patriarchal institution of slavery at this moment is full of interest. England is arraying its vast moral, commercial, and political power against us. The Ocean Queen is about to work her thirty millions of white slaves and serfs in the jungles and on the plains of India, for the express purpose of rendering the labour of three millions of black slaves in America unproductive and of no value. This will be done. There is no vacillation or weakness of purpose in the English character. All India will, in a year or two, teem like a vast bee-hive with the cotton enterprise, cheered on by the fratricide abolitionists and mock-philanthropists of the Northern States. Meanwhile O'Connell, the Irish agitator, is invoked to agitate his countrymen against slavery on this side of the water, while, both in Ireland and England, his roaring voice is perpetually lifted up in abuse of the noble hearted, the independent, and the fearless Southern planters as well as the American character at large. The Kirk of Scotland thunders her anathemas against the American Presbyterians, because they will not excommunicate slave-holding church members. The Wesleyans and the Quakers are perpetually using clerical influence against the rights and peace of our social institutions. The royal consort of the Queen of England is not ashamed to preside over the opening of a meeting, vauntingly called the World's Convention,' the chief business of which was to abuse American institutions-where Birney, once a slaveholder, and the negro Remond, side by side on the same platform with the highest bishops of the Church of England, and with O'Connell, lifted up their voices, traitors as they are, against their own native land; all joining in full cry against a domestic institution which has come down unbroken from the 'world's gray fathers,' the holy patriarchs with whom angels walked and talked. (Laughter, and very loud cheers.)" You will probably smile to see the heterogeneous mass of opinions and facts I have thrown together in this letter; but nothing will strike you more, I believe, than the singular phenomenon to which the enthusiastic editor of the Free Trader alludes. I do not believe that so singular a coincidence ever occurred before as that we now witness in the union of English abolitionists and liberals with their "old inveterate enemy," the East India Company; the most benevolent philanthropists with the most selfish speculators; levellers with monopolists, and Chartists with the throne of Old England, and her aristocracy, all ranged side by side in harmony and power to carry out a bold and grand design. An American writer, before quoted, observes that "The two subjects connected with India, which now engross the attention of the people of Britain, are of a twofold character having opposite points. India wants from England justice and righteous protection, and a fair acknowledgment of her claims, as an integral part of the British empire. England wants from India raw materials for her manufactories, and the luxuries of coffee, sugar, and tobacco for her artisans and labourers; and, most of all, she wants an extensive market for her numerous wares and fabrics, which she can produce cheaper than any other country. These two different points of one great national question have now become the subjects of discussion among the philanthropists on the one side, and the merchants on the other. Both are working for the attainment of their separate objects at different ends of the same chain. The one will civilize India by justice and religion, the other by an unfettered commerce and an improved agriculture. Who would dare to say that these are things which the Southern people should pass by carelessly and heedlessly, and not prepare themselves to meet the coming change?” One or two points more, need a moment's attention. There is no probability that a long time will pass away, before slavery will be abolished in British India. Many men of all parties are already united for the subversion of the whole system; and the spirit of the British people is so deeply aroused on this subject, that the government will not dare to refuse their bold demand. It should not be forgotten by Americans, that labour is cheaper in India than in any other portion of the world; and that man's wants in that mild climate are far more simple, and supplied at a far less expense than in the United States. It is a common saying, that "in India a la bourer will work for a penny a day, and support himself." If this is not literally true, it is nearly so. A gentleman, who had been a captain in the service of the East India Company for thirteen years, assured me that the average price of labour throughout British India was less than three pence a day; and that millions were suffering from hunger, because they could not find any employment even at that price. What facilities, so auspicious, were ever before offered for the prosecution of a great enterprise! And what a glorious change will come over India, when it shall have been fully carried into effect! Freedom will soon be declared; agriculture will introduce commerce; commerce will introduce science and the arts of civilized life. The necessaries of existence she can produce from her soil, and England will supply her with luxuries. It is not too much to hope, I think, that the time is not far distant, when the millions of that mighty empire shall rise from their long degradation, and, clothed in the bright livery of civilization, take their stand among the great family of Christian nations. But, in glancing over the paragraphs of this |