the portion which England has in the trade and value of such articles, now become absolutely necessary for the manufacture, the luxuries, and the necessaries of life among the civilized nations of the world.

In the enormous property and traffic thus created in foreign possessions, by the continuance and extension of the slave trade, British merchants and manufacturers are interested in the cause of their lawful trade to a great extent. The remainder is divided among the great civilized nations of the world, maintaining in each very extensive, very powerful, and, as opposed to Great Britain, very formidable commercial and political rival interests.

Further, it is the very extensive and profitable markets which the above-mentioned yearly creation of property give to the manufacturers of foreign countries, that have raised foreign manufactures to their present importance, and which enables these, in numerous instances, to oppose and to rival our own.

The odds, therefore, in agricultural and commercial capital and interest, and consequently in political power and influence, arrayed against the British Tropical possessions are very fearful-SIX TO ONE.

This is a most serious but correct state of things. Alarming as it is to contemplate, still it must be looked at, and looked at with firmness; for even yet it may be considered without terror or alarm.

The struggle, both national and colonial, is clearly therefore most important, and the stake at issue incalculably great.'

We think that no one will doubt, with these facts and statements before him, that Great Britain prosecutes her designs on Texas from motives "purely commercial." Yet how much is embraced in those terms! The grandeur, power, nay, the stability, of all the institutions of Great Britain, depend upon influences "purely commercial!" The experiment of the emancipation of the slaves, held in the British colonies, has not succeeded as Great Britain anticipated. As an economical experiment, it has resulted in a total failure; and Great Britain has taken more than ordinary pains that, as an economical experiment, it should succeed. This was the beneficial "example" she proposed to present to the world. "I explained to our black brethren," says Mr. Gurney, in one of his letters to Mr. Clay, "who flocked from the country to the meeting, how greatly they would promote the cause of emancipation, in other parts of the world, by setting an example of patient industry as cultivators of the soil, and by increasing the staple exports of the island. I ventured to remark, that the eyes of NorthAmerica, in particular, were fixed upon Jamaica, watching the pecuniary as well as the moral result of the great experiment." Doubtless the same considerations have been reiter

ated in every form in which they could be presented—all without avail. The exports have continually declined. The results of emancipation to the negro race have happened precisely as one acquainted with them would have predicted. The Jamaica negroes enjoy themselves more since their emancipation than before. The enjoyment consists in doing nothing. It consists in an unchecked proclivity back again into stupidity, idleness and sensuality. The fertility of the soil enables them to raise a subsistence with but little labor. Their wants are few and simple. They dedicate just labor enough to supply these wants, but the most of their time is spent in frolic and idleness, and in that employment, of all others the most delicious to the negro, basking, half asleep and half awake, in the sun on a cool day. The emancipated Africans of the Spanish settlements, in which they are subject to no degrading influences-where they are treated with kindness and received on terms approaching equality—display these characteristics more emphatically than the same class in the United States. Every where among those settlements they are noted as a quiet, contented, happy, indolent and careless race, without providence, forecast, or a disposition to improve their state, inclined every where to the freest indulgence of their animal passions, and wholly destitute of those restraining virtues which distinguish the Caucasian tribes. We will not say, that there has been any experiment adequate to the full development of the capacities of this people for improvement. The experiments in Hayti, in Jamaica, in the Spanish settlements, or in the United States, among the African freedmen, we are far from considering conclusive tests of their abilities to appreciate and to enjoy freedom. There is no magic in the word, freedom. A people must be fitted for its enjoyment and use by the discipline and the culture of centuries, and climate and government must be suited to their genius. We never anticipated that the Africans, in the West Indies, would display the energy, perseverance and self-control that belong to the European races in our time.

