of that superstition, which is a great religion degenerated, wherein the same. dogmas are still repeated; but on Tuesday night the modern anti-slavery men came down to ask the House of Commons to believe that the true remedy is to be found, not in countenancing immigration into countries were slavery exists, but in augmenting the working population in countries in which slavery has been abolished;' and 'that the failure has mainly arisen from our having endeavored almost exclusively to prevent the supply of slaves instead of to check the demand for them.' At last we are condescending to reason upon slavery and the slave trade as we reason upon other human affairs. At last we are coming down from our high notions of destroying anything we do not like by the sword and the cannon-shot-although there are some fanatics, as the debate showed, who still lean upon these means--and are intent upon humbling ourselves to the commonplace notion that the best way of destroying an objectionable system of labor is to undersell it. Africa, populous as it is, is not so populous as China, nor is it so populous as the coast of India. Africa, necessitous as the people may be, is not so necessitous as the Far East. There we have a hungry civilization which may be molded to our purposes by good treatment more cheaply than the savagery of Africa can be oppressed by coercion. Both in India and in China we have the materials for a competition which may render the slave trade an extinct, because an unprofitable, traffic. The old anti-slavery party will probably for some time still oppose all white emigration, unless it should compel their free black protégés to work by the competition that emigration must create in the labor market; but we are happily getting beyond this stage of folly, and are learning to look upon this subject with the eyes of common sense. We have a treaty with China which enables us to carry to the West not only Chinomen but their families. We have behaved so well to them that we have gained their confidence. While other nations may kidnap them by tens, we can obtain volunteers by thousands; and if our laws are observed, and our shipowners and planters are honest, we are not far from the period when we may see the prosperity of our West India colonies restored, and the slave trade extinguished without a cruiser or a fort on the coast of Africa, and without the sacrifice of even another million from the British treasury."

There are some remarkable points in the preceding article from the London Times. Its confession and self-abasement for the national sin of slavery, is perfectly just and proper. There are several other confessions and acknowledgments particularly pertinent to our facts and line of argument. For example: "Great as we are, we are not powerful enough to coerce the world. Strong as we are, we must submit to the laws which universally influence human conduct." The true interpretation of this, we believe, is: Almighty as we consider ourselves, we have made a slight mistake in our aboli

tion policy, and now we had better be regulated by the laws of God.

We accord with the entire article, except in that highwrought picture of national frenzy arising from remorse for the sins of a past generation, and the attempt to clothe the present with a very gaudy robe of self-righteousness. We consider all that a very pretty piece of romance, thrown in by the romantic writer to relieve the dark picture.

But impartial, matter-of-fact history must exhibit the policy of England in abolishing slavery and the slave trade, as a mixture of one-third fanaticism, and two-thirds pure selfishness. When the English abolished slavery, does any one believe they ever dreamed that the act would starve the colonists and cause their "West India possession to return to jungle?" to use the expression of the "London Times." No; the English thought their own fair possessions would bloom and prosper with free negroes, while those of others, remaining under slavery, would return to jungle. In all this matter, the fanatics worked upon the disposition of English statesmen to leave no means untried to prevent the extension of American interest and influence. From 1783, to within ten years, this feeling of jealousy on the part of England has ever been prominent in English councils. The idea that in abolishing the slave trade and liberating the negro slaves in her West India colonies, American interests would receive a heavy blow, was the deepest and strongest motive England had for so doing. It was but the reflex of the idea entertained by the French Jacobin convention of 1794, of the effect the liberation of the negro slaves in the French West India colonies, would have on England.

We are surprised that in this enlightened age, any sound writer should so naively assert that any generation of Englishmen was ever aroused to a frenzy of remorse for the crimes of the previous generation. The toughness of national consciences is too well understood in these days, to admit of any such millennial idea. While we fully appreciate the several noble qualities found in the English character,

we are among those who doubt whether the phantom of a negro ever troubled the digestion or the slumbers of Englishmen, individually or collectively.

66

FRENCH WEST INDIES.

