"We fear that the course and current of events are rapidly tending towards such a catastrophe. We, however, hope for the best, though we ought, certainly, to be prepared for the worst."

these :

"Under such circumstances, we ought neither | he endeavours to introduce Kansas as a slave to count the cost nor regard the odds which Spain State; and that his only chance of retaining might enlist against us. We forbear to enter into his majority lies in throwing himself heart the question, whether the present condition of the and soul into the arms of the South, or rather island would justify such a measure. We should, however, be recreant to our duty, be unworthy of into those of the fillibusters, if we read aright our gallant forefathers, and commit base treason such passages aş against our posterity, should we permit Cuba to be Africanized and become a second St. Domingo, "But if Mr. Buchanan turn his back on those with all its attendant horrors to the white race, expedients, if he refuse to abdicate his mission as and suffer the flames to extend to our own neigh-a President of the United States at this juncture, bouring shores, seriously to endanger, or actually and direct the energies of the Government where to consume the fair fabric of our Union. the Ostend letter-the best document he ever signed-points, to wit, towards the tropics, towards Cuba, Nicaragua, and Mexico, he will succeed. He owes his election to the vote of the South, and to the defiant attitude of resistance which she was beginning to assume. He should If we remember rightly, the illustration of bear that fact well in mind. He will be a traitor the burning house-the proximo ardet Uca- and insensible to every manly feeling of gratitude, legon-was employed by a leading London if he forget it and disregard the obligations it imjournal to justify the intervention of Great Plies. Then let him live up to the letter and Britain in the affairs of Naples. It would ob- terests in Cuba, which, by right of geography and spirit of the Ostend letter; let him look to our inviously serve equally well to justify the inter- of political necessity, should be ours; let him for position of France to put down the free press tify Walker in Nicaragua and forestall Spanish of Belgium, or that of Austria to suppress and French designs upon Mexico; let him place (what she would call) such a hotbed of liber- the great Tehuantepec route beyond the hazard of alism as Sardinia. Necessity is proverbially being lost to us by securing the grant of a strip the tyrant's plea, and its occasional employ- these things, and we can laugh to scorn the subtle of territory across that isthmus. Let him do ment for a good purpose, or from a good policy of Seward, the rhetorical raving of Sumner, motive, simply strengthens it, and facilitates and the blatant menaces of their followers. There its employment when it is used as an offensive would be a howl from the Abolitionists and free weapon by the strong against the weak. In negroes, of course. But the great issues such a the majority of such instances, the fire is policy would bring up would confront us face to kindled, or some smouldering emblems are would be borne down by that national spirit face with England and France. The Opposition blown into a flame, by the intervening party which always sways the national heart when conlooking about for a pretext; and, in almost fronted with other nations. The acquisition of all, the conflagration is too far off or too slight Cuba, in defiance of England and France, would to excite well-founded alarm, it simply not split the Union it would strengthen it. causes temporary inconvenience: it does not The regeneration of Central America by Walker threaten existence, which it should do, to in alliance with the United States would lead to bring the case fairly within the paramount law the gradual emancipation of the West Indies from of self-preservation. "Il faut vivre," said the infamous free-negroism established by the ene"Il faut vivre," said mies of American Republicanism. The people 'the thief; "Je n'en vais pas la nécessité," re- from Maine to California are sick and tired of old plied the judge, and sentenced him to be issues. They want something new, bold, and exhanged. The whole civilized world may pansive. They want a policy, in keeping with make the same reply to the Fillibusters of the steam, railroads, and telegraphs. They want new United States, when they say that their "cher- leaders, new homes, and new ideas." ished Union," or their no less cherished institution of slavery, requires to be upheld or extended by robbery and bloodshed.

That Mr. Buchanan will consider himself bound by his Ostend Manifesto is by no means probable. A candidate, or an opposition leader, will profess or encourage doctrines which he knows to be utterly incompatible with official responsibility.

The effect of a war with the great maritime powers of Europe on American com merce is sagaciously kept in the background, but it is constantly present to the apprehensions of the most influential people in the States, including the cotton planters; and we are not at all afraid that either President or Congress will advisedly provoke hostili Mr. Buchanan will thus, most probably, ties, although circumstances may occur which accommodate his policy to his position. Yet may render a foreign war expedient to avert the "Go-ahead" party seem by no means a civil war; just as it is well understood inclined to let him off. In the New-Orleans that Napoleon the Third, with all his perDelta (the organ of Jefferson Davis) the new sonal regard for England, would not hesitate President is forewarned that his northern sup- to quarrel with or invade her to-morrow, if porters will speedily fall off from him when such a step were necessary to divert atten

