But little progress, it will be seen, has been made, by the free colored people, toward an approximation of equality with the whites. Have they succeeded better in aiding in the abolition of slavery? They have not, as is abundantly demonstrated by the triumph of the institution. This is an important point for consideration, as the principal object influencing them to remain in the country, was, that they might assist in the liberation of their brethren from bondage. But their agency in the attempts made to abolish the institution having failed, a more important question arises, as to whether the free colored people, by refusing to emigrate, may not have contributed to the advancement of slavery? An affirmative answer must be given to this inquiry. Nor is a protracted discussion necessary to prove the assertion.

One of the objections urged with the greatest force against colonization, is, its tendency, as is alleged, to increase the value of slaves by diminishing their numbers. "Jay's Inquiry," 1835, presents this objection at length; and the Report of the "Anti-Slavery Society of Canada," 1853, sums it up in a single proposition thus:

"The first effect of beginning to reduce the number of slaves, by colonization, would be to increase the market value of those left behind, and thereby increase the difficulty of setting them free."

The practical effect of this doctrine, is to discourage all emancipations; to render eternal the bondage of each individual slave, unless all can be liberated; to prevent the benevolence of one master from freeing his slaves, lest his more selfish neighbor should be thereby enriched; and to leave the whole system intact, until its total abolition can be effected. Such philanthropy would leave every individual, of suffering millions, to groan out a miserable existence, because it could not at once effect the deliverance of the whole. This objection to colonization can be founded only in prejudice, or is designed to mislead the ignorant. The advocates of this doctrine do not practice it, or they would not promote the escape of fugitives to Canada.

But abolitionists object not only to the colonization of liberated slaves, as tending to perpetuate slavery; they are equally hostile to the colonization of the free colored people, for the same reason. The "American Reform Tract and Book Society," the organ of the abolitionists, for the publication of anti-slavery works, has issued a Tract on "Colonization," in which this objection is stated as follows:

"The Society perpetuates slavery, by removing the free laborer, and thereby increasing the demand for, and the value of, slave labor."

The projectors and advocates of such views may be good philanthropists, but they are bad philosophers. We have seen that the power of American slavery lies in the demand for its products; and that the whole country, North of the sugar and cotton States, is actively employed in the production of provisions for the support of the planter and his slaves, and in consuming the products of slave labor. This is the constant vocation of the whites. And how is it with the blacks? Are they competing with the slaves, in the cultivation of sugar and cotton, or are they also supporting the system, by consuming its products? The latitudes in which they reside, and the pursuits in which they are engaged, will answer this question.

The census of 1850, shows but 40,900 free colored persons in the nine sugar and cotton States, including Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas, Tennessee, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, Florida, and South Carolina, while 393,500 are living in the other States. North Carolina is omitted, because it is more of a tobacco and wool-growing, than cotton-producing State.

Of the free colored persons in the first-named States, 19,260 are in the cities and larger towns; while, of the remainder, a considerable number may be in the villages, or in the families of the whites. From these facts it is apparent, that less than 20,000 of the entire free colored population (omitting those of North Carolina,) are in a position to compete with slave labor, while all the remainder, numbering over 412,800, are engaged, either directly or indirectly, in supporting the institution. Even the fugitives escaping to Canada, from having been producers necessarily become consumers of slave-grown products; and, worse still, under the Reciprocity Treaty, they must also become growers of provisions for the planters who continue to hold their brothers, sisters, wives and children, in bondage.

These are the practical results of the policy of the abolitionists. Verily, they, also, have dug their ditches on the wrong side of their breastworks, and afforded the enemy an easy entrance into their fortress. But, "Let them alone; they be blind leaders of the blind. And if the blind lead the blind, both shall fall into the ditch."[84]

But we are not yet prepared to estimate the full extent of the influence, for ill, exerted by the free colored people upon public sentiment. The picture of their degraded moral condition, drawn by the abolitionists, is a dark one indeed, and calculated to do but little toward promoting emancipation, or in placing themselves in a position of equality with the whites. According to their testimony, the condition of the slave, under the restraints of Christian masters, must be vastly more favorable to moral progress, than that of the majority of those who have received their freedom. While they have all the animal appetites and passions fully developed, they seem to remain, intellectually, child-like, with neither the courage nor the foresight enabling them to seize upon fields of enterprise that would lead to wealth and fame. Look at the facts upon this point. They were offered a home and government of their own in Africa, with the control of extensive tropical cultivation; but they rejected the boon, and refused to leave the land of their birth, in the vain belief that they could, by remaining here, assist in wrenching the chains from the slaves of the South. They expected great aid, too, in their work, from the moral effect of West Indian emancipation; but that has failed in the results anticipated, and the free colored laborer is about to be superseded there by imported coolie labor from abroad. They expected, also, that the emigrants and fugitives to Canada, rising into respectability under British laws, would do the race much honor, and show the value of emancipation; but even there the hope has not been realized, and it will be no uncommon thing should the Government set its face against them as most unwelcome visitors. A few scraps of history will be of service, in illustrating the feeling of the subjects of the British North American colonies, in relation to the inroads made upon them by the free colored people.

