offered was, when there were

places for two; and our party, consisting of four, were crammed into the coach against the will of the others occupying it; as there was but barely room for nine, yet we were obliged to ride with eleven inside; but there was no remedy, the monopolists having all power in their hands. Besides this excess of numbers, we were overladen with baggage; and an arbitrary charge was made of forty dollars for our fare, and thirty dollars for our baggage; to which, for the same reason, we were obliged to submit.

We left Columbus on the morning of Monday May 13, and though we were crowded most inconveniently, and had not a single interesting fellowpassenger in all the group, we were heartily glad to escape. The day was unusually hot, and the roads so dusty as to keep us continually enveloped in a thick cloud, with every now and then some accident to the coach from its being so overladen, which obliged us to get out, and assist to repair the injury. The rails or fences of the roads were liberally used for this purpose; and it was fortunate that a supply of props, levers, and posts, was thus so near at hand.

It was about four o'clock when we reached Talbotton, where the whole community were agitated by a recent occurrence, which is strikingly characteristic of the state of society in these parts, and of the manner in which the people take the law into their own hands. It appears that there was a lady who had been settled for a few months as a teacher of music at Talbotton, but not having obtained many pupils, she had contracted more debts than she could pay, and went on to Columbus to seek better fortune there. At this place, she wished to hire or rent a house, but the

ABOLITION--AND TEMPERANCE.

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owner would not let it without some guarantee for the payment of the rent; and some resident of Talbotton became her security for this. As it was not paid, however, in due time, and as other debts were also unliquidated, the lady was arrested at Columbus by process of law. This, the inhabitants of Talbotton chose to interpret as an insult to their town, from whence she had come; and accordingly, a large number of the young men of Talbotton mounted their horses, armed themselves with weapons, and rode off to Columbus, where they effected her release, and assumed such an attitude that it was thought at one time, nothing short of a civil war between the two towns must follow. It had gradually cooled down, however, into a state of peace; but no legal authorities interfered to stay the proceedings of these young cavaliers, who carried their point, and made what they called " public opinion" completely triumph over the laws.

The night was as disagreeably cold, as the day was inconveniently hot; and from the impossibility of keeping out the drafts and currents of air, which rushed in at all the many openings that an American stage presents, we suffered much during the twentysix hours, which it took to perform the distance of ninety miles to Macon.

There were two subjects, on which my opinions were sufficiently well known to make me obnoxious to two large classes of American citizens, and especially those of the South. The part I had taken in the British Parliament, in favour of the Abolition of Slavery in our West India possessions, was well known to every one who read the public jour

nals; and this was enough to occasion me to be classed with the hated yet dreaded class of the Abolitionists. The part I had taken both in England and in this country, in the war against Intemperance, was equally well known to all classes; and this made me particularly obnoxious to all tavern-keepers, gamblers, frequenters of bar-rooms and grog-shops, and to cause me to be denounced as a Temperance Fanatic. And as in all these newly settled towns, like Columbus, Macon, and others of recent date, there are large numbers of reckless men ready for any riot or outrage, it is quite probable that if the least opportunity had been offered to them, they would have had great pleasure in making me their victim.

My servant indeed, overheard some half-drunken men around the door of one of the bar-rooms exulting in the idea of a probable "tarring and feathering," and recounting with great glee a feat lately performed on some stranger suspected by them of being an Abolitionist, whom they dragged from his bedroom, placed astride on a rail, carried him in mock-triumph through the town in this plight, and ended the penance by ducking him in a neighbouring swamp! This story was afterwards confirmed to us by some of the most respectable inhabitants of the town, who assured us, that though they felt indignant at such conduct, and would willingly have prevented its occurrence, or secured the injured party redress, they could do neither without endangering their own lives and properties, so entirely could these reckless ruffians get and keep command of the town. As it was the season when the low gamblers and pickpockets come up from New Orleans and the

South, for the spring and summer months, the town was thought to be more than usually full of them, and it was therefore deemed best to remain quiet, and do nothing to provoke an outbreak, which if once roused, could not be so easily resisted or subdued.

It is worthy of remark, that when these parties were asked, as several of them were, what was the ground of their objection to me, not one stated the true cause, namely, my being hostile to Slavery, and friendly to Temperance, but one urged the fact of my "being an Englishman ;" another said, I had "offered an insult to the country by saying that the Broadway of New York, though a noble street, was not so grand an avenue as the principal street of the ancient city of Alexandria ;" and a third added, that I had "insulted the national character, by saying that the Bunker-hill monument at Boston, was not to be compared for size with the great pyramid of Egypt!" Such were the various pretexts which were alleged, instead of the real causes of offence; but the vindictiveness of the complainers, if once put into action, would not have been the less summary or less severe on that account.

Happily all was avoided, as on the morning of Thursday, the 16th of May, we obtained an extra coach for our journey forward to Milledgeville; and being provided by our kind friends with many comforts for the way, we left Macon about ten o'clock, agreeing to pay fifty dollars for the journey of thirty miles; the regular stage-fare being only twelve dollars for four persons, of which our party consisted. But the coach-monopoly continued in the same hands