Dr. Johnson used to relate exultingly how he had given Mrs. Macaulay, a professed republican, a practical lesson:" Madam, I am now become a convert to your way of thinking. I am convinced that all mankind

tion from his domestic embarrassments. | partial justice on his requisition, would The slave question may bring about such a shrink from personal contact with him as incrisis at any moment, and the settlement of stinctively as the feudal baron shrunk from the Kansas affair (which is still unsettled) the touch of the Jew from whom he sought will produce at best but a temporary lull. to wring gold by torture. At present there are fifteen slave States and sixteen free States, each appointing two senators, without reference to population. The admission of Kansas as a slave State, therefore, would apparently equalize the parties. But in point of fact, the slave party has already are upon an equal footing; and to give you a majority in the Senate, and so strong a minority in the House of Representatives, that they uniformly obtain their main objects. Their success in this respect, combined with their extreme arrogance, seems to have roused at last the pride or jealousy of the free States; and they are pressed with an argument which hardly admits of a logical or even plausible reply.

an unquestionable proof, moreover, that I am in earnest, here is a sensible, civil, wellbehaved fellow-citizen, your footman; I desire that he may be allowed to sit down and dine with us." Let Mrs. Stowe try this experiment with some of the leading Abolitionists, and she will find the measure of the progress that has been made in the good work, and of the mountains of prejudice that yet remain to be levelled or cut through. Yet this is the only mode in which the desired object can be consummated; and we do not agree with those who condemn her or Mr. Sumner for infusing exasperation, irritability, or the phrenzied violence of fear into the discussion. Revolutions are not made with rose water. It was not by mild language or soothing epithets that Luther roused Europe to a sense of the abuses of the Church. The coarse and selfish must be frightened and startled into humanity. They must be compelled to look about them, and read their history in the eyes of the best and most honoured of their cotemporaries in every quarter of the globe. It is only by so doing, and by deeply meditating on what they see and learn, that they can save themselves and the glorious land which they inhabit from great calamities and great crimes.

In apportioning the number of representatives according to population, five blacks are equivalent to three whites. If blacks are mere chattels, why should they confer political rights any more than other chattels? or why should a slave State, by virtue of its live stock, claim to out-vote a free State, which could buy it up twenty times over? If, even in theory, they contemplated or would admit the remotest possibility of the black taking his place in the social system as a thinking being and independent member, the contradiction would be less glaring, but this is precisely what they never will recognise; whilst, what complicates the problem, and clouds the future, the more enlightened people of the North shrink from social contact with the negro race, and stigmatize any mixture of black blood, with every external sign of more inveterate prejudice than the slaveholder. The explana- Lord Carlisle has stated, as one result of tion is simple; and a phenomenon of the what he had observed during his travels in same sort may be observed in any European the New World,-"I should not object to country where the aristocracy of birth or po- be a slave if I had a good master; but I sition is fenced round by a strict line of de- should very much object to being a slavemarcation. The nobles will there constant- holder anyhow." Mr. Monckton Milnes, to ly be found more affable to their inferiors and whom we are indebted for this anecdote, less anxious to repel the familiarity of the ple- pointed it by adding: "This is the true beian, than in countries where the highest class way of putting the question; for how sad blends gradually with the middle. Just so, must be the condition of that man who is the removal of the legal distinction between afraid to educate and elevate those about the black man and his white neighbour sim- him?" Most probably Lord Carlisle was ply leads to the strengthening of the conven- also thinking of the sinfulness of such protional barrier. The black may have rights prietorship, and of the inevitable tendency and privileges, but it is as much as his life is of irresponsible power to foster the worst worth to exercise them. If he entered a jury-passions, to destroy all self-command, to ruin box, he would be motioned out of it or left the temper, and to harden the heart. Mrs. alone. If he attempted to vote at an election, Stowe may not have been eminently successhe would be hooted and pelted from that ful in Dred, in which she aimed at depicting pure emblem of uncontrolled liberty, the the social effects of slavery on the proprieballot-box. The very magistrate, could such tary class. She may have proved wanting a one be found, who should administer im- in that instinct of genius which enabled Bal

zac to paint Parisian men and women comme il faut, without knowing them; but no one who has studied the mind or heart of man can doubt that the institution in question is irremediably destructive of the highest qualities of both.

grasping spirit on the part of the govern ment of the United States. But little more can be attempted in the way of purchase or conquest, without provoking a general war; and in the natural course of events, therefore, their sadly abused sway will be wrested from them. In that case, will the hackneyed threat of breaking up the Union prevent

Mr. Seward made light of this threat.

screened it from discussion in the national coun

Nor are its blighting, blinding, cramping, and corrupting influences confined to those who directly profit by it. These manifestly the majority from legislating in accordance extend, more or less, to all who live within with the fundamental principles of the Reits sphere or partake of the modes of public? thinking engendered by it. Look at the rest of the population of the slave states, "the poor whites