In 1833, an English military officer, thus wrote:

"There is a settlement of negroes a few miles from Halifax, Nova Scotia, at Hammond's Plains. Any one would have imagined that the Government would have taken warning from the trouble and expense it incurred by granting protection to those who emigrated from the States during the Revolution; 1200 of whom were removed to Sierra Leone in 1792 by their own request. Again when 600 of the insurgent negroes—the Maroons of Jamaica—were transported to Nova Scotia in 1796, and received every possible encouragement to become good subjects, by being granted a settlement at Preston, and being employed upon the fortifications at Halifax; yet they, too, soon became discontented, and being unwilling to earn a livelihood by labor, were, in 1800, removed to the same colony, after costing the island of Jamaica more than $225,000, and a large additional expense to the Province, i. e. Nova Scotia. Notwithstanding which, when the runaway slaves were received on board the fleet, off the Chesapeake, during the late war, permission was granted to them to form a settlement at Hammond's Plains, where the same system of discontent arose—many of the settlers professing that they would prefer their former well-fed life of slavery, in a more congenial climate, and earnestly petitioning to be removed, were sent to Trinidad in 1821. Some few of those who remained are good servants and farmers, disposing of the produce of their lands in the Halifax market; but the majority are idle, roving, and dirty vagabonds."[85]

Thus it appears, that as late as 1821, the policy of the British colonies of North America, was to remove the fugitive negroes from their territories. The 1200 exported from Halifax, in 1792, were fugitive slaves who had joined the English during the American Revolutionary war, and had been promised lands in Nova Scotia; but the Government having failed to meet its pledge, and the climate proving unfavorable, they sought refuge in Africa. These shipments of the colored people, from the British colonies at the North to those of the Tropics, was in accordance with the plan that England had adopted at home, in reference to the same class of persons—that of removing a people who were a public burden, to where they could be self-supporting. This is a matter of some interest, and is deserving of notice in this connection. On the 22d of May, 1772, Lord Mansfield decided the memorable Somerset case, and pronounced it unlawful to hold a slave in Great Britain. The close of that decision reads thus:

"Immemorial usage preserves a positive law, after the occasion or accident which gave rise to it, has been forgotten; and tracing the subject to natural principles, the claim of slavery never can be supported. The power claimed was never in use here, or acknowledged by the law. Upon the whole, we can not say the cause returned is sufficient by the law; therefore the man must be discharged."

Previous to this date, many slaves had been introduced into English families, and, on running away, the fugitives had been delivered up to their masters, by order of the Court of King's Bench, under Lord Mansfield; but now the poor African, no longer hunted as a beast of prey, in the streets of London, slept under his roof, miserable as it might be, in perfect security.[86]

To Granville Sharp belonged the honor of this achievement. By the decision, about 400 negroes were thrown upon their own resources. They flocked to Mr. Sharp as their patron; but considering their numbers, and his limited means, it was impossible for him to afford them adequate relief. To those thus emancipated, others, discharged from the army and navy, were afterward added, who, by their improvidence, were reduced to extreme distress. After much reflection, Mr. Sharp determined to colonize them in Africa; but this benevolent scheme could not be executed at once, and the blacks—indigent, unemployed, despised, forlorn, vicious—became such nuisances, as to make it necessary they should be sent somewhere, and no longer suffered to infest the streets of London.[87] Private benevolence could not be sufficiently enlisted in their behalf, and fifteen years passed away, when Government, anxious to remove what it regarded as injurious, at last came to the aid of Mr. Sharp, and supplied the means of their transportation and support. In April, 1787, these colored people, numbering over 400, were put on shipboard for Africa, and in the following month were landed in Sierra Leone.[88]

But to return to Canada. We have at hand a flood of information, to enable us to present a true picture of the colored population of that Province, and to discern the feelings entertained toward them by the white inhabitants. On the 27th April, 1841, the Assistant Secretary to Government, addressed Major Robert Lachlan, Chairman of the Quarter Sessions for the Western District, requesting information relating to the colored immigrants in that quarter. Major Lachlan replied at length to the inquiries made, and kept a record of his Report. This volume he has had the goodness to place in our hands, from which to make such extracts as may be necessary to a true understanding of this question.

The Major entered the public service of the British Government in 1805, and was connected with the army in India for twenty years. Having retired from that service, he settled in Canada in 1835, with the intention of devoting himself to agriculture; but he was again called into public life, as sheriff, magistrate, colonel of militia, Chairman of the Quarter Sessions, and Associate Judge at the Assizes. In 1857 he removed to Cincinnati, where he now resides. A true Briton, he is an enemy of the system of slavery; but having been a close observer of the workings of society, under various circumstances, systems of law, degrees of intelligence, and moral conditions, he is opposed to placing two races, so widely diverse as the blacks and whites, upon terms of legal equality; not that he is opposed to the elevation of the colored man, but because he is convinced that, in his present state of ignorance and degradation, the two races cannot dwell together in peace and harmony. This opinion, it will be seen, was the outgrowth of his experience and observation in Canada, and not the result of a prejudice against the African race. The Western District, the field of his official labors, is the main point toward which nearly all the emigration from the States is directed; and the Major had, thus, the best of opportunities for studying this question. Besides the facts of an official nature, in the volume from which we quote, it has a large amount of documentary testimony, from other sources, from which liberal extracts have also been made.

The record from which we quote, has, under this head, the statement of the township collector, as to the moral and social condition of the colored people of the township, in which he says, "that, in addition to the black women there were fourteen yellow ones, and fifteen white ones—that they run together like beasts, and that he did not suppose one third of them were married; and further, that they would be a curse to this part of Canada, unless there is something done to put a stop to their settling among the white people.'

