longer the compulsion of circumstance, but, in its place, there is that of the master. If in Alabama, as in England, a negro must either work or starve, he would require no overseer. In Barbadoes, where density of population, and the occupation of every inch of ground, enforces industry, the free black produces as much sugar as in the days of slavery. In Jamaica, where a vast unoccupied district, the whole centre of the island, afforded room to squat, to plant a dozen bananas and the roots of a few yams, and then bask in the sun, this compulsion of circumstance was absent, and the effect was soon apparent when the negro was no longer compelled to work. On reflection, we shall see that compulsion is not confined to the labour of the slave, but is the real source of physical labour in all countries, although the form of its action may be different.

That the condition of the slave in the South is not one of suffering and hardship, may be seen by the following evidence. When the growth of population in the North is corrected, for a just comparison, by abstracting the effects of immigration, it will be found that the ratio of natural increase is greater amongst the slaves than that of the free people of the North. The ordinary rule

is the reverse of this; for the human race is more prolific in temperate than in tropical climates. Africa, the home of the negro, is very thinly peopled throughout. In the North, too, abundance of food, and of employment, and of fertile land still

unoccupied-the entire absence of the usual impediments to marriage-all circumstances combine to insure the greatest increase of population. In spite of this, an analysis of the census returns for the last eighty years shows a greater ratio of increase on the side of the negro race.' 12 It cannot reasonably be supposed that this could occur amidst an ill-used or overtaxed people. And the physical condition and habits of the negro speak for themselves. They are a stronger and better developed race than the operative classes of Europe. The men are robust, healthy, and sleek. A thin, careworn negro is common enough amongst the free blacks, but very rarely to be seen as a slave. Their conversation and domestic habits are cheerful. They are fond of singing, and dancing of a very energetic description. Frederika Bremer, no advocate of slavery, observes on this point "They are the life and the good humour of the South."

Against this it must be considered, that although there may be a large amount of material comfort --although, indeed, the condition of the slave, as a whole, may contrast advantageously with that of several classes of European labour, as far as mere animal life is concerned, still that he is debased as a man, and that even the very gaiety of his disposition may be a proof of this. It is indeed the true objection to this deplorable system, that it ignores the real nature of man, the exist

12 See Notes in Appendix.

ence, in the words of Sallust, of two natures, "of which the one is common to us with the gods, the other with the beasts," and that it selects to obliterate and deny the nobler of the two. But although slavery must inevitably be debasing to the intellectual being of man, the popular impression of the extent of this influence is greatly exaggerated. The amount of degradation resulting from any cause must be limited by the height from which there was room to fall. The intellectual condition of the slave can hardly be said to have fallen from that of his race in Africa. He was there a pagan slave, he is now a Christian slave. It differs also in no appreciable degree from that of the free black in the North. Strange as it may sound, the term "free nigger" is frequently used by the slaves as an expression of pity and contempt.

Why, we know not, but we do know as a fact, that Nature has ordained a difference in the mental powers of man, as marked and ineradicable as any of the physical distinctions of race. In theory, we may call every man a brother; but, as a reality, take the Esquimaux, or the Australian, and work the theory out. The Australian is of all human beings the most entirely unshackled by restraint. He commands freedom in its widest range. No slavery has ever debased him,-the name of it he never heard. Yet what is the mind of the Australian savage? Will all the culture of Europe raise it to our level? How many efforts have been made to elevate it, and with

what result? There is the New Zealander, by far less free - nay, with slavery as an institution amongst his people, in many respects as savage, cannibals but one generation ago. Yet how entirely different in mental power. The one full of noble and generous sentiments, of apt intelligence, with a keen sense of honour; the other as incapable of such feelings, as impervious to them, as if he were altogether a thing of ill-coloured clay, hideously fashioned into human form.

And these races, differing so radically in mental capacity, are in the same latitude, nearest neighbours to each other. If between them there is so indisputable a mental difference, how much easier is it to comprehend its existence in the instance of a race, denizens of the equatorial region of Africa, when compared with the people of. temperate Europe. Had the negro possessed the powers of the European mind, his country would not have remained to this day without the rudest monuments of art. What indeed has prevented him from rising even to the civilization of the Arab? And why should we attempt to reason away the fact, or receive it with impatience? The mind of the negro may be improved and instructed, but it cannot be raised to the level of the European. When we see throughout Nature a prevailing law of variety, in all things-in animal instinct-in the intelligence of individual men-why assume that there should be uniformity in the mental power allotted to different races of men?

The

mind of the negro avoids reflection on the past, abstains from investigating the future; he improves nothing that is old, he invents nothing that is new, he discovers nothing unknown. We are not speaking of those of mixed descent, but of the pure race; and wherever it is found, in Africa or America, these will be found as characteristics. Perception of this would save much benevolence from being led astray. We imagine the slave to possess and groan under the feelings that would be ours, if reduced to his condition. In reality, as a rule, he knows nothing of these feelings. It is just as natural to him to be a slave as it would be monstrous to us. The great majority, if their freedom were offered to them, would look upon it as a proposal to go out and starve. He was born to it, brought up to it; he has no traditions of the past to sadden it-it is the ordinary routine, the every-day condition of things around him. He tasks his fellow-slaves, when appointed over them, with a peculiar severity. He despises the white man who has no slaves. He would have plenty, and of his own race too, if he could. He has no more idea of questioning the justice or propriety of the matter than of inquiring why night follows day. We create imaginary feelings, of which he knows nothing, and sympathise with sorrows that are not really in his breast, but in our own.

We venture to express these perhaps unpopular opinions of the general state of the facts, after personal observation in our own Colonies, as well