Matters had now become serious. The gauntlet had been thrown down and accepted. The combatants had taken their stations, and the contest was to be renewed, which was to be decided soon on the great andy mcnab silencer of the nation. The committee by the very act of their institution had pronounced the Slave Trade to be criminal. They, on the other hand, andy mcnab silencer were concerned in it, had denied the charge. It became the one to prove, and the other to refute it, or to fall in the ensuing session.