In referring to the enlistment of the blacks as soldiers, to the prejudice of the legitimate prospects of the deserving European emigrants, the record says: "With regard to continuing to employ the colored race to discharge—in some instances exclusively, as is now the case at Chatham—the duties of regular soldiers, in such times as these, in a country peopled by Britons, I regard it as not only impolitic in the extreme, but even dangerous also,—besides throwing a stigma of degradation on the honorable profession of which I was for twenty-four years of my life a devoted member. And I even put it to yourself, sir, what would have been your feelings, if, amid the great political excitement prevalent during the late Kent election,[90] there had been a serious disturbance and some unthinking magistrate had called in 'the aid of the military' to quell it, and blood had been shed!—for the thing was within possibility, and for some time gave me much uneasiness. Had such been the case,—what would have been the appalling, and probable, nay, almost certain result,—if I may judge from the well known feelings of the white population generally,—that that unfortunate company would have been instantly turned upon, by men of all parties, and massacred on the spot with their own weapons!" ..... "Allow me, therefore, at all events briefly to remark, that before any thing can be accomplished connected with the moral and religious improvement of the negro settlers, they must be rescued from the hands of the utterly ignorant and uneducated, yet conceited coxcombs of their own color, who assume to themselves the grave character and holy office of ministers and preachers of the gospel, and lead their still more ignorant followers into all the extravagancies of 'Love Feasts' and 'Camp Meetings,' without at all comprehending their import, and at the same time utterly neglecting all other essentials!—an object well deserving of the most serious and anxious consideration of an enlightened Government, as far as those who are already settled in the country are concerned; while it would be a most sound and politic measure to take every lawful step to discourage as much as possible, if we can not altogether prevent the further introduction of so objectionable and deleterious a class of settlers into a British colony.".... "Perhaps one of the wisest measures that could be devised—(since our friends, the American abolitionists, will insist on peopling Canada with run-away negro slaves)—will be to throw every possible obstacle in the way of the sadly deteriorating amalgamation of color already in progress, by Government allotting, at least, a distinct and separate location to all negro settlers, except those who choose to occupy the humble but useful station of farm and domestic servants; and even, if possible, purchasing back at the public expense, on almost any terms, whatever scattered landed property they may have elsewhere acquired in different parts of the Province."

The Report of Major Lachlan is very extensive, and embraces many topics connected with the question of negro immigration into Canada. His response to Government led to further investigation, and to some legislative action in the Canadian Parliament. The latest recorded communications upon the subject, from his pen, are dated November 9th, 1849, and June 4th, 1850, from which it appears that up to that date, there had been no abatement of the hostile feeling of the whites toward the blacks, nor any improvement in the social and moral condition of the blacks themselves.

In 1849, the Elgin Association went into operation. Its object was to concentrate the colored people at one point, and thus have them in a more favorable position for intellectual and moral culture. A large body of land was purchased in the Township of Raleigh, and offered for sale in small lots to colored settlers. The measure was strongly opposed, and called out expressions of sentiment adverse to it, from the people at large. A public meeting, held in Chatham, August 18, 1849, thus expressed itself:

"The Imperial Parliament of Great Britain has forever banished slavery from the Empire. In common with all good men, we rejoice at the consummation of this immortal act; and we hope, that all other nations may follow the example. Every member of the human family is entitled to certain rights and privileges, and no where on earth are they better secured, enjoyed, or more highly valued, than in Canada. Nature, however, has divided the same great family into distinct species, for good and wise purposes, and it is no less our interest, than it is our duty, to follow her dictates and obey her laws. Believing this to be a sound and correct principle, as well as a moral and a Christian duty, it is with alarm we witness the fast increasing emigration, and settlement among us of the African race; and with pain and regret, do we view the establishment of an association, the avowed object of which is to encourage the settlement in old, well-established communities, of a race of people which is destined by nature to be distinct and separate from us. It is also with a feeling of deep resentment that we look upon the selection of the Township of Raleigh, in this District, as the first portion of our beloved country, which is to be cursed, with a systematic organization for setting the laws of nature at defiance. Do communities in other portions of Canada, feel that the presence of the negro among them is an annoyance? Do they feel that the increase of the colored people among them, and amalgamation its necessary and hideous attendant, is an evil which requires to be checked? With what a feeling of horror, would the people of any of the old settled townships of the eastern portion of this Province, look upon a measure which had for its avowed object, the effect of introducing several hundreds of Africans, into the very heart of their neighborhood, their families interspersing themselves among them, upon every vacant lot of land, their children mingling in their schools, and all claiming to be admitted not only to political, but to social privileges? and when we reflect, too, that many of them must from necessity, be the very worst species of that neglected race; the fugitives from justice; how much more revolting must the scheme appear? How then can you adopt such a measure? We beseech our fellow subjects to pause before they embark in such an enterprise, and ask themselves, 'whether they are doing by us as they would wish us to do unto them.'.... Surely our natural position is irksome enough without submitting to a measure, which not only holds out a premium for filling up our district with a race of people, upon whom we can not look without a feeling of repulsion, and who, having been brought up in a state of bondage and servility, are totally ignorant both of their social and political duties; but at the same time makes it the common receptable into which all other portions of the Province are to void the devotees of misery and crime. Look at your prisons and your penitentiary, and behold the fearful preponderance of their black over their white inmates in proportion to the population of each..... We have no desire to show hostility toward the colored people, no desire to banish them from the Province. On the contrary, we are willing to assist in any well-devised scheme for their moral and social advancement. Our only desire is, that they shall be separated from the whites, and that no encouragement shall hereafter be given to the migration of the colored man from the United States, or any where else. The idea that we have brought the curse upon ourselves, through the establishment of slavery by our ancestors, is false. As Canadians, we have yet to learn that we ought to be made a vicarious atonement for European sins.

