their masters, from the impossibility of procuring free labourers to perform the work in which the slaves are now employed. This would probably be the argument of a slave-holder, conscious in some degree of the injustice of slavery, but attempting its defence upon the ground of expediency. Mr. Achille Murat would probably give a different reason, and appeal to the original principles upon which society is framed to justify a conduct which is opposed to every principle recognized by civilized man.— With him and his arguments we shall not,how. ever, here trouble ourselves. But is there any foundation for the argument we have above supposed: and if so, how are we to account for the apparent anomaly? We believe the argument to be well founded, and will, as a necessary prelude to any just conceptions of the prospects of slavery in the United States, offer some thoughts for the purpose of explaining how it has arisen.

The chief productions of the slave-states of America, and indeed the chief exportable productions of the Union, are cotton, rice, and tobacco. The cultivation of these articles, and more especially of the two former, requires the united labours of many persons for a continued period, and, in particular, that at the time in which they are gathered, the cultivator should be able to ensure the necessary supply of labourers. In this respect they differ from corn, the chief produce of the free states, which, on the new lands of the Union, may be cultivated by comparatively few hands, and is, in fact, very frequently raised and gathered by the proprietor of the soil, and his family, without any assistance from hired labourers. The articles which we have mentioned above, on the contrary, could scarcely be cultivated with any profit without the combination of many persons at the same time on the same work. This combination can never be obtained with certainty in any part of America but the slave-states, and there only through the medium of slavery. Whatever may be assigned as the reason, there can be no doubt of the fact, that in the States there is no class of field-labourers

See the book of this gentleman on America,

in which he attempts to place the right which the whites have to their slaves, upon the same ground as that which man may have to the service of the brutes, namely, superior force and skill; forgetting, apparently, that the negro being a man, is capable of becoming a member of the state, and is entitled

to the protection of the laws, or, if not, that then any person stronger and wiser than Mr. Achille Murat would be justified in reducing him to slavery, and calling upon his fellows to punish any attempt which the latter might make to recover his freedom. If Mr. Murat be right, there is no law but that of the strongest.

for hire, whose services can be relied upon with certainty, at any particular period, to perform any given work; and the natural and necessary result has been, that the cultivation of all articles which require the union of many hands at any particular period, or for a continuance, is confined almost entirely to the slave-states. This fact, of the non-existence in America, of a labouring class has been frequently noticed, and has been referred by different writers to almost as many different causes: by one, to the influence of democratic institutions; by another, to the want of an established church; by another, again, to the absence of any such feeling as loyalty. By almost every one, to causes either wholly unconnected with, or inadequate to the effect. It is only within a very few years, that what appears to us to be the cause of this other. wise inexplicable circumstance, has been announced, the facility with which land may be acquired by every free member of the States, and the constant tendency, thus created, for every one to withdraw himself from the class of labourers, and to become a landholder. In this circumstance, when traced out to its consequences, will be found an explanation of almost all those peculiarities in the social condition of America, which distinguish her from the free states of antiquity, and the republics of the middle ages, no less than from the aristocratic land of her fathers. To this, among other results, it has been owing, that republicanism has been disfigured by many unseemly exhibitions of violence; that an unnatural desire for an equality, which should rather abase the exalted than elevate the depressed, has arisen among them : and worst of all, that slavery has been rendered the chief stay of American wealth and civilization.

In order to ascertain how this last result is produced, let us endeavour to trace what would be the effects of emancipation, under the most favourable circumstances, for the happiness of the negroes and the security of their masters. Let us imagine that by education the former had been raised to a level with the free inhabitants of the States in intellect and industry;-that they were prepared at once to take their place as citizens and workmen, on a level with their present superiors. It is obvious that the effects of this would be same as would be produced by the creation of an equivalent number of whites, who should have no other means of procuring subsistence, but by the produce of their labour. Upon this supposition, there would be no difficulty from any imagined unwillingness or incom

petency to work, arising either from an e indifference to comforts, or a want of the necessary powers of mind, and habits of action. The Americans would thus have converted two millions of enemies into friends and fellow-citizens; would have obtained willing and efficient, instead of insubordinate and careless workmen, and would thus so far have contributed to the wealth and strength of the Union. This is the bright side of the picture, and this would, undoubtedly, be the immediate result. But let us look a little farther. Let us suppose a few years to have elapsed, and then view their condition. The price of waste land in America is five shillings per acre, and the ordinary rate of wages from four to six shillings a day. With these wages, and the low price of provisions in that country, a labourer can, in three years, without any perceptible self-denial save the price of one hundred acres of land. We have supposed in the negro the exist ence of the qualities which would enable him to save the requisite sum, and, as he would be susceptible of the same influences as the whites, we may presume that his conduct, in similar circumstances, would be the same as theirs. He would then save from his wages the necessary amount, would purchase with his savings a small block of land; and there he would settle himself, to derive his subsistence from the labour of himself and his family; directed to the production of such articles as can be raised with the greatest facility, and by the least expenditure of labour. Instead of forming one of a number of labourers, whose combined efforts were directed to the production of one article which might be exchanged for every article of necessity or desire; he would be a solitary individual, labouring by himself to produce as many articles as possible, in order to compensate for his inability to raise a sufficient quantity of exchangeable produce to procure these articles from others. But when this time had arrived, when the whole negro population had worked out their independence: when they had changed, we will not say, raised their condition from labourers for hire to labourers on their own property, what would be the condition of their present employers? The whole of the fixed capital which they may possess in buildings and machinery of every description, for the purpose of clearing the cotton, or preparing it for market, and for all the various operations performed on the articles now raised, in order to prepare them for exportation, would be useless: their property in land would proportionably fall in value,

