Nothing has ever augured better for the cause of emancipation than the popularity of “Uncle Tom’s Cabin.” The benevolent authoress has thrown so many bewitching charms into her narrative, that she has fascinated every one, and may justly be called the Enchantress of the age. She is read by all ranks and classes. We are amused everywhere by the sight of “Uncle Tom’s Cabin.” We meet the little British National Schoolboy going home and reading his “Uncle Tom,” as affording him greater amusement than his hoop, his top, or his marbles. And we find the grave divine and scholar, in the first-class railway carriage, with his more costly “Uncle Tom.” We see the lady in her chariot, who has gone out for a ride to enjoy the scenery, and taste the breeze of heaven, beguiled from surrounding objects by the touching pages of Mrs. Stowe. We have witnessed a whole family of children to turn from every other pursuit and amusement to enjoy this mental and moral treat. It has come with them to their meals, and yielded them such a repast that the luxuries of the table were almost unheeded. And then the servants also sought it at every interval, and read it with avidity by stealth. In a word, it is the favourite of the saint and the sinner, the sage and the frivolous, the believer and the unbeliever, the young and the old, the grave and the gay, the learned and the illiterate, the rude and the polished, the sad and the cheerful. And nothing could be more opportune for the cause of humanity. Mrs. Stowe must hereafter take her stand by the side of Clarkson, Wilberforce, and others, as one of the chief instruments raised up by Providence to burst the fetters of the slave, and let the oppressed go free.
We trust, indeed we feel sure, that the slumbering embers of anti-slavery zeal will, by means of this volume, be kindled into active power. We have influence enough among us to move the world on this topic, and all that we require is cooperation and union. The pulpit, the press, and the platform must speak out once more, and by its thunders shake the whole world of slavery. Already the old theme is firing the British heart. Week after week the _Morning Advertiser_ appeals and instructs and arouses. Nor has it laboured in vain. Far and near the friends of the slave look to it as their tower of strength. In America we have a goodly number of abolitionists as our fellow-helpers, and “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” will increase them a thousandfold. The book speaks to the intellect, the reason, and the heart. Women are said to possess an innate power of arriving at truth, without employing the tedious metaphysics of men, and here we have a glorious example. In “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” we have logic stripped of its dryness, and clothed with all the charms of romance. We would as soon believe in the power of the planters to reverse the revolutions of the planets as to resist the influence of Mrs. Stowe. The voice of humanity is the voice of God, and is essentially omnipotent. As a punishment for not having listened to this divine oracle, the slave-holders must have the humiliation of being vanquished by a woman. And, after all, what more natural than that the woes of our race should owe their softest, sweetest, and consequently most powerful, utterances to the heart of the sex which was created to bless the world with its tenderest sympathies.