"Canadians: The hour has arrived when we should arouse from our lethargy; when we should gather ourselves together in our might, and resist the onward progress of an evil which threatens to entail upon future generations a thousand curses. Now is the day. A few short years will put it beyond our power. Thousands and tens of thousands of American negroes, with the aid of the abolition societies in the States, and with the countenance given them by our philanthropic institutions, will continue to pour into Canada, if resistance is not offered. Many of you who live at a distance from this frontier, have no conception either of the number or the character of these emigrants, or of their poisonous effect upon the moral and social habits of a community. You listen with active sympathy to every thing narrated of the sufferings of the poor African; your feelings are enlisted, and your purse strings unloosed, and this often by the hypocritical declamation of some self-styled philanthropist. Under such influences many of you, in our large cities and towns, form yourselves into societies, and, without reflection, you supply funds for the support of schemes prejudicial to the best interests of our country. Against such proceedings, and especially against any and every attempt to settle any township in this District with negroes, we solemnly protest, and we call upon our countrymen, in all parts of the Province, to assist in our opposition.

"Fellow Christians: Let us forever maintain the sacred dogma, that all men have equal, natural, and inalienable rights. Let us do every thing in our power, consistent with international polity and justice, to abolish the accursed system of slavery in the neighboring Republic. But let us not, through a mistaken zeal to abate the evil of another land, entail upon ourselves a misery which every enlightened lover of his country must mourn. Let the slaves of the United States be free, but let it be in their own country. Let us not countenance their further introduction among us; in a word, let the people of the United States bear the burthen of their own sins.

"What has already been done, can not now be avoided; but it is not too late to do justice to ourselves, and retrieve the errors of the past. Let a suitable place be provided by the Government, to which the colored people may be removed, and separated from the whites, and in this scheme we will cordially join. We owe it to them, but how much more do we owe it to ourselves? But we implore you that you will not, either by your counsel, or your pecuniary aid, assist those who have projected the association for the settlement of a horde of ignorant slaves in the town of Raleigh. It is one of the oldest and most densely settled townships, in the very center of our new and promising District of Kent, and we feel that this scheme, if carried into operation, will have the effect of hanging like a dead weight upn our rising prosperity. What is our case to-day, to-morrow may be yours; join us then, in endeavoring to put a stop to what is not only a general evil, but in this case an act of unwarrantable injustice; and when the time may come when you shall be similarly situated to us, we have no doubt that, like us, you will cry out, and your appeal shall not be in vain."

On the 3d of September, 1849, the colored people of Toronto, Canada, held a meeting, in which they responded at length to the foregoing address. The spirit of the meeting can be divined from the following resolutions, which were unanimously passed:

"1st. Resolved, That we, as a portion of the inhabitants of Canada, conceive it to be our imperative duty to give an expression of sentiment in reference to the proceedings of the late meeting held at Chatham, denying the right of the colored people to settle where they please.

"2d. Resolved, That we spurn with contempt and burning indignation, any attempt, on the part of any person, or persons, to thrust us from the general bulk of society, and place us in a separate and distinct classification, such as is expressly implied in an address issued from the late meeting above alluded to.

"3d. Resolved, That the principle of selfishness, as exemplified in the originators of the resolutions and address, we detest, as we do similar ones emanating from a similar source; and we can clearly see the workings of a corrupt and depraved heart, arranged in hostility to the heaven-born principle of liberty, in its broadest and most unrestricted sense."

On the 9th of October, 1849, the Municipal Council of the Western District, adopted a Memorial to His Excellency, the Governor General, protesting against the proposed Elgin Association, in which the following language occurs:

..... "Clandestine petitions have been got up, principally, if not wholly, signed by colored people, in order to mislead Government and the Elgin Association. These petitions do not embody the sentiments or feelings of the respectable, intelligent, and industrious yeomanry of the Western District. We can assure your Excellency that any such statement is false, that there is but one feeling, and that is of disgust and hatred, that they, the negroes, should be allowed to settle in any township where there is a white settlement. Our language is strong; but when we look at the expressions used at a late meeting held by the colored people of Toronto, openly avowing the propriety of amalgamation, and stating that it must, and will, and shall continue, we cannot avoid so doing...... The increased immigration of foreign negroes into this part of the Province is truly alarming. We cannot omit mentioning some facts for the corroboration of what we have stated. The negroes, who form at least one-third of the inhabitants of the township of Colchester, attended the township meeting for the election of parish and township officers, and insisted upon their right to vote, which was denied them by every individual white man at the meeting. The consequence was, that the Chairman of the meeting was prosecuted and thrown into heavy costs, which costs were paid by subscription from white inhabitants. In the same township of Colchester, as well as in many others, the inhabitants have not been able to get schools in many school sections, in consequence of the negroes insisting on their right of sending their children to such schools. No white man will ever act with them in any public capacity; this fact is so glaring, that no sheriff in this Province would dare to summons colored men to do jury duty. That such things have been done in other quarters of the British dominions we are well aware of, but we are convinced that the Canadians will never tolerate such conduct."

A Toronto paper of December 24, 1847, says: "The white inhabitants are fast leaving the vicinity of the proposed colored settlement, for the United States."