Lançons la liberté dans les colonies; c'est aujourd'hui que l'anglais est mort!" thundered forth DANTON in the French convention of 1794. The Jacobin agitation of the idea of thrusting liberty into the blacks of the French colonies, in 1794-equivalent to the abolitionism of our day-caused the blacks in the French island of St. Domingo to thrust the knife into the whites, their masters. At that period there were more negro slaves in the French than in the English. colonies, and such were the peculiar relations then existing between France and England, and their relative positions, that the Jacobin idea of giving immediate freedom to negro slaves in the French colonies, was based mainly on the opinion that the éclat of the act, the stronger hold it would give France upon her colonies, and the uprising it would cause among the negro slaves in the British colonies, was destined to prove the final blow under which the power of England would succumb to that of France. This policy of the Jacobins was murderous rather than humane, and in the terrible St. Domingo massacre, they were speedily paid back in coin upon which they did not count.

The French convention of 1794 proclaimed the liberty of the blacks in the French colonies, but as soon as NAPOLEON came into power, he annulled this proclamation and caused the blacks to be retained as slaves.

We have already narrated how France abolished the slave trade in 1819.

In 1840 the subject of emancipation in the French colonies was again vigorously agitated. At this time, France had lost her most valuable West India possession, St. Domingo, with other smaller islands; and the negro slaves in her colonies were reduced from nearly 1,000,000 to 250,000. In 1840, the French government (LOUIS PHILIPPE) appointed a commis

sion to inquire into the expediency of abolishing slavery in the colonies, and in 1843, this commission, at the head of which was the Duc de BROGLIE, brought forth a report of immense volume. It covered 3,450 pages, and contained a vast array of information on the expediency of emancipation.

Here the matter rested until March 4th, 1848, when the Provisional Government of the French Republic decreed, that a commission should be instituted by the Provisionary Ministry of Marine, to prepare, in the shortest time possible, an act of immediate emancipation in all the colonies of the republic.

On the 27th April, 1848, the Provisional Government promulgated the decree of emancipation. It commenced with the following preamble:

"

Considering that slavery is a crime against humanity; that in destroying the free will of man, the natural principle of right and justice is suppressed ; that it is a flagrant violation of the republican dogma of liberty, equality, and fraternity."

The decree then says:

"Art. 1. Slavery shall be abolished in all the colonies of French possessions, two months after the promulgation of this decree in each of them.

"The apprenticeship system in Senegal is abolished.

"The buying and selling of slaves is positively and absolutely interdicted. "Art. 5. The National Assembly shall regulate the quota of indemnity due to each of the colonies.

"Art. 6. Colonies purified of slavery shall be represented in the National Assembly."

The National Assembly promulgated the law of indemnity January, 1849.

According to this law, the sum of 6,000,000 francs was decreed to be paid to the colonies pro ratâ, in money, thirty days after its promulgation. Also, the sum of 6,000,000 francs in stock, bearing five per cent. interest, to be divided among the colonies pro ratâ.

The amount of 12,000,000, half cash, and half five per cent. stock, was allotted to the colonies in the following proportions. according to the number of slaves liberated in each, under the decree :

Thus 239,937 negro slaves were liberated, and slavery was abolished in all the French colonies.

DANISH ISLANDS.

CHRISTIAN VIII., King of Denmark, in the year 1847, enacted certain laws for the complete emancipation of all the slaves in the Danish islands of St. Thomas, Santa Cruz, and St. Johns.

From the 28th of July of that year, it was ordered that all children born of those held in bondage should be free; and also that at the end of twelve years, slavery should entirely

cease.

The next year, 1848, the slaves in Santa Cruz broke out in insurrection, under the pressure of which the GovernorGeneral issued a proclamation, in which slavery was immediately abolished, and the negroes declared free.

SWEDISH ISLAND.

Emancipation was proclaimed on the small island of St. Bartholomew, October 9th, 1847.

We have not been able to obtain the exact number of slaves liberated by the French decree of emancipation. This table is based on the fact that 500 francs or one hundred dollars was the amount allowed for each slave liberated. The figures must be very nearly accurate.