The following letters are the sequence of the correspondence be-

tween Lord Brougham and Mr. Benjamin Smith on the Slavery ques- tion. It would appear from Lord Howick's letter, which Mr. Smith publishes, that Lord Brougham's memory has played him a trick ; but the skilful manner in which he turns the tables on Mr. Smith and Lord Howick is very amusing. There is more than amusement for timeserving Alinisterialists in the prospect for next year !

MR. BENJAMIN SMITH TO LORD BROUGHAM.

" Blantlford Square, June 12, 1939,

'Deer Lord Brougham—It war not my intention to have trouhled you again. Even the claim which you advanced to have known my father better than 1 knew him myself, in deference to the general nod acknowledged accuracy or mir statements and to the old pruvetb, I 511011111 nut have ventured to iniplign; hut that part of my statement with respect to Lord Hve ick which you so flatly hay is so cleat! y substan• hated by the subjoined letter, that you will forgive this second attempt to recall the facts to your recollection.

".. Whitehall Place, June 11, 1839.

• Dear Sir—I perceive that in a letter which Ile has addressed to you, and which has been published in the newspapers, Lord Brougham has thought it necessary to advert to the circumstances under a huh I quitted the situation I helot in the Culooial Office, in the year 1833. How or why 1 dill so is, undoubtedly, as his Lordship oliserves, a very unimportant question ; but as it has been referred to, I a ioh that there sleuthi be no misrepreseutatiou on the subject ; and I therefore beg leave to trouble you with the folio% ifig statement.

• I distinctly resigned the office of Under Secretary of State towards the end of March 1833, lu consequence of a decision or the Cabinet, %%hick ow., communicated to me, to the effect that neither the measure for hue complete ematicipati tttt of the slaves, which Lord Ripon hail submitted to the Committee of the %Vest Itelian proprietors, nor any other measure for the 611Me purpose, could be brought forward without the assent of at least some considemble part of the West Indian body. I did not take the step of declaring that I must leave the ofliee I Own held until I hail tried every means in my power to obtain a reconsideration of this decision. I common'cated a liii sevetal Members of the Government, and amongst others a ith Lord Brongliam. The active part which, before he became Chancellor, lie had taken upou this subject, awl the Irresistible weight %%Inch I fulled his opinion against the measure to have with his col- leagues, made me consider it of peculiar importance to address msself to him. I accordingly wrote to him at great length, stating. a. strongly as I could, the arguntetits which hi my judgment rendered it absulutely necessary that a measure for the aboli- tion of slavery should be brought forward, %%Wenn insisting upon the asitt of the West Indian proprietors in this country, and without attempting to pat the Negroes into some intermediate state between slavery and freedom : I particularly insisted upon the last point, endeavouring to show that any scheme of this sort a ould be open to the greatest objections. Or tins letter no notice was ever taken.

• Fiuding that the decision of the Cabinet was irrevocable, a ilk the opiuions eatertained, I could take no other course but that of declaring that I cootild hold my office only till an arrangement could be made as to the persou by whom I was to be succeethd. This took place, as I have said, at the hitter end ur !starch ; and within a day or two afterwards the seals of the Colonial Department were, for reasons

connected with the question of slavery, transfer' ed from Lord itipou to Lord (awn Mr.) Stanley'. This circumstance etiabled time to allow my retirement to pass in public as a part of this new rangement ; and I gladly olid so, because I thought it i ossible that to consequence of the new arrangement the Government might Mill take a manse of which I could approve upon the subject of 'slavery, :taut because it was tny earnest desire to avoid embatrastiug the Government. even in the slightest degree, by avow Dug my difference from it on a subject of so much interest. While this reason for my silence continued, 1 never meationed in public the real cause el my resignation ; but it any well known to the members of the Gm eminent amid to a few of my friends, and was not lung atlera arils publicly declared by me in the House of Commons, during the discussions upon the measure brought fora ard Ity Loud Stanley, in answer to some oloservations of Mr. P. Stewart. My statement was, at the time, confirmed by Lord Spencer, Own Chancellor of the Exclivirier, as will appear upon referring to the reports of these debates. Having thus ecased to he Cutler Secretary of State in one department, I did not thereupon become to ill another. I remained out of office; mud was tints enabled to oppose a hat I thought objecdonable In the Government measure For the abolition or slaters., in • manlier which, hail I been in office, would have been impossible, anti %%Inch at the time brought upon me, whether deservedly or not, the very general censure or nty friends for undue pertinacity in maintaining my own opinions. It was 111nt until the begitunieg of Jams ars 1834, nine mouths after 1 had lett the Colonial Office, that I was appointed to the shhation of Cutler Secretary in the Home Department, which hail Inatome savant by the lamented death of Mr. George Lamb. The bill fur the abolition of slate.ry bit then been lung passed ; awl as one ut my reasons for so strongly opposing it bad been my conviction that when once it had become law it mould scarcely be poossible for Poo- Bement afterwards to niter it, there was no longer the slightest reason for my nut taking offer under a government At ilh so Well I 1140 no teller difference.

" Such are the rileti as they really °marred, 'tad I lease it to sour joulgtnent how far they correspond a ith the statement of Lord Brougham. upon vs hid. I still make 1,0 remark. I have the honour to be, dear Sir, your very fail lifal Joel obedient sestoit, It, Smith, Esq. M.P." How " I am overjoyed to hear that my anxiety for your health was misplaced; but alit it a being

" Time bog or steep, thro' strait, rongholense, or rare,

With head, bangle. a ings, or feet, pursues his wuy, And swims, or sinks, or stades. or creeps, or dives,"

there is no excess of timidity in fearing that he may catch a cramp.