The St. Catharines Journal, June, 1852, under the head of "the fruits of having colored companies and colored settlements," says: "On the occasion of the June muster of the militia, a pretty large turn out took place at St. Catharines. We regret exceedingly that the day did not pass over without a serious riot. It seems that on the parade ground some insult was offered to the colored company, which was very properly restrained by Colonel Clark, and others. If the affair had ended here, it would have been fortunate; but the bad feeling exhibited on the parade ground was renewed, by some evil-minded person, and the colored population, becoming roused to madness, they proceeded to wreak their vengeance on a company in Stinson's tavern, after which a general melee took place, in which several men were wounded, and it is likely some will die of the injuries received. The colored village is a ruin, and much more like a place having been beseiged by an enemy than any thing else. This is the reward which the colored men have received for their loyalty, and the readiness with which they turned out to train, and no doubt would if the country required their services. This is a most painful occurrence, and must have been originated by some very ignorant persons. How any man possessing the common feelings of humanity, to say nothing of loyalty, could needlessly offer insult to so many men, so cheerfully turning out in obedience to the laws of the country, exceeds belief, if it were not a matter of fact. Too much credit cannot be given to those worthy citizens who used their best efforts to restrain the excitement, and prevented any further blood-shedding."

But here we have testimony of a later date. Hon. Colonel Prince, member of the Canadian Parliament in 1857, had resided among the colored people of the Western District; and, like other humane men, had sympathized with them, at the outset, and shown them many favors. Time and observation changed his views, and, in the course of his parliamentary duties, we find him taking a stand adverse to the further increase of the negro population in Canada. Hear him, as reported at the time:

"On the order of the day for the third reading of the emigrants' law amendment bill being called, Hon. Col. Prince said he was wishful to move a rider to the measure. The black people who infested the land were the greatest curse to the Province. The lives of the people of the West were made wretched by the inundation of these animals, and many of the largest farmers in the county of Kent have been compelled to leave their beautiful farms, because of the pestilential swarthy swarms.—What were these wretches fit for? Nothing. They cooked our victuals and shampooned us; but who would not rather that these duties should be performed by white men? The blacks were a worthless, useless, thriftless set of beings—they were too indolent, lazy and ignorant to work, too proud to be taught; and not only that, if the criminal calendars of the country were examined, it would be found that they were a majority of the criminals. They were so detestable that unless some method were adopted of preventing their influx into this country by the "underground rail road," the people of the West would be obliged to drive them out by open violence. The bill before the House imposed a capitation tax upon emigrants from Europe, and the object of his motion was to levy a similar tax upon blacks who came hither from the States. He now moved, seconded by Mr. Patton, that a capitation tax of 5s for adults, and 3s 9d for children above one year and under fourteen years of age, be levied on persons of color emigrating to Canada from any foreign country.

"Ought not the Western men to be protected from the rascalities and villainies of the black wretches? He found these men with fire and food, and lodging when they were in need; and he would be bound to say that the black men of the county of Essex would speak well of him in this respect. But he could not admit them as being equal to white men; and, after a long and close observation of human nature, he had come to the conclusion that the black man was born to and intended for slavery, and that he was fit for nothing else. [Sensation.] Honorable gentlemen might try to groan him down, but he was not to be moved by mawkish sentiment, and he was persuaded that they might as well try to change the spots of the leopard as to make the black a good citizen. He had told black men so, and the lazy rascals had shrugged their shoulders and wished they had never ran away from their "good old massa" in Kentucky. If there was any thing unchristian in what he had proposed, he could not see it, and he feared that he was not born a Christian."

The Windsor Herald, of July 3d, 1857, contains the proceedings of an indignation meeting, held by the colored people of Toronto, at which they denounced Colonel Prince in unmeasured terms of reproach. The same paper contains the reply of the Colonel, copied from the Toronto Colonist, and it is given entire, as a specimen of the spicy times they have, in Canada, over the negro question. The editor remarks, in relation to the reply of Colonel Prince, that it has given general satisfaction in his neighborhood. It is as follows:

"Dear Sir:—Your valuable paper of yesterday has afforded me a rich treat and not a little fun in the report of an indignation meeting of 'the colored citizens' of Toronto, held for the purpose of censuring me. Perhaps I ought not to notice their proceedings—perhaps it would be more becoming in me to allow them to pass at once into the oblivion which awaits them; but as it is the fashion in this country not unfrequently to assume that to be true which appears in print against an individual, unless he flatly denies the accusation, I shall, at least, for once, condescend to notice these absurd proceedings. They deal in generalities, and so shall I. Of the colored citizens of Toronto I know little or nothing; no doubt, some are respectable enough in their way, and perform the inferior duties belonging to their station tolerably well. Here they are kept in order—in their proper place—but their 'proceedings' are evidence of their natural conceit, their vanity, and their ignorance; and in them the cloven foot appears, and evinces what they would do, if they could. I believe that in this city, as in some others of our Province, they are looked upon as necessary evils, and only submitted to because white servants are so scarce. But I now deal with these fellows as a body, and I pronounce them to be, as such, the greatest curse ever inflicted upon the two magnificent western counties which I have the honor to represent in the Legislative Council of this Province! and few men have had the experience of them that I have. Among the many estimable qualities they possess, a systematic habit of lying is not the least prominent; and the 'colored citizens' aforesaid seem to partake of that quality in an eminent degree, because in their famous Resolutions they roundly assert that during the Rebellion 'I walked arm and arm with colored men'—that 'I owe my election to the votes of colored men'—and that I have 'accumulated much earthly gains,' as a lawyer, among 'colored clients.' All Lies! Lies! Lies! from beginning to end. I admit that one company of blacks did belong to my contingent battalion, but they made the very worst of soldiers, and were, comparatively speaking, unsusceptible of drill or discipline, and were conspicuous for one act only—a stupid sentry shot the son of one of our oldest colonels, under a mistaken notion that he was thereby doing his duty. But I certainly never did myself the honor of 'walking arm in arm' with any of the colored gentlemen of that distinguished corps. Then, as to my election. Few, very few blacks voted for me. I never canvassed them, and hence, I suppose, they supported, as a body, my opponent. They took compassion upon 'a monument of injured innocence,' and they sustained the monument for a while, upon the pedestal their influence erected. But the monument fell, and the fall proved that such influence was merely ephemeral, and it sank into insignificant nothingness, as it should, and I hope ever will do; or God help this noble land. Poor Blackies! Be not so bold or so conceited, or so insolent hereafter, I do beseech you.

