'strable, that at no period since the revolution could the abolition of slavery in the southern states have been safely undertaken, until the foundations of our newly established governments had been found capable of supporting the fabric itself, under any shock which so arduous an attempt might have produced.

"The acrimony of the censures cast upon us, must abate, at 'least in the breasts of the candid, when they consider the difficul'ties attendant on any plan for the abolition of slavery in a country where so large a proportion of the inhabitants are slaves, and 'where a still larger proportion of the cultivators of the earth are ' of that description. The extirpation of slavery from the United 'States is a task equally momentous and arduous. Human pru'dence forbids that we should precipitately engage in a work of 'such hazard as a general and stimultaneous emancipation. The 'mind of man is in some measure to be formed for his future con'dition: the early impressions of obedience and submission which 'slaves have received among us, and the no less habitual arrogance 'and assumption of superiority among the whites, contribute equally to unfit the former for freedom, and the latter for equality. To expel them all at once from the United States, would, in fact, be to devote them only to a lingering death by famine, by disease, and other accumulated miseries. To retain them among us, would be nothing more than to throw so many of the human race upon the earth, without the means of subsistence: they would soon become idle, profligate, and miserable. They would be 'unfit for their new condition, and unwilling to return to their for• mer laborious course."

Another American writer thus represents the evils and difficulties attendant upon manumission.

"You may manumit a slave, but you cannot make him a white 'man. He still remains a negro, or a mulatto....The authority of 'the master being removed, and its place not being supplied by 'moral restraints or incitements, he lives in idleness, and probably in vice; and obtains a precarious support by begging or theft. 'If he should avoid those extremes, and follow some regular course of industry, still the habits of thoughtless improvidence, which 'he contracted while a slave himself, or has caught from the slaves among whom he is forced to live, who of necessity are his com'panions and associates, prevent him from making any permanent provision for his support by prudent foresight and economy, and in case of sickness, or of bodily disability from any other cause, 'send him to live as a pauper at the expense of the community.

"But it is not in themselves merely that the free people of-coJour are a nuisance and a burthen. They contribute greatly to 'the corruption of the slaves, and to aggravate the evils of their 'condition, by rendering them idle, discontented, and disobedient.

This arises also from the necessity under which the free blacks ' are of remaining incorporated with the slaves, of associating ha'bitually with them, and forming part of the same class in society. The slave, seeing his free companion live in idleness, or subsist, however scantily or precariously, by occasional and desultory ' employment, is apt to grow discontented with his own condition, ' and to regard as tyranny and injustice the authority which com'pels him to labour. Hence he is strongly incited to elude his authority by neglecting his work as much as possible, to with'draw himself from it altogether by flight, and sometimes to attempt direct resistance. This provokes or impels the master to a severity, which would not otherwise be necessary; and that severity, by rendering the slave still more discontented with his condition, and more hostile towards his master, by adding the 'sentiments of resentment and revenge to his original dissatisfac'tion, often renders him more idle and worthless, and thus induces the real or supposed necessity of still greater harshness on the 'part of the master. Such is the tendency of that comparison which the slave cannot easily avoid making between his own situ⚫ation and that of the free people of his own colour, who are his 'companions, and in every thing, except exemption from the authority of a master, his equals: whose condition, though often 'much worse than his own, naturally appears better to him, and being continually under his observation, and in close contact with his feelings, is apt to chafe, goad, and irritate him incessantly.

Free blacks of the better class, who gain a comfortable subsistence by regular industry, keep as much as possible aloof from the 'slaves: but the idle and disorderly free blacks naturally seek the 'society of such slaves as are disposed to be idle and disorderly 'too, whom they encourage to be more and more so, by their example, their conversation, and the shelter and means which they 'furnish. They encourage the slaves to theft, because they partake in its fruits. They receive, secrete, and dispose of the stolen goods; a part, and probably much the largest part, of which they often receive as a reward for their services. They furnish places of 'meeting, and hiding places in their houses, for the idle and the vicious slaves, whose idleness and vice are thus increased, and rendered more contagious. These hiding places and places of • meeting are so many traps and snares for the young and thoughtless slaves, who have not yet become vicious; so many schools in which they are taught, by precept and example, idleness, lying, ' debauchery, drunkenness, and theft. The consequence of all this is ' very easily seen, and I am sure is severely felt in all places where free people of colour exist in considerable numbers.' p. 393. Much has lately been said relative to the treatment both of the

slaves and of the free blacks in America. On this subject, we must bring together the rather discordant accounts of the two Writers before us. Mr. Walsh says:

'Nothing can be more false than the representations of the English travellers concerning the treatment of the free blacks by the whites in the middle and eastern states: it is not true that they are "excluded from the places of worship frequented by the "whites ;" that "the most degraded white will not walk or eat with 'a negro;" or, that "they are practically slaves." Their situation as hired domestics, mechanics or general labourers, is the same in all respects as that of the whites of the same description: they are fed and paid as well, equally exempt from personal violence, and free to change their occupation or their employer. They ap'proach us as familiarly as persons of the correspondent class in 'England approach their superiors in rank and wealth, and, in 'general, betray much less servility in their tone and carriage. They do not make part of our society, indeed; they are not invi'ted to our tables; they do not marry into our families; nor would they, were they of our own colour, with no higher claims than they possess on the score of calling, education, intelligence, and wealth. I confess that, whatever claims they might possess in these or other respects, those are advantages from which they ' would be excluded: there must remain, in any case, a broad line of demarcation, not viewed as an inconvenience by them, but indispensable for our feelings and interests. Nature and accident combine to make it impassable. Their colour is a perpetual me'mento of their servile origin; and a double disgust is thus created. 'We will not, and ought not, expose ourselves to lose our identity, as it were; to be stained in our blood, and disparaged in our re'lation of being towards the stock of our forefathers in Europe. This may be called prejudice, but it is one which no reasoning 'can overcome, and which we cannot wish to see extinguished.' p. 397.