We believe that the advancement of the race, since their connection with the whites, has been progressive, and we cannot but admit the conviction, that, in the course of a series of generations, we shall see them rising to a higher elevation, and, possibly, they may attain the mental and moral stature of the higher orders of the human species. To

reach to this height, ages of growth may be requisite, and the period of immaturity and weakness must be passed under discipline and constraint. The results of emancipation. to the blacks in this country, and to those in Jamaica, furnish no sort of encouragement to the precipitation and haste with which the abolitionists of Great Britain and the United States pursue their plans. On the contrary, they are melancholy dissuasives against these fatal errors. They teach patience and soberness, and warn us, with an awful solemnity, to try no more experiments, with no better lights than we have at present before us. The facts on this subject are noticed with great power by Mr. Walker of the Senate, in his able letter on the subject of Annexation:

"That these are sad realities, is proved by the census of 1840. I annex in an appendix a table marked No. 1, compiled by me entirely from the official returns of the census of 1840, except as to prisons and paupers, which are obtained from city and State returns, and the results are as follows:

"1st. The number of deaf and dumb, blind, idiots, and insane, of the negroes in the non-slaveholding States, is one out of every 96; in the slaveholding States, it is one out of every 672, or seven to one in favor of the slaves in this respect, as compared with the free blacks. "2nd. The number of whites, deaf and dumb, blind, idiots, and insane, in the non-slaveholding States, is one in every 561, being nearly six to one against the free blacks in the same States.

"3d. The number of negroes who are deaf and dumb, blind, idiots, and insane, paupers, and in prison in the non-slaveholding States, is one out of every 6, and in the slaveholding States, one out of every 154; or twenty-two to one against the free blacks, as compared with the slaves.

"4th. Taking the two extremes of North and South, in Maine, the number of negroes returned as deaf and dumb, blind, insane, and idiots, by the census of 1840, is one out of every twelve, and in slaveholding Florida, by the same returns, is one out of every eleven hundred and fifty; or ninety-two to one, in favor of the slaves of Florida, as compared with the free blacks of Maine.

"By the report of the Secretary of State of Massachusetts, (of the 1st November,) to the legislature, there were then in the county jails and houses of correction in that State, 4,020 whites, and 364 negroes; and adding the previous returns of the State prison 255 whites and 32 blacks; making in all 4275 whites, and 396 free blacks; being one out of every one hundred and seventy of the white, and one out of every twenty-one of the free black population; and by the official returns of the census of 1840, and their own official returns to their own Legislature, one out of every thirteen of the free blacks of Massachusetts was either deaf and dumb, blind, idiot, or insane, or in prisonthus proving a degree of debasement and misery, on the part of the colored race, in that truly great State, which is appalling. In the last VOL. VI. NO. 12.

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official report to the Legislature of the warden of the Penitentiary of Eastern Pennsylvania, he says, 'The whole number of prisoners received from the opening of the institution, (October 25, 1829,) to January 1, 1843, is 1622; of these 1004 were white males, 533 colored males; 27 white females and 58 colored females;' or one out of every 847 of the white, and one out of every 64 of the negro population; and of the white female convicts, one out of every 16,288; and of the colored female convicts, one out of every 349 in one prison, showing a degree of guilt and debasement on the part of the colored females, revolting and unparalleled. When such is the debasement of the colored females, far exceeding even that of the white females in the most corrupt cities of Europe, extending, too, throughout one-half the limits of a great State, we may begin to form some idea of the dreadful condition of the free blacks, and how much worse it is than that of the slaves, whom we are asked to liberate and consign to a similar condition of guilt and misery. Where, too, are these examples ?— The first is in the great State of Massachusetts, that, for 64 years, has never had a slave, and whose free black population, being 5,463 in 1790, and but 8,669 at present, is nearly the same free negro population, and their descendants, whom for more than half a century she has strived, but strived in vain, to elevate in rank and comfort and morals. The other example is the Eastern half of the great State of Pennsylvania, including Philadelphia, and the Quakers of the State, who, with an industry and humanity that never tired, and a charity that spared not time or money, have exerted every effort to improve the morals, and better the condition of their free black population. But where are the great results? Let the census and the reports of the prisons answer. Worse-incomparably worse, than the condition of the slaves, and demonstrating that the free black, in the midst of his friends in the North, is sinking lower every day in the scale of want and crime and misery. The regular physician's report and review, published in 1840, says, the facts, then, show an increasing disproportionate number of colored prisoners in the Eastern penitentiary. In contrasting the condition, for the same year, of the penitentiaries of all the non-slaveholding States, as compared with all the slaveholding States in which returns are made, I find the number of free blacks is fifty four to one, as compared with the slaves, in proportion to population, who are incarcerated in these prisons. There are no paupers among the slaves, whilst in the non-slaveholding States great is the number of colored paupers.