and they themselves would sink to the condition to which the negroes would have raised themselves; nay, far lower for the existence of slavery has destroyed among them those qualities which we have supposed the negro to possess. But this is only a portion of the result.-Considerably more than one-half of the exports of the Union is the produce of the slave-states, and it is, of course, by this, that more than one-half of their imports is purchased. To this extent, then, would the commerce of the Americans be reduced, and the employment for their merchants and seamen be diminished by emancipation. But even this is not the whole. The greater part of the surplus food raised in the free states is employed in feeding the population of the slave states, or the manufacturers of whose goods the slave states are considerable consumers. But when the state which we have anticipated had arrived, the first care of every holder of land would be to raise food, and manufacture his own clothing, as he could not then raise any of the articles with which food and manufactures are now purchased. To this extent, therefore, would the markets, and consequently the industry, of the free states, be lessened, and their comforts reduced.

With regard

There are two objections which may be urged to this statement.-One to the fact, and the other to the argument, which we might be supposed to have intended to involve in it. The former would be,That if, as we have assumed, it were for the general good, that the negroes should, after their emancipation continue to combine their labour, they would, under the circumstances of intelligence supposed, actually so continue. And the latter, that if they should not, this can form no argument against their emancipation. to the latter,-it is at once conceded, that these circumstances form no valid objection against the justice of their claim to freedom; nor could we be ever for a moment supposed to have urged them with this view; but, upon the probability of this claim being allowed, it does exercise a most important influence, and it should therefore, in any practical inquiry, occupy a prominent place. The former demands a mere detailed investigation, as it does at first sight appear to offer a complete answer to all the difficulties which we have supposed the low price of land to throw in the way of emancipation.

We may first observe, that the only question which can arise is the expediency of procuring the combination of labour. There can be no doubt of the fact, that,

while the present price of land continues, it can be obtained only by means of slavery. Of this the present condition of the free states of the Union is an immediate and direct proof. Among them, no extended combination of labour for agricultural operation can be obtained. Among them, therefore, none of the articles which require such combination can be raised. If this were not the case, why do they not, by means of the superior advantages of free labour, cultivate some of the articles to which we have referred. Their soil and climate are fitted for rice and tobacco, and in some cases for cotton,-but none of these are raised. Every one, on the contrary, prefer being the owner of a small quantity of land, of which he cultivates, perhaps a tenth, or even a less proportion; though by this he probably obtains a smaller amount of the comforts and conveniences of life, than he might do if a labourer for hire. We have here, therefore, a proof of the fact which we have supposed; the only question consequently is, whether this state of things may not be more advantageous and whether this be not the fact proved by the very conduct of the Americans in adopting it.

And this inquiry is by no means idle or superfluous. If there be really any difficulty in the way of the emancipation of the negroes, arising from any peculiarity in the social policy of the Americans; the cause of freedom can never be advanced by treating the matter as though no such difficulty existed. Our wisest plan will be to give every obstacle its full weight, that thus we may best proportion our means to the end sought. Now, looking at the dependence of the free states of America upon the existence of slavery, for the greater portion of their commerce, and for a market for their manufacturing and agricultural productions, there appears no doubt that they would be to a certain extent injured by emancipation. And their loss would be uncompensated, as these advantages are enjoyed, without the existence among them of that moral taint which always accompanies slavery, and undoubtedly forms a great deduction from any benefits which it produces to the slaveholders themselves. That the slave-holders would be injured we have before shewn. It must be remembered, that the persons who at present will decide the question of emancipation, are the whites; and it is, therefore, to the influences which it would exert upon them, that we must confine ourselves, in considering the probability of its being conceded. The emancipation of the negroes, under the circumstances most