Mr. Walsh affirms again and again, that the treatment of the slaves is mild and humane, and their condition much better than that of the slaves in the West India Islands. He admits in general terms, in several places, that, 'great abuses and evils accompany our negro slavery;' but he takes great pains to prove that the people are not in fact deteriorated by the existence of slavery' among them. The plain meaning of which is, that Mr. Walsh, being endowed with much argumentative courage, and having undertaken to apologize for his countrymen at any rate, it does not please him to admit the existence of any such deterioration. At the same time, the injurious influence of every existing abuse in England, is duly and philosophically appreciated. He is, indeed, led to diverge so far from the road of common sense, as actually to

institute a comparison between American slaves and English apprentices. Does such an advocate serve or injure most the cause he would defend? But let us turn to Mr. Bristed:-[whose misstatements have justly given to the whole of his writings a loose character:--who cannot be compared with a writer, whose precision is such, that, with all his zeal, argumentative courage,' and the like, his antagonists have not been able to detect a single misrepresentation of his.

The Article concludes with a quotation from Mr. Bristed, which represents a South Carolina master chopping off the head of a slave with an axe-for which he suffered a small fine and another, which says "The United States afford no instance of a master being capitally punished for killing his slave!"]

ART. X.-America and her Resources; or a View of the Agricultural, Commercial, Manufacturing, Financial, Political, Literary, Moral, and the Religious Capacity and Character of the American People. By JOHN BRISTED, Counsellor at Law, Author of the Resources of the British Empire. 8vo. pp. xvi. 504. London, 1818. [Review, July, 1820.]

We have already said that this volume may be recommended to the perusal of the general reader who is not in search either of precise statistical information, or of profound political reasoning. He will find in it a spirited rambling descant upon all sorts of subjects connected with American politics and American manners. The Author's loose, declamatory, and turgid style must prevent his taking that rank as a writer, which the tone he assumes would seem to solicit; his report, however, of American affairs, is, on several accounts, specifically valuable, and if his political principles were of a purer character, he might with some consistency receive the praise of being the professed champion of the cause of humanity and religion. One of the circumstances which give a value to this volume, is the apparent unfixedness of the Author's prejudices. The discriminating reader will, perhaps, gather up the truth, from the reports of a writer of this fitful turn more readily and surely than, even, from one whose impartiality is studied and laboured. Mr. Bristed is neither a furious hater of England, nor a devoted worshipper of America.[] His affection for his adopted country, is, we imagine, a somewhat wayward passion, liable to frequent disgusts. Citizen Bristed is, indeed, an excellent

[a He has not the least of either character. The terms of the remark would be very apposite if reversed. Citizen Bristed may not be a 'furious hater' of America, but a devoted worshipper' of England.]

patriot and republican in his closet, while roving among his own. speculations, or poring, with prophetic eye, over the map of the continent that is to rule the world;' but out of doors, jostled in the throng of Broad-Way, he looks often much like the disappointed wanderer, and now and then betrays the irritability of one. whose enthusiasm has been roughly cured.

The Author, we have said, professes to be the advocate of religion. Before the sceptical portion of his countrymen, he boldly pleads the claims of Christianity; but in assuming this character, he only exposes himself to the severer reprehension on account of the profligate system of national policy, avowed, without cover or apology, in every part of his work. He talks of humanity, of morals, of the Bible; but he seems almost to seek occasion to stimulate the restless desire of national aggrandizement, and sometimes even to inflame the murderous passions of war. Passages might be cited, from the volume of a kind, to which, as the lovers of peace, we would not be accessary in giving a wider circulation. We are constrained to hope that Mr. Bristed calumniates, or at least, that he grossly misrepresents his countrymen, in attributing to them some of the sentiments which he retains with apparent exultation.

[There should be no doubt in the reviewer of this. He proceeds to quote passages of Mr. Bristed, relating to the purchase by the United States of Louisiana and Florida; and their probable possession of Cuba, Mexico, and Peru, with the British West Indies, -and remarks that he passes over some absurd and mischievous vapouring of Mr. B.'-the object of which the reviewer does not appear exactly to comprehend. It is this,-to excite, if possible, an alarm in his beloved government of England, at the extending power and growing ambition of America,-to induce the former to take timely and effectual measures to curb the strength and thwart the progress of the latter :-or, at least, the effort of Mr. Bristed, though too refined for the observation of the British Reviewer, is so understood, as far as his book is read, in this country. The following passages will exemplify.]

'Why does not England, as part of the indemnity due to her from Spain, transfer to her own sceptre the sovereignty of Cuba; 'seeing that the Havanna commands the passage from the Gulf of 'Mexico? Why does she not take possession of Panama on the 'south, and Darien on the north, and join the waters of the Atlan'tic with those of the Pacific ocean, in order to resuscitate her drooping commerce? or is it her intention still to slumber on, ' until she is awakened from the stupefaction of her dreams by the 'final fall of Spanish America, and of her own North American 'provinces, beneath the ever-widening power of the United States.'

How strange and portentous is the contrast between the steady