who can tell how deeply this feeling of infidelity, or at least of scepticism, may have penetrated the hearts of those with whom anti-slavery fanaticism has become a controlling passion? If there are any who are ignorant of the extent to which this sentiment of unbelief is entertained, let him acquaint himself with the proceedings of anti-slavery anniversaries, and note the increasing numbers who openly avow their infidelity.

There is no human engine of good or evil so potent as the clergy-those who are acknowledged as the teachers of religion. In all ages of the world, this influence has been a controlling element among mankind. When it has been worthily directed towards cultivating the feelings of love, and of charity, and forgiveness among men, society has had reason to bless them as benefactors. But when, as has too often been the case, even in the history of our own religion, they have been instrumental in producing strife and discord and heartburnings, and misery, and bloodshed, society has had cause to regret that influence which their sacred calling secured for them.

It is not for me to judge of the motives of those who have contributed so powerfully towards building up that mountain of hatred, which may be said now to be common to a great number of the citizens of both sections of the American Union. Least of all

could I say that those motives have not had their origin in a benevolent purpose. The zeal to do good often degenerates into a fanaticism which results in nothing but evil. Fanaticism begets a reverse fanaticism, and to the eye of the disinterested spectator, or to him who beholds from a distance that which is transpiring, the acts of all appear as the acts of madmen.

We cannot but remember that the same sources of discord have existed since the foundation of the Union, and we should likewise bear in mind, that they will exist as long as the Confederation endures! We know that good-will at least, if not congeniality, did once prevail between the different members of the Confederacy, and why may it not exist again? If the clergymen of the entire North would resolve that, for twelve short months, they would preach nothing but Christ, and teach nothing but that which He taught: if they would, in good faith, call upon their congregations to exercise toward all mankind charity and love: if they would denounce, in the spirit of the apostles, the sins which they denounced, who can estimate the amount of good which that one year might bring forth? What a noble field is here presented in which to exercise the duties of a noble calling! How much of wretchedness, and misery, and wickedness, aye, perhaps of bitter strife and bloodshed, they might avert!

LETTER XIII.

Present Attitude of Parties in the United States-Success of the Republican Party will accomplish Disunion-Its Measures examined, &c.

In the preceding letters I have endeavoured to present a brief view of the origin, progress, and developement of the institution of slavery in the Southern States of the American Confederacy. Although I may not hope that the facts I have stated will change the fixed opinions or convictions or long-cherished prejudices of anyone, yet I trust they will not be altogether without influence in directing the attention of true Americans to the importance which attaches throughout the civilised world to the productions of slave labour, as elements in the wealth and power of nations. I am convinced that such an investigation will lead the dispassionate observer to the conclusion that, if the Southern States are blinded by their passions to the evils of slavery,' the Anti-slavery party of Europe is not blind to the disastrous effects which its destruction would entail upon the material prosperity of America. That there should be a party in the United States, formidable as to numbers and respectability, co

operating with these in the accomplishment of such a result, either by the force of circumstances or a common sentiment, is well calculated to excite the wonder of mankind. That this party should be sufficiently formidable to present a candidate for the Presidency, with a strong probability of success, founded upon the common action of all the Free States of the Confederacy, and that such should be the issue, and the only avowed issue in such a contest, is a startling fact, the importance of which cannot be over estimated, because it strikes at the very foundation of the compact upon which the Confederacy has been erected.

The subject of slavery, as a question of morals, or political economy, or expediency, or abstract right and wrong, is one which, like all others that affect the interests or passions of men, may be a subject of legitimate discussion, about which mankind may differ, as upon other questions in which the interests of the human family may be involved. The Southern States may naturally seek to remove the prejudices against them, which artful enemies have succeeded in exciting. They may be willing to present their cause at the bar of an enlightened public opinion, as an individual may seek to remove unfounded imputations against his honour or integrity. But the South does not mean thereby to admit that the other States of the Confederacy

have any right to vote away the political privileges which they claim to have inherited from the founders of the Government, and over which they retained entire sovereignty when delegating certain powers to the general Government.

America has just the same right, if she possessed the power, to subvert the internal laws and customs of England, as the Northern States have to modify, or alter, or in any manner to interfere with, the domestic institutions of the Slave States. All the citizens of the Republic beyond the limits of the Slave States may believe that slavery is a wrong and a sin in the sight of God and man. They may believe that it was a virtue in Europe to establish an institution which it is a crime in the Southern States any longer to tolerate; yet whatever may be their opinions upon the abstract merits of the controversy, or upon the morality or expediency of slave labour, there exists no other external authority than that of violence for any interference with the domestic institutions of the Southern States. This can only be accomplished by illegal means, and would be an act of revolution, which would release the South from the compact of Union.

Do a majority of the citizens of the Free States desire to dissolve the political bonds which unite the Confederacy, or to reorganise the Union upon a