of black barbarians, instead of industrious and useful, wellclad and well-fed labourers, with lighter work and more personal comforts than fall to the lot of any other class of farm hands. While the cruel practices connected with the African slave trade during the latter days of its continuance under British authority, and which have since been emulated by the Yankees, cannot be too strongly condemned, it is only just to say that the slave system established on the continent of America by the English has been not only humane, but civilising in its character. The introduction there of women as well as men has been the means of founding a race far superior to that of the native African. The same cannot be said of the course pursued in the Islands, where nearly all the importations were of the male sex, who were frequently worked to death' in order to prevent their becoming a burden and expense in old age upon their masters, who, unlike the slaveowners in the States, have ever been mostly absentees. The coolie system, established to fill up the gap caused by the emancipation of the West Indian negroes, in its practical operations is almost equally iniquitous.

Slavery in the West Indies and on the continent of America has always varied in character. It was the habit of the masters of slave-ships that had a preponderance of males to land their passengers on the Islands, while those that contained a majority of females were discharged on the continent. For many years Nassau, New Providence, was a port of call for slavers; their cargoes were distributed-the males in one direction, the females in another. Negro women and children, for a century and a half, were regularly exported from the Islands to the continent, as remittances to pay for the supply of provisions from Pennsylvania and the other colonies. The reason for this is obvious: there was no employment in the West Indies except for males, and the expense of maintaining women and children there was very great. The very reverse was the case on the continent : the variety of labour introduced from the earliest period gave occupation for both sexes and all ages, and the cheapness of food assisted in the general economy. For these reasons, it has been more profitable to import labour into the West Indies than to raise it. This is evidenced from the fact that, while

1,700,000 slaves were received into the Islands, but a little over one-third, 660,000, were there at the time of emancipation. Had they increased at the same rate as those on the continent of America, it would have taken 500,000,000l. to have settled with their masters; or, if they had decreased in the States— only 350,000 having been delivered there-as they did in the Islands, 4,000,000l. would have been ample to have purchased all the Africans in the South. There is no such thing, as has been charged, as slave-breeding' in the Confederate States. The negroes there increase and multiply' in the same order as the whites. The absurdity of this accusation, which has been principally levelled against Virginia, is most palpable; the augmentation in that State is only at the rate of 1 per cent. per annum against 3 per cent. in the more southern latitudes. A large number of the wealthy citizens of Virginia own plantations in the South-west, whither they have sent their sons, with a portion of their servants, just as the Yankees have been migrating to the North-west. This has given rise to the erroneous impression in regard to slave-breeding.' Ireland might, with equal propriety, be called a labour-breeding' country. In all the Southern States there are stringent laws against the introduction of slaves, unless accompanied by their masters, and even then not for the purpose of sale. There are also laws for the protection of negroes, who have their rights as well as the whites; in fact, the masters merely own the labour of their servants, under restrictions established not only by statutes, but by common sense and force of public opinion.

In the West Indies, negroes were merely articles of merchandise, worked in large numbers upon vast plantations under the care of agents, their owners mostly residing in England; and the great object was to make the yearly income as much as possible. The bountiful productions of a generous soil, in a region of perpetual spring, stimulated avarice to such an extent that no rest was given to the labourer where none was required for the land. An entirely opposite system was inaugurated upon the continent of America, where the changes in climate between summer and winter are very great. The planters there, unlike the rich West Indian proprietors, were generally men of moderate means, who had sought a home in the New World.

The negro, purchased from the slave-ship, wielded his axe side by side with his master in felling the forest round his rude house, and was his companion in his wild hunts through the pathless woods. A mutual danger made them defenders of a common home from the red man and the wild beast. The women were employed in spinning flax, and, in the course of time, cotton. The viñe, the olive, and the silk-worm were all at one time cultivated, as well as tobacco and breadstuffs; this gave a diversity of occupation for both women and men. It has been the habit of the children of the planter and those of the slaves to hunt, fish, and play together. An almost perfect equality exists between the future master and his future servants. This has made slavery in the Southern States a social institution, not maintained and upheld, as it was in the Islands, solely for profit, but it has become part of a general system, a necessity. The relation between the white and black races has always been patriarchal : they stand towards each other as the protector and the protected.

