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script, and it had been shown to us, with the information that an American lady intended to publish it in America, we should have said, 'The readers for whom that book is intended, must enjoy a high civilisation and great moral and intellectual cultivation. They must be religious, just, and humane. If they form part of an empire tainted by slavery, they must be impatient of the disgrace, and alarmed by the sin.' And the result would have more than justified us, as it has more than justified Mrs. Stowe.

We must admit, however, that Mrs. Stowe, writing from personal observation, draws a dark picture of the influence of slavery, and of the slave trade, on a portion of her countrymen who take no part in active political life.

We copy a part of one of her letters, dated Paris, August, 1853:

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There is one thing which cannot but make one indignant 'here in Paris, and which, I think, is keenly felt by some of 'the best among the French; and that is the indifference of 'many Americans, while here, to their own national principles of liberty. They seem to come to Paris merely to be hangers 'on and applauders in the train of the man who has overthrown the hopes of France. To all that cruelty and injustice by 'which thousands of hearts are now bleeding, they appear ' entirely insensible. They speak with heartless levity of the 'revolutions of France, as of a pantomime got up for their 'diversion. Their time and thoughts seem to be divided 'between defences of American slavery and efforts to attach 'themselves to the skirts of French tyranny. They are the 'parasites of parasites - delighted if they can but get to an 'imperial ball, and beside themselves if they can secure an 'introduction. Noble-minded men of all parties here, who have 'sacrificed all for principle, listen with suppressed indignation 'while young America, fresh from the theatres and gambling 'saloons, declares, between the whiffs of his cigar, that the 'French are not capable of free institutions, and that the government of Louis Napoleon is the best thing that France 'could have. Thus, from the plague-spot at her heart, has 'America become the propagandist of despotism in Europe. 'Nothing weighs so fearfully against the cause of the people 'of Europe as this kind of American influence. Through 'almost every city of Europe are men whose great glory it 'appears to be to proclaim that they worship the beast, and bear his name in their foreheads. I have seen sometimes, in 'the forests, a vigorous young sapling which had sprung up 'from the roots of an old, decaying tree. So, unless the course

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of things alters much in America, a purer civil liberty will "spring up from her roots in Europe, while her national tree is blasted with despotism.'*

We must add that the sympathy with Russia which has been manifested by some of the inhabitants of the Southern States, supports Mrs. Stowe's remark, that the defenders of slavery in America naturally become the enemies of freedom in Europe. The good sense and the liberality of the opinions of a neutral may generally be tested by the side which his wishes take in the present war. The people, that is to say, the mass of the inhabitants, of Europe, are anti-Russian. They see that wherever Russian power, or even Russian influence, extends, it brings with it repression, ignorance, religious intolerance, the slavery of the press, commercial restriction, and every other oppression by which improvement can be arrested and Europe forced back into a barbarism worse than that of the dark ages, as the barbarism of communities that have once been civilised is more corrupt and more hopeless than that of a race that still retains, like our Saxon ancestors, the vigour and independence of their still less civilised progenitors.

The Continental despots and their courtiers look forward to Russian preponderance with expectations similar to those of their subjects; but, with the intense selfishness which belongs to power ill acquired or ill used, the greater part of them desire it on the very grounds on which their subjects dread it. They believe, as the Russian Government itself believes, that knowledge, toleration, self-respect, freedom of the press, freedom of trade, freedom of intercourse, -in short, all that raises man intellectually and morally, is favourable to the object of their hatred and terror, political liberty. Hence their love of Russia, as the type and the supporter of what they call order, as their faithful ally in their struggle against improvement, as the great and generous friend, whose ready sympathy can always be relied on by a king, or a prince, or a grand duke, at variance with his subjects, and whose active aid will be given as soon as the interference of England and France is no longer to be feared.

The slave holders and slave traders of America are too strong to need to look for assistance to Russia; but they sympathise with her partly for some of the reasons which govern the petty tyrants of Italy and Germany, and partly for reasons of their own. They hate England as abolitionist, as Ferdinand hates her as liberal. They love Russia, as he does, for her intolerance

* Sunny Memories, vol. ii. letter 48.

of liberty and knowledge. And there is between the two countries the strong bond of similarity of institutions. Russia and the Southern States of the American Union are the only civilised-or, at least, not confessedly barbarian-slave holders left in the world. Slavery in Russia is indeed far milder, and far less diffused, and it is gradually wearing out. But while it lasts Southern America has the countenance of one companion.

As an illustration of the prevalent feeling, we copy from a New Orleans paper, of the 15th January, 1855, the following extract from a speech addressed by the Rev. Ch. R. Marshall, chairman of the Committee of Education, to a Convention of Delegates from the Southern States.

The speaker reprobated the practice of educating Southern children in the North. Our sons and daughters,' he said, ' return to us with their minds poisoned by fanatical teachings ' and influences against the institution of slavery.'

The reverend speaker,' continues the reporter, 'then con'sidered slavery as an institution, and passed upon it a glowing 'eulogium, as contributing to the glory in arts and science, in ' religion, and national prosperity, in all countries wherein it has 'ever existed. He described it as forming a part of the patri'archal system of government established by God himself, as having been countenanced by Christ, and argumentatively 'sustained, and practically supported by the chief of Christ's 'Apostles, St. Paul. He (the speaker) had proclaimed these ' opinions in the streets of New York, and of Boston. He believed slavery to be right, and that within fifty years, instead ' of decreasing, it would be double in extent to what it now is. 'He believed that the colonies now gathering on the coast of 'Africa would all be slave States.'