" I am, my dear Lord, your* wry respectfelly, lit usamix Surrat."

LORD BROUGHAM TO MR. BENJAMIN SMITH.

June 14th,, 1839.

" Dear Mr. II. Smith —I have seen this morning your new iett..r. "r which I should D ot have taken any notice. but for your strange assertion that Loot llowiek's letter ( copy of which forms the hulk of your own) aubstatitiates a port or your former slat,' meat, which 1 bad flatly denied. Your words are • that p.ort f niy statemeut with respect to lord II. which you so flatly deny.' " Now this showa to what a pitch of blindness and mistepresentat ion a respectable Man may be carried by the inftaenee of excited party and persimal feelings—perhaps still farther ruffled by a sense or his own conduct not haville, been it oite atom it ought to have been. It is utterly and notoriously untrue that 1 ever %rialto denied' your statement, or in soy way 'denied it, or *aid any ono word whielt taatiot tat eoustroted into any thing like • &Mai' by any person who could read vs hat 1 had writteu with @elm attention. The Follett-Mg. strange to say, are the expressions which the excited state of lour feelings has Induced you to represent as a via! denial.' " • As for Lord H. leaviug the Colonial Oilier, I conceive yua must hare been onistaant ; for. Sze. '" The fact r had always arippnied to be quite certaitt,' Sze. " Now when you coolly read this you will at once perceive that I spoke entirely upon probabilities, awl used every precaution width Ike language afforded me, to show that I did Ivor flatly deny, or it, any way deny, your statement. " It appears by Lord II.'s letter, that he wrote to tae 'you the subjort of the arrange- ment in the Emancipation Bill, and never received any anawer. The mob obility is that 1 ilia not read his letter, wloielt may appear the less unlikely. and perhap4 the less inexcusable. a hen I add that at the very time in question one of may Secretaries, w:as is still in ulliee ender the present Got ernment, iu a tisl. er to a question pat in a Com- mittee of the !loose of Loris as to the number of letters daily receite I Ity me. 'aura that the nuntber that day was 93. I think my respect for Lord II. would have Ire' vented me front allowing any letter of his to pass unansaered, hail not time pressure of business met-suited me from reading it. "Ills Lordship refers to vi hat passed in the !louse of Commons; but I never till thig moment hail heard or such a word of it. In contetmence of his letter. I hate read the debates. I lied his statement borne out by the fact. and I new 1010W the reason of his resigning. Yon a ill pinball. wind% that 1401 I b tttt to :mare of the/41 I. I never could limar taken the preposterous trouble or arguing the other way upou the probabitity. as in ignorance of the Met I did alien I last wrote to you. " 1 he perusal of the debates has further slum it me, and it is perhaps 50111e consola- tion, tltat if we of Lord Grey 's Cabinet were all itt the a rong . and :ill equal's' so, upon the necessity of apprenticeship, atoll have only lx•oon undeceived by the experience of the last titer sears; and it' Loot I loss ick is nosy found to have been right opon this poito, even lie is subject to the common lot ot' humanity, .1111 is liable to crr like tha rest of us upon ittnalwr import ant qaestion, a hen sue umruuig 11101146 Of the Grey Cabinet Stele quite right ; for he. I perceive, is repie•eute•I as always contendiag that the Negro sould ns mt aork as an indentured, .ipprentiee, and that it %mild ottesee toy ;dome him in the line, mediate 10MP, MItile e 01 the Cabinet never doubted teals his winking and his peaceful demeatiolir meter the imprentice system. How tar lie alit e0111 0111e so after the tat or August next, is quite meaner iltiestion. I still It to his peaceful disposition. but I more than doubt his 170111001illg 10 woo k. That I thought six years too lottg a period, and a blued it to have been made four. milk+ is 011a have trade apprenticeship cease ois the 1st or non August, yew a ill find plainly enough Unlimited by a hat fell !rum me in the Ilause of Lords on Weduesday, August 14th, 1939.

" And now let me beg of yeti to bear with me if I make no complaint of your new quotation from NI ikon, t,u noleconformist, but au eminent and a consisteut one ot former tintea ) nor enter into atoy conflict with sou in sneer, and citation, and wit of all sorts. You are quite welcome to represeut me, and. if son will, all sour lather's other friends who abide by bb and our uu tt principles, as ilia tol ical personages, for so ishiug to destroy negro slavery host. years sooner than ui and y oar associates, the angelic etc:dory* of the Government, %Wale see such infernal criteltles terminated. We must e'en bear at a ell 101 we can the weight (damn heavy hand, atal of your jests, suhieu, to say I he truth, are no laughing 'natter. Oudy do not. I beseech you, be offended it' I atoll asset t the intionate persuasion which all of us reel that your re:pet:nal father a (mid hase been Mond ranged 011 mu side, hail he happily beets alive; and that such men as T Clarkson„

Z. Nlacauley, Ituntoti, end Dr. Luslii agton and the t.'uited Committee or llissenters, of algid' lie (your lathed) sat chairman, are some. bat Leiter jodges of aloft his sea.. Dolmas aolidol hate been, than seat at y lei can pos,ilily be.

" How far the country is sith us, or anti you, a ill soon be seen. Au addition to the Upper llonse of Parliament a ill uecestarily oerasual vacancies in the !dawn The peolde will then has att opportnility of showing their opiiiiial; and able, usdi ..es have helped the Government to defeat us this time. uiuul 10 cootinne the 11011,1S 10 the sy s- tein lor another year, se may perhaps he able ti, tiel;•.11. t Olt uiiftt o'ssionm, and at least to cot or twelve months, if out righteeu, how the sufferings of the undatila awl Ca-

Buoconn."