"Then how rich I have become among my 'colored clients!' I assert, without the fear of contradiction, that I have been the friend—the steady friend of our western 'Darkies' for more than twenty years; and amidst difficulties and troubles innumerable, (for they are a litigious race,) I have been their adviser, and I never made twenty pounds out of them in that long period! The fact is that the poor creatures had never the ability to pay a lawyer's fee.

"It has been my misfortune, and the misfortune of my family, to live among those blacks, (and they have lived upon us,) for twenty-four years. I have employed hundreds of them, and, with the exception of one, (named Richard Hunter,) not one has ever done for us a week's honest labor. I have taken them into my service, have fed and clothed them, year after year, on their arrival from the States, and in return I have generally found them rogues and thieves, and a graceless, worthless, thriftless, lying set of vagabonds. That is my very plain and very simple description of the darkies as a body, and it would be indorsed by all the western white men with very few exceptions.

"I have had scores of their George Washingtons, Thomas Jeffersons, James Madisons, as well as their Dinahs, and Gleniras, and Lavinias, in my service, and I understand them thoroughly, and I include the whole batch (old Richard Hunter excepted) in the category above described. To conclude, you 'Gentlemen of color,' East and West, and especially you 'colored citizens of Toronto,' I thank you for having given me an opportunity to publish my opinion of your race. Call another indignation meeting, and there make greater fools of yourselves than you did at the last, and then 'to supper with what appetite you may.'

Toronto, 26th June, 1857."

It is impracticable to extract the whole of the important facts referred to in Maj. Lachlan's Report, as it would make a volume of itself. In many places he takes occasion to urge the necessity of education for the colored people, as the only possible means of their elevation; and also presses upon the attention of the better classes of that race, the duty of co-operating with the magistrates in their efforts for the suppression of crime, as well as the advantages to be derived from the formation of associations for their intellectual and moral advancement. On the 23d of May, 1847, he addressed the Right Honorable, the Earl of Elgin, the Governor of Canada, on the subject of the causes checking the prosperity of the Western District, the fourth one of which he states to be "the unfortunate influx into its leading townships of swarms of run-away negro slaves, of the worst description, from the American States." After referring to the facts contained in his report of 1841, a portion of which are presented in the preceding pages, he says: "I shall therefore rest content with stating, in connection with these extracts, the simple fact, that on the Province gradually recovering from the shock given to immigration by the late rebellion, and the stream of British settlers beginning once more to flow toward the Province, a considerable number of emigrants of the laboring classes made their way to the Western District, and for some time wandered about in search of employment; but with the exception of those who had come to join relations and friends, and a few others, the greater portion, finding themselves unable to obtain work, from the ground which they naturally expected to occupy being already monopolized by negroes, and there being no public works of any kind on which they could be engaged, became completely disheartened, and were ultimately forced to disperse themselves elsewhere; and, most generally, found a refuge in the neighboring States of Michigan and Ohio. And such, it may be added, has ever since continued to be the case; while, on the other hand, the influx of negroes has been greatly on the increase..... Far, however, be it for me to suppose it possible to abridge for one moment that noble constitutional principle—that slavery and British Rule and British feeling are incompatible; but still I consider it no trifling evil that any part of an essentially British colony should be thereby exposed to be made the receptable of the worst portion of the lowest grade of the human race, from every part of the American Union, to the evident serious injury of its own inhabitants, and equally serious prejudice to the claims of more congenial settlers."

This statement shows, very clearly, how the negro immigration into Canada operates injuriously to its prosperity by repelling the white immigrants.

What was true of the colored population of the "Western District of Canada, in 1841, while Major Lachlan filled the chair of the Quarter Sessions, seems to be equally true in 1859. The Essex Advocate, contains the following extract from the Presentment of the Grand Jury, at the Essex Assizes, November 17, 1859, in reference to the jail: "We are sorry to state to your Lordship the great prevalence of the colored race among its occupants, and beg to call attention to an accompanying document from the Municipal Council and inhabitants of the Township of Anderdon, which we recommend to your Lordship's serious consideration.