In the course of his speech,' adds the reporter, Mr. Mar'shall, commenting on the hostility of England towards our 'institutions, drew forth loud demonstrations of applause by 'expressing the hope, very earnestly, that the Czar would triumph in the pending war in the East.'

We return from this digression to the most striking, though perhaps not the most important, of the recent triumphs of the Southern party,-the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850.

We have seen that little effect was given to the clause in the Constitution directing that persons held to service in one State ' and escaping to another shall be delivered up to the party to 'whom such service was due.' The disinclination of the local authorities in the free States to enforce the law against a fugitive, the evidence as to the claimant's title, as to the servi

tude of the person claimed, and as to his identity, which they vexatiously required-the protection and concealment, and often the active assistance, which he received from the religious and the humane,—and the expense of the legal proceedings, and of the escort which was sometimes necessary to prevent a rescue on the road, and to detain the fugitive at night, were the chief obstacles to the efficiency of the Act of 1793. The Act of 1850 endeavours to remove them. It directs the circuit Courts of the United States to appoint Commissioners, with a view 'to afford reasonable facilities to reclaim fugitives from labour.' It enacts that the owner of a fugitive or his agent may pursue and reclaim him, either by obtaining a warrant, or by himself seizing and arresting him, and may then take him before a commissioner, whose duty it shall be to determine the case summarily, and, on proof by deposition or affidavit of the title of the claimant, and the identity of the fugitive, to grant to the claimant a certificate, which shall authorise the claimant or his agent to remove such fugitive back to the State whence he or she escaped. IN NO TRIAL OR HEARING, UNDER THIS 'ACT' it continues, SHALL THE TESTIMONY OF SUCH 'ALLEGED FUGITIVE BE ADMITTED IN EVIDENCE.' On affidavit of the claimant, or of his agent, that he fears a rescue, an officer of the court is bound to undertake the removal of the fugitive to the State whence he escaped, and to require such assistance as he may think necessary, and is to be repaid all his expenses out of the treasury of the United States. The marshals and deputy marshals of the United States are bound to assist under a penalty of 1000 dollars, and are liable in the full value of the fugitive if he escapes from them. The persons executing the Act are directed to call in aid all bystanders and the posse comitatus, and all good citizens are commanded to assist them. The commissioner is paid by fees, and receives 10 dollars if he grants his certificate, but only 5 if he refuses it. Every person obstructing a claimant, or attempting to rescue a fugitive, or harbouring, or concealing, or assisting him or her, directly or indirectly, to escape is, for each such offence, to pay to the United States a fine of 1000 dollars, and to be imprisoned for six months, and moreover is to pay by way of civil damages to the owner 1000 dollars for each slave thereby lost to him. Lastly, any owner of a fugitive slave may apply to any Court of Record in his State, whereupon the judge, on being satisfied as to the ownership, and the slave's escape, is to make a record of the facts, and a description of the fugitive, and to deliver to the applicant a transcript of such record. Which 'transcript,' says the Act, shall be held and taken to be full

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' and conclusive evidence of the fact of the escape, and that the 'service or labour of the person escaping is due to the party "therein mentioned.' The production of this transcript, together with other evidence, if necessary, of the identity of the person claimed, to a commissioner in any other State, entitles the claimant to a certificate, authorising him to seize or arrest and transport the person claimed to the State from whence he escaped.

No time is a bar. A man who has been settled for thirty years in a northern city, who has a family and a profession, who has forgotten that he ever was in bondage, or perhaps who never was in bondage, may be dragged before a commissioner bribed by a double fee to condemn him, and on affidavit that A. B. is a slave, and that he is A. B., may, without being heard in his defence, for the Act expressly declares that he shall not be heard, be summarily sent into slavery for life. Even this mockery of a trial is not necessary. Under the last clause in the Act, A. B. living in Charleston, hearing that there is in Philadelphia one C. D., whom he would like to appropriate, has only to go to the Charleston Court, and obtain a transcript of a record describing C. D., and stating that he is A. B.'s fugitive slave. On showing this transcript in Philadelphia, and making oath as to C. D.'s identity, he is entitled to a Philadelphian certificate, with which he may proceed to C. D.'s house, and, without warning, summons, or trial, seize him, bind him, gag him, and carry him back as a slave to Charleston.

America calls herself free, but such oppression is not to be found in Naples or in Russia. What security has any coloured / person, what security indeed has any white person, under such a law as this? Under a law by which he can be declared a slave in his absence, on an ex parte application, and receive the first notice that his freedom has been questioned from those who handcuff him as a slave?

It is said that the Southern States frightened the Northern States into acquiescence, by threatening, if their monstrous bill were rejected, to renounce the Union. We cannot understand how such a threat should have been effectual. Had we been Northerns, we should have acted on it, instead of submitting to it. We should have said, Rather than be the accomplices and the victims of such a tyranny, we separate. We are already a great nation, in a few years we shall be a great empire, free from a stain which debases us at home and disgraces us abroad.'

We say the victims, as well as the accomplices, for under the provisions of this law on what tenure does an American hold

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