"From the Belgian statistics, compiled by Mr. Quetelet, the distinguished Secretary of the Royal Academy of Brussels, it appears that in Belgium the number of deaf and dumb was one out of every 2,180 persons; in Great Britain, one out of every 1,539; in Italy, one out of every 1,539; and in Europe, one out of every 1,474. Of the blind, one out of every 1,009 in Belgium; one out of every 800 in Prussia; one out of every 1,600 in France; and one out of every 1,666, in Saxony; and no further returns, as to the blind, are given.[Belgian Annuaire, 1836, pages 213, 215, 217.] But the table shows an average in Europe of one out of every 1,474 of deaf and dumb, and of about one out of every 1,000 of blind; whereas, our census shows, of the deaf and dumb whites of the Union, one out of every

2,193; and of the blacks in the non-slaveholing States, one out of every 656; also, of the blind, one out of every 2,821 of the whites of the Union, and one out of every 516 of the blacks in the non-slaveholding States. Thus we have not only shown the condition of the blacks of the non-slaveholding States to be far worse than that of the slaves of the South, but also far worse than the condition of the people of Europe, deplorable as that may be. It has been heretofore shown, that the free blacks in the non-slaveholding States were becoming, in an augmented proportion, more debased in morals, as they increased in numbers, and the same proposition is true in other respects. Thus, by the census of 1830, the number of deaf and dumb of the free blacks of the non-slaveholding States, was one out of every 996; and of blind, one out of every 893; whereas we have seen, by the census of 1840, the number of free blacks, deaf and dumb, in the nonslaveholding States, was one out of every 656; and of blind, one out of every 516. In the last ten years, then, the alarming fact is proved, that the proportionate number of free black deaf and dumb, and also of blind, has increased about fifty per cent. No statement, as to the insane or idiots, is given in the census of 1830.

"Let us now examine the future increase of free blacks in the States adjoining the slaveholding States, if Texas is not re-annexed to the Union. By the census of 1790, the number of free blacks in the States, (adding New-York) adjoining the slaveholding States, was 13,953. In the States (adding New-York) adjacent to the slaveholding States, the number of free blacks, by the census of 1840, was 148,107; being an aggregate increase of nearly eleven to one in New-York, NewJersey, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana and Illinois. Now, by the census and table above given, the aggregate number of free blacks who were deaf and dumb, blind, idiot, or insane, paupers, or in prisons, in the non-slaveholding States, was 26,342, or one in every six of the whole number. Now, if the free black population should increase in the same ratio, in the aggregate, in New-York, New-Jersey, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois, from 1840 to 1890, as it did from 1790 to 1840, the aggregate free black population in these six States would be, in 1890, 1,600,000; in 1865, 800,000; in 1853, 400,000; and the aggregate number in these six States of free blacks, according to the present proportion, who would then be deaf and dumb, blind, idiot, or insane, paupers, or in prison, would be, in 1890, 266,666; in 1865, 133,333; and in 1853, 66,666; being, as we have seen, one-sixth of the whole number. Now, if the annual cost of supporting these free blacks in these asylums, and other houses, including the interest on the sums expended in their erection, and for annual repairs, and the money disbursed for the arrest, trial, conviction, and transportation of the criminals, amounted to fifty dollars for each, the annual tax on the people of these six States, on account of these free blacks, would be, in 1890, $13,333,200; in 1865, $6,666,600; and in 1853, $3,333,300."

The Southern States of the Union have been engaged, for the last fifteen years, in an incessant conflict for the security of their rights of property, and in the defence of their national character, Their statesmen have been hindered by