"'To the Grand Jury of the County of Essex, in Inquest assembled: We, the undersigned inhabitants of the Township of Anderdon, respectfully wish to call the attention of the Grand Inquest of the County of Essex to the fearful state of crime in our township. That there exists organized bands of thieves, too lazy to work, who nightly plunder our property! That nearly all of us, more or less, have suffered losses; and that for the last two years the stealing of sheep has been most alarming, one individual having had nine stolen within that period. We likewise beg to call your attention to the fact, that seven colored persons are committed to stand trial at the present assizes on the charge of sheep stealing, and that a warrant is out against the eighth, all from the Town of Anderdon. We beg distinctly to be understood, that although we are aware that nine-tenths of the crimes committed in the County of Essex, according to the population, are so committed by the colored people, yet we willingly extend the hand of fellowship and kindness to the emancipated slave, whom Great Britain has granted an asylum to in Canada We therefore hope the Grand Jury of the County of Essex will lay the statement of our case before his Lordship, the Judge at the present assizes, that some measure may be taken by the Government to protect us and our property, or persons of capital will be driven from the country.'"

We find it stated in the Cincinnati Daily Commercial, that the "Court, in alluding to this presentment, remarked that 'he was not surprised at finding prejudice existing against them (the negroes) among the respectable portion of the people, for they were indolent, shiftless and dishonest, and unworthy of the sympathy that some mistaken parties extended to them; they would not work when opportunity was presented, but preferred subsisting by thieving from respectable farmers, and begging from those benevolently inclined.'"

In September, 1859, Mr. Stanley, a government agent from the West Indies, visited Canada with the view of inducing the colored people of that Province to emigrate to Jamaica. The Windsor Herald, in noticing the movement, gives the details of the arguments presented, at the meeting in Windsor, to influence them to accept the offer. To men of intelligence and foresight, the reasons would have been convincing; but upon the minds of the colored people, they seem to have had scarcely any weight whatever—only one man entering his name, as an emigrant, at the close of the lecture. They were assured that in Jamaica they could obtain employment at remunerative salaries, and in three years become owners of property, besides possessing all the advantages of British subjects. Only a stipulated number were called for at the present time, they were told, but if the experiment proved successful, the gates would be thrown open for a general emigration. The Governor of the Island guaranteed them occupations on their arrival, or a certain stipend until such were found, and also their passage thither gratis. Four hundred emigrants were wanted to commence the experiment, and if they succeeded in getting the number required, they designed starting for Jamaica in the space of a month.

The indisposition of the colored people to accept the liberal offer of the authorites of Jamaica, created some surprise among the whites; but the mystery was explained when the agent visited Chatham, and made similar offers to the colored people of that town. As already stated, in the Preface to this work, they not only rejected the offered boon with contempt, but gave as their reason, that events would shortly transpire in the United States, which would demand their aid in behalf of their fellow countrymen there.[91] This was thirteen days before the Harper's Ferry outbreak, and Chatham was the town in which John Brown and his associates concocted their insurrectionary movement. The chief reason why the Jamaica emigration scheme was rejected, must have been the determination of the blacks of Canada to co-operate in the Brown insurrection.

Here, now, are all the results of the Canada experiment, as presented by the official action of its civil officers and public men. Need it be said, that the prospects of the African race have only been rendered the more dark and gloomy, by the conduct of the free colored men of that Province. And when we couple the results there with those of the West Indies, it must be obvious to all, that what has been attempted for the colored race is wholly impracticable; that in its present state of advancement from barbarism, the attainment of civil and social equality, with the enlightened white races, is utterly impossible.

It would appear, then, that philanthropists have committed a grave error in their policy, and the sooner they retrace their steps the better for the colored people. The error to which we refer, is this: they found a small portion of colored men, whose intelligence and moral character equaled that of the average of the white population; and, considering it a great hardship that such men should be doomed to a degraded condition, they attempted to raise them up to the civil and social position which their merits would entitle them to occupy. But in attempting to secure equal rights to the enlightened negro, the philanthropists claimed the same privilege for the whole of that race. In this they failed to recognize the great truth, that free government is not adapted to men in a condition of ignorance and moral degradation. By taking such broad ground—by securing the largest amount of liberty for a great mass of the most degraded of humanity—they have altogether failed in convincing the world, that freedom is a boon worth the bestowal upon the African in his present condition. The intelligent colored man, who could have been lifted up to a suitable hight, and maintained his position, if he had been taken alone, could not be elevated at all when the whole race were fastened to his skirts. And this mistake was a very natural one for men who think but superficially. Despotic government is repugnant to enlightened men: hence, in rejecting it for themselves, they repudiate it as a form of rule for all others. This decision, plausible as it may appear, is not consistent with the philosophy of human nature as it now is; nor is it in accordance with the sentiments of the profound statesmen who framed the American Constitution. They held that only men of intelligence and moral principle were capable of self-government; and, hence, they excluded from citizenship the barbarous and semi-barbarous Indians and Africans, who were around them and in their midst.

In discussing the results of emancipation in the United States, in a preceding chapter, it is stated that one principal cause, operating to check the further liberation of the slaves, at an early day in our history, was, that freedom had proved itself of little value to the colored man, while the measure had greatly increased the burdens of the whites; and that until he should make such progress as would prove that freedom was the best condition for the race, while intermingled with the whites, any further movements toward general emancipation were not to be expected. This view is now indorsed by some of the most prominent abolitionists. Listen to the Rev. Henry Ward Beecher on this subject. In his sermon in reference to the Harper's Ferry affair, he says:

"If we would benefit the African at the South, we must begin at home. This is to some men the most disagreeable part of the doctrine of emancipation. It is very easy to labor for the emancipation of beings a thousand miles off; but when it comes to the practical application of justice and humanity to those about us, it is not so easy. The truths of God respecting the rights and dignities of men, are just as important to free colored men, as to enslaved colored men. It may seem strange for me to say that the lever with which to lift the load of Georgia is in New York; but it is. I do not believe the whole free North can tolerate grinding injustice toward the poor, and inhumanity toward the laboring classes, without exerting an influence unfavorable to justice and humanity in the South. No one can fail to see the inconsistency between our treatment of those among us, who are in the lower walks of life, and our professions of sympathy for the Southern slaves. How are the free colored people treated at the North? They are almost without education, with but little sympathy for their ignorance. They are refused the common rights of citizenship which the whites enjoy. They can not even ride in the cars of our city rail roads. They are snuffed at in the house of God, or tolerated with ill-disguised disgust. Can the black man be a mason in New York? Let him be employed as a journeyman, and every Irish lover of liberty that carries the hod or trowel, would leave at once, or compel him to leave! Can the black man be a carpenter? There is scarcely a carpenter's shop in New York in which a journeyman would continue to work, if a black man was employed in it. Can the black man engage in the common industries of life? There is scarcely one in which he can engage. He is crowded down, down, down through the most menial callings, to the bottom of society. We tax them and then refuse to allow their children to go to our public schools. We tax them and then refuse to sit by them in God's house. We heap upon them moral obloquy more atrocious than that which the master heaps upon the slave. And notwithstanding all this, we lift ourselves up to talk to the Southern people about the rights and liberties of the human soul, and especially the African soul! It is true that slavery is cruel. But it is not at all certain that there is not more love to the race in the South than in the North...... Whenever we are prepared to show toward the lowest, the poorest, and the most despised, an unaffected kindness, such as led Christ, though the Lord of glory, to lay aside his dignities and take on himself the form of a servant, and to undergo an ignominious death, that he might rescue men from ignorance and bondage—whenever we are prepared to do such things as these, we may be sure that the example at the North will not be unfelt at the South. Every effort that is made in Brooklyn to establish churches for the free colored people, and to encourage them to educate themselves and become independent, is a step toward emancipation in the South. The degradation of the free colored men in the North will fortify slavery in the South!"

We think we may safely guarantee, that whenever Northern abolitionists shall carry out Mr. Beecher's scheme, of spending their time and money for the moral and intellectual culture of the free colored people, the South will at once emancipate every slave within her limits; because we will then be in the midst of the millenium. Intelligent free colored men will agree with us in opinion, as they have tested them upon this subject.

One point more remains to be noticed:—the influence which the results in Canada and Jamaica have exerted upon the prospects of the free colored man in the United States. We mean, of course, his prospects for securing the civil and social equality to which he has been aspiring. His own want of progress has been the main cause of checking the extension of emancipation. This is now admitted even by Rev. H. W. Beecher, himself. Then, again, the fact that much less advancement has been made by the negroes in the British Provinces, than by those in the United States, operates still more powerfully in preventing any further liberation of the slaves. These two causes, combined, have dealt a death-blow to the hope of emancipation, in the South, by any moral influence coming from that quarter; and has, in fact, put back that cause, so far as the moral power of the negro is concerned, to a period hopelessly distant. Loyal Britons may urge upon us the duty of emancipation as strongly as they please; but so long as they denounce the influx of colored men as a curse to Canada, just so long they will fail in persuading Americans that an increase of free negroes will be a blessing to the United States. The moral power of the free negro, in promoting emancipation, is at an end; but how is it with his prospects of success in the employment of force? The Harper's Ferry movement is pronounced, by anti-slavery men themselves, as the work of a madman; and no other attempt of that kind can be more successful, as none but the insane and the ignorant will ever enlist in such an enterprise. The power of the free colored people in promoting emancipation, say what they will, is now at an end.

But these are not all the results of the movements noticed. They have not only rendered the free colored people powerless in emancipation, but have acted most injuriously upon themselves, as a class, in both the free and the slave States. In the Northwestern free States, every new Constitution framed, and every old one amended, with perhaps one exception, exclude the free negroes from the privileges of citizenship. In the slave States, generally, efforts are making not only to prevent farther emancipations, but to drive out the free colored population from their territories.

Thus, at this moment, stands the question of the capacity of the free colored people of the United States, to influence public opinion in favor of emancipation. And where are their champions who kindled the flame which is now extinguished? Many of them are in their graves; and the Harper's Ferry act, but applied the match that exploded the existing organizations. One chieftain—always truthful, ever in earnest—is, alas, in the lunatic asylum; another—whose zeal overcomes his judgment, at times—backs down from the position he had taken, that rifles were better than bibles in the conflict with slavery; another—coveting not the martyr's crown, yet a little—has left his editorial chair, to put the line dividing English and American territory between himself and danger; another—whose life could not well be spared, as he, doubtless, thought—after helping to organize the conspiracy at Chatham, in Canada, immediately set out to explore Africa: perhaps to select a home for the Virginia slaves, and be ready to receive them when Brown should set them free. These forces can never be re-combined. As for others, so far as politicians are concerned, the colored race have nothing to hope. The battle for free territory, in the sense in which they design to be understood, is a contest to keep the blacks and whites entirely separate. It is a determination to carry out the policy of Jefferson, by separating the races where it can be accomplished—a policy that will be adhered to in the free States, and which the Canadians would gladly adopt, if the mother country would permit them to carry out their wishes.

Free colored men of the United States! "in the days of adversity consider." Are not the signs of the times indicative of the necessity of a change of policy?