favourable to its successful issue would be, in fact, to remove the chief barrier which the institutions of America present, to that tendency to dispersion, and consequently to barbarism, created by the low price of land. If full scope were given to this tendency, it would probably result in the semi-barbarism of the greater portion of the nation. It may seem to many that we are here giving a very undue magnitude to the effects of a matter apparently so trivial as the low price of waste land; but if any one will attempt to trace out its consequences, he probably will not find they have been at all exaggerated. The first result is, that every one may in the course of a very short time become a land-holder; and this, as the first result, has been frequently cited as one of the blessings of America, by those who do not look beyond the surface. That the condition of an American is in this respect, better than that of an English labourer, under our present prohibitory system, there can be no doubt; but we have to attend to his actual, not to his comparative position. When he has become a land-holder, he can find no labourer to work for him. and he is consequently compelled to do every thing for himself. The natural result of this is, that every thing is imperfectly done. His farm is tilled in the most slovenly manner. His house is probably inferior to that of an English labourer; the amount of comforts which he is able to command, is less than may be enjoyed by an English artisan of tolerable skill; and in fact, he is a loser in almost every respect, except that he gratifies his love of independence, enjoys the belief that he has no superior, and has the consciousness that his time is his own, and that his labour is employed upon his own property. This statement, strictly true as regards the new settlements, has a great degree of truth, even in reference to the oldest and most thickly peopled states. It may be doubted if such a state be favourable to the happiness of the individual. There can be no doubt that it is unfavourable to the advancement of the community. In all countries, the measure of prosperity will be the extent to which the bulk of the people enjoy the comforts of life, and the leisure and inclination for mental culture. The results of the American system has been the diminution of both of these. Labour produces less, and at the same time engrosses the mind to the exclusion of other ideas.

Labour pro

duces less, both because each individual, from the multiplicity of his pursuits, is unable to acquire the highest degree of skill in any one; and because it is exerted

singly instead of in concert, which is always the least profitable way of employing it. It is in this way that the low price of land in America, by producing a certain amount of dispersion, has diminished the national wealth; and it is equally easy to shew the way in which it has operated upon the mental character of the people. An indidual who is generally employed in one pursuit, will, if educated, turn to subjects of general interest as a relaxation, and cultivate them for the relief they afford. But any one whose mind is disturbed by a multiplicity of pursuits, each of which, from his imperfect acquaintance with it, demands the whole of his powers, would require as his relaxation the absence of all thought. But in addition to this, the fact that all his Occupations have immediate reference to himself, to his own comfort and advancement, will lead greatly to narrow the range of his sympathies. He will be acute, but selfish; not easily over-reached in a bargain, but feeling little scruple at over-reaching others. While, for general literature, and all arts which have not an immediate and obvious bearing upon his own interest, he will feel, not perhaps contempt, but indifference. This is now the general character of the free inhabitants of America. Eager, and certainly a little unscrupulous, in the pursuit of wealth; careless of every thing that does not appeal to their vanity, or minister to their personal gratification; skilful to a certain extent in many things, but to the highest degree, in few or none; and its cause appears to us to be the isolation produced by the low price of land. We have adverted to the extent to which slavery prevents the full development of these tendencies, and to this extent the free states in America, have, if they refuse to alter this part of their policy, a direct interest in its continuance; and, as they have never been accused of neglecting their interest, so far as they understand it, the prospect of the extinction of slavery among them appears still distant.

We have thus endeavoured rather to indicate, than develop fully the principles to which we have adverted. Until they are recognised and acted upon by the Americans themselves, there appears to us little hope of their voluntarily putting an end to slavery. To this therefore should, we think, be directed the efforts of the friends of emancipation in England, and of those Americans who wish to free their country from its worst social crime for a crime it is, in every sense of the word. It is a voluntary and intentional sacrifice of the interests of one portion of the community, to those of another. It is a tyranny the same in 2D. SERIES, No. 37.-VOL. IV.

kind, and worse in degree, than that of the feudal system of the middle ages. The negroes have the same right to be considered as citizens, and to enjoy the privileges which this would confer, as any inhabitant of the land; and unless this be speedily conceded to them, Americans will too late discover that they have been accumulating for their posterity a fearful amount of retribution. The negroes in the slave states are increasing more rapidly than their masters, and they are thus every day bringing nearer the time when the question of their continued slavery must be brought to the test of a servile war. If, in such a war, the contest should be between them and the whole force of the Union, the result must be their re-subjection; but if between them and their masters only, it is probable they would be the conquerors. In either case, however, the contest would be most fearful, and in all probability the former wrongs of the negroes would be effaced by the extent of their revenge. They have now no moral instruction, and there would then be no moral restraint. With them now, the charities of life, the ties of affection and relationship, are mere names, and they would then have none of those feelings which so often check man from inflicting upon another a misery which he would himself shrink from enduring. Nor have they any of that religious instruction which in our own colonies has restrained the negroes, during their temporary successes, from inflicting upon their masters the evils which they had themselves suffered. All, therefore, that a hatred springing from a sense of the accumulated wrongs of centuries could produce in beings whose intellect and feelings are alike without one restraining principle, would be the result of the first successful attempt of the American negroes to obtain their freedom. But this is a result which every lover of human nature would deprecate, as much for the sake of the slave as of his master; and it, therefore, becomes every one who is interested in the termination of slavery in the United States, to address himself to a consideration of the means by which it may be peaceably effected. It is clear that any alteration in the mode of disposing of waste land, which should have the effect of creating a class of agricultural labourers, would be advantageous to America; and it would be the first, and an effectual blow to the system of slavery. If this were done,-if the American capitalist could with certainty obtain the free labour requisite for the employment of his capital, the competition thus introduced must lead certainly, though gra