line is not of a heat intolerable to the labourer of European race. No part of the Southern States is within the Tropics. The Tropic of Cancer nearly touches the north of Cuba. Mr. Olmsted has, in his last volume, collected much elaborate sta- . tistical information, for the purpose of showing that negro slavery is an economical error in the Southern States, and that cotton could be cultivated in them more profitably by free white labour than by black slave labour. If this conclusion could be satisfactorily established, it would doubtless do more for the repression and extinction of slavery than any arguments founded on motives of humanity alone." It must, however, be confessed that the English or AngloSaxon race, as, with its characteristic energy, it spreads over the surface of the earth, is only able to form a homogeneous and thriving community in temperate regions. It has cast its roots into the earth, and has expanded with native vigour, in the northern regions of America, and in the southern parts of Australia. But in the hot countries, where the European cannot endure field-work, it is less successful. Where the AngloSaxon cannot, on account of the hot climate, himself colonise the country and cultivate the soil, he is forced to avail himself *The supposed failure of the emancipation of the negroes in the British colonies, and the alleged ruin of their cultivation, undoubtedly tend to confirm the planters of the South in their resolution of adhering firmly to the institution of slavery. Now it cannot be denied that the expectations of those who predicted that the free negroes would form an industrious working class of moral and orderly habits, have been falsified; but it is an error to suppose that the sugar cultivation of the British West India Islands has been destroyed by emancipation. The decline of Jamaica has been considerable, but the produce of the other islands has increased since the period immediately preceding the change: and the produce of Mauritius, where the labour of coolies has been available, has undergone a large increase. The following table exhibits the comparative quantities of the sugar produced. of the labour of an inferior race. Three forms of this experiment are now in course of trial, and we cannot say that any one of them exhibits satisfactory results. One is the negro slavery of the Southern United States; another is the free labour of negroes in the British West India Islands; the third is the system of British India, by which the ownership and cultivation. of the soil remain in the hands of the natives, and the entire governing power is vested in Englishmen temporarily resident in the country. The Missouri Compromise seems to be an attempt to draw a line between the country where whites can work in the fields and where they cannot. We feel satisfied that this line is drawn too high; at all events, no good reason can exist why negro slavery should exist, as at present, to the north of this line. But in proceeding southwards a climate must soon be reached where the Anglo-Saxon cannot endure field labour, and from this line the main practical difficulty of the policy of the Northern abolitionists begins. We do not observe in Mr. Olmsted's volumes, or in other writings of a similar nature, any attempt to explain the policy which they would recommend in a region too hot for white labour. Would they repeat the English measure of emancipation, or would they acquiesce in negro slavery? It is important that their views on this part of the question should be clearly stated, because the Southern States must meditate extension to the south of Texas, and the Federal Government, if the United States are to retain or recover their cohesion, must be prepared to deal with the questions which will inevitably grow out of the incorporation of a country within the tropics. In addition to the grounds of dissension between the North and South above enumerated, we ought to bear in mind the difference between the democracy of a free State and the democracy of a slave State. If slavery is to be regarded as a fixed and permanent institution, and the slave class bears a large numerical proportion to the freemen, the democracy resembles the democracy of the ancients. It is a community composed of a privileged class of freemen, but in which all the working classes are slaves. It is essentially unlike the democracy of the Northern States of the American Union, in which the working classes form the majority of the voters. The address of President Lincoln upon his taking the oath of office, augurs ill for the maintenance of the Union. The policy which it announces is neither that of conciliation nor that of defiance. He shuts his eyes to the fact of secession; and he declares his intention of enforcing the federal laws as if it did not exist. Under the operation of this policy the Northern States must speedily drift into war, supposing it to be consistently followed. The best defence which can be made of the inaugural address is, that it does not mean what it says; that its object is to gain time, and that the Federal Executive intends to adopt no decisive step, until the intentions of the Border States are declared. 6 It would, in our opinion, be premature to speculate upon the probable effects of the movement now in progress. All specu lations must rest on a merely conjectural basis, until it is known whether there will be war between the Northern States and the Southern Confederacy; and whether the Border States will adhere to the Free North, or join the Slave States of the South. We will only, in conclusion, express our opinion that the maintenance of the Union, in perpetuity, is impossible; and that the entire region from Niagara to Mexico, and from New York to California, cannot continue for many years to be governed by a single Federal Government. Dissolution, to some extent, and at no distant period, is, we believe, the manifest 'destiny' of the United States. Whenever this dissolution takes place, international law will regulate the relations of the new confederacies upon recognised principles; there will be, as in the Old World, conflicts of interests, mutual compromises, and a balance of power, but the superior energy, intelligence, and wealth of the Northern States must, as we think, cause their influence to preponderate, and thus will enable them to Occupy all the temperate regions of North America, with a population cultivating the soil by means of free labour, and renouncing the institution of slavery. We cannot concur in the opinion of those who have expressed unmingled regret at the apparent dissolution of the Union. No doubt the comparative failure of so great an experiment in the progress of mankind is to be deplored; but we are by no means convinced that the progress of mankind and of rational liberty will not be advanced by this separation. Nothing could be more deplorable than a sanguinary contest between the two great sections of the American people; but we are convinced, for numerous reasons, that such a contest, if it take place at all, will be of very short duration. On the other hand, we confidently believe that the perils of the commonwealth will call a bigher class of men to the direction of public affairs, and that the fate of millions of freemen will not long be abandoned to the corrupt and incapable agencies which have lately governed it. The severance of the Union into two parts will beget in both of them a stronger sense of the obligations of international law, and a greater respect for their neighbours. The South will follow the broad path of commercial freedom uncontrolled by Northern protectionists. The North will follow the higher track of social freedom unfettered by Southern slaveholders. To each division of the Union a vast career of power, prosperity, and usefulness remains open; and if they have the good sense to abstain from mutual aggression, each of these two great countries may continue to play as important a part in the affairs of the world as when they were united by the slender tie of a Federal Compact. No. CCXXXI. will be published in July. INDEX. 6 A - Admiralty Administration, its Faults and Defaults, reviewed, 282. - - - - - America, United States of, secession of Gulf States, 556 - constitu- - - Auckland, Lord William, his Journal and Correspondence reviewed, B - Babrius, Fables of, 524-discovery of the First Part, 525 — the - - |