incitement to revolt, and when, recollecting what every negro revolt has been, he casts his eye upon his children, upon his daughters, and his wife, he must be more or less than man if there stir not up some strong and bitter feeling within him. The treatment of Abolitionists in the Southern States has been one result of this-is it very surprising to find as another-a desire to depart from the Union, and to be "let alone?"

Having before us these views of the South upon this subject, and the enormous amount of the interests at stake, let us see by what means and manner of persuasion the Abolitionists have attempted to deal with so difficult and so vast a subject. They have adopted but one methodabuse. Speeches, novels, sermons, pamphlets, but all the same thing, a repetition of words, without a plan, and without one serious practical effort. It is plain that to overturn the framework of society, suddenly to cast adrift four millions of human beings, and jeopardize interests amounting to seven hundred millions sterling-without welldigested precautions-would produce no other result than desolation and woe. Yet this is the proposal of the leading Abolitionists.

It may be said that the subject is so vast as to render it hopeless to approach it in any practical spirit; but there are branches of it within the reach of direct action-some, indeed, requiring no supreme exertion. Not one of these has been seriously undertaken. It is a cheap matter for

those gifted with powers of speech, to denounce the errors of other people. Liberty is a favourite subject for declamation, and slavery affords an inexhaustible text for sermons. But where are the solid, practical, business-like measures of thoughtful and earnest men? The district of Columbia is under the absolute control of Congress, and is a slave district, unshielded by the Constitution. There is no compact in the way. There are strong and peculiar motives for action: for here slavery degrades the metropolis of the land, invades the temple of the national liberties, and desecrates the home of all that is most sacred to the nation. Here, too, it is a duty, not under the responsibility of others at a distance - it belongs to themselves. None can urge the plea that it lies beyond reach, obscure, or remote; it is there visible, palpable, every hour of every day. The number of slaves, too, is small; by the last census but 3181. Yet there it remains to this day. It is true that just as there is a special incentive to the one party to desire its removal from the capital of the Union, so there will be equal eagerness with the other to defend it. But if the whole power of the abolitionism of the North has not sufficed to effect so small a matter as this, if it cannot master a number of 3181, what shall we say to the judgment or common sense, that undertakes to deal with four millions in number, and seven hundred millions sterling in value?

If the power of resistance would be great in the

district of Columbia, there is a position, not far distant, where it would be feeble. The little State of Delaware has long been hovering on the verge of freedom. It has no industry in which the employment of slaves offers any advantage, and their number is but 1798-a mere handful. Yet in the Senate, the two members for this little community are of equal power with those of the greatest State in the Union. The change would reverse their position, and have the effect of four votes on a division. This measure, so important in practical result, and so easy of accomplishment, so sensible and useful a step, is not attempted. It is too narrow a field for enthusiasts; it would be descending from the oratorical to the useful, from profession to real work.

There are other directions, too, in which we should expect to see the fruits of a real desire for the benefit of the black. There are considerable numbers in the Northern States, under the immediate eye of the Abolitionists, so eager for the welfare of all those who are distant. Large numbers of these are in a state of deplorable poverty and degradation, excluded from all but the lowest pursuits, treated on all hands with aversion and contempt. Charity begins at home. The benevolence that takes no heed of suffering within its reach, in order to occupy itself with distant and unattainable objects, may spring from a pure impulse, but it takes a very questionable direction.

And Boston, and New York, which are the head-quarters of the Abolitionists, are also, strange to say, the head-quarters of the slave-trade. Lord Lyons stated in September, 1860, that in the previous eighteen months, eighty-five vessels had sailed from American ports, to be employed in the slave-trade. Of ten vessels captured in one year by the American squadron, on the coast of Africa, seven were from New York. It is well known that although the slaves are taken to Cuba, the slave-trade is American, carried on in their vessels, with their capital, and with their energy, and nautical skill. Against this we have remonstrated in every form in vain. How shall we account for the apathy of the Abolitionists at home? It is impossible to fit out vessels with the bulky equipments required for the trade so as to escape detection, if there be those on the spot who are earnestly alert. But this, again, would be descending to realities.

Thus we find it the practice of the Northern Abolitionists to discard all practical measures, and to confine their operations to oratory and invective. What rational hope is there of success by such instruments? It is plain that emancipation can never be accomplished without the consent, and the direct action of the Southerners. Against their will it would be insurrection, a servile war of the most terrible kind; and if a war of extermination were to be roused, it is the negro that would be exterminated. The South is not in the

position of St. Domingo or Jamaica: the whites are rather more than two to one. But in addition to numbers, they are in possession of arms, resolution, knowledge; their actual power, in such a conflict, would be as six or eight to one. Many of them, in remote districts, would doubtless be sacrificed at the first outbreak, and terrible suffering would be inflicted, but in the end it would be a conflict of which none can doubt the issue. The greater part of the negroes would be held in a slavery sharpened by the event, the rest would be destroyed.

Clearly, then, emancipation is impossible, except with the consent of the people of the South. Can they be convinced by reviling them? Is that a means by which to persuade the reason of any race of men? At all times it is difficult enough to alter opinions that are the result of birth and association; and when they coincide with interest, or imagined interest, the task is all but hopeless. To attempt it by means of invective and abuse is the last extreme of folly. Let us suppose that any one of our institutions excited the opposition of the French, and that they should proceed to persuade us to change it by pouring upon us torrents of abuse; what would be the result? Clearly, that we should cling to it with far more than the original tenacity. This is precisely what has happened in the South. Originally, slavery was on the defensive, admitted to be an evil, or deplored as a sad necessity; but stung by the lan