In point of fact, negroes, when in large numbers, are unfit to be their own masters; they need for their happiness and comfort the controlling care of the white race. An example of their degeneracy in a state of freedom occurred in England several generations ago. About the middle of the last century

it was the custom of the fashionable ladies of London to be attended in the streets by slave-pages, who wore brass collars round their necks-a badge of servitude which has never been used in America. These negroes availed themselves of the decision of Lord Mansfield in the Somersett case, 1772, and became freed men. In a short time they were utterly destitute and wandered about the streets; many of them died, and those that remained, 470, were such a nuisance to the people of the metropolis that, through parliamentary aid in 1787, they were sent to Sierra Leone.* The population at that date

These London negroes were the founders of the colony of Sierra Leone; they, however, with a large number of white women of bad character, who were transported to that place at the same time, nearly all died in a very few years. The colony was resettled in 1796 by negroes taken from the Americans during the Revolution, who had resided in the meanwhile in Nova Scotia; their numbers were increased by the 'Maroons,' fugitive and rebellious blacks, captured in the mountains of Jamaica by the aid of blood

was about 900,000: if there were an equivalent number of Africans within its limits now, a similar course would have to be pursued in regard to them. This English incident exemplifies the hostile feeling shown towards the African race in the Northern States of America, where, unlike in the South, they are even refused admission into public conveyances. No one acquainted with the negro character can believe him the equal of the white man. The marks of intellect exhibited by Frederick Douglas and others arise from the white blood that is in their veins; but nature puts a stop to the continuance of such mixture, and mulattoes die out in about three generations. The best authority on this question is M. Pruner Bey, who says

6

The capacity of the negro is limited to imitation. The prevailing impulse is for sensuality and rest. No sooner are the physical wants satisfied than all effort ceases, and the body abandons itself to sexual gratification and rest.

family relations are weak; the husband or father is little con'cerned. Jealousy has only carnal motives, and the fidelity of 'the woman is secured by mechanical contrivances. Drunkenness, gambling, and ornamentation of the body are the most powerful levers in the life of the negro. The whole industry ' is limited to ornaments. Instead of clothing himself, he orna'ments his body. Like certain animals, the negro seems apathetic under pain. The explosion of passions occur when 'least expected, but are not lasting. The temperament of the negro has been called choleric, but it is only so to a certain 'extent. It is a momentary ebullition, followed instantly by hounds; they were first sent to Lower Canada, but, like those in London and Nova Scotia, became such a nuisance that they had to be removed. One of the libels against the South is, that bloodhounds are used to hunt negroes. This misstatement has gained currency in consequence of the practice in Jamaica, Cuba, and other West India Islands.

6

Great Britain agreed, by the seventh article of the Treaty of Peace, to return the negroes that had been sent to Nova Scotia, and to compensate the Americans for those transported to the West Indies and there sold into renewed slavery. But she never fulfilled this portion of her agreement. The Treaty of Ghent, December 24, 1814, contained a similar provision; payment, however, was avoided for the negroes deported during the last war until 1827, although the Emperor of Russia, as Umpire, had some years previously decided the case in favour of the claimants in the States.

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'perfect apathy. Life has for the negro no longer any value when he cannot supply the physical wants; he never resists 'by increased activity, but prefers to die in a state of apathy, or he commits suicide. The negro has no love for war; he is only driven to it by hunger. War, from passion or destruc6 tiveness, is unknown to him.'

Sir Charles Lyell and others contend that the intellectual progress of the negro stops at the age of fourteen. The opinions of these scientific gentlemen, who have made the subject a study, should carry weight with them, and drown out the howling cant and wicked fanaticism of the Abolitionists.

The people of Europe have been greatly deceived as to the true condition of the slaves in the Southern States. Subjected to the supervision of a superior race, they are as much elevated above the position of their ancestors and the present barbarous inhabitants of Africa, in every respect, as they are below the whites. The situation of the slaves differs less from that of the agricultural labourers of some countries in Europe than is generally supposed. As regards morality, and especially the intercourse of the sexes, they present a marked superiority to the free negroes of the Northern States. Notwithstanding the stories of American romance writers, the conjugal obligation is almost universally acknowledged, and every effort is made by the masters to preserve among their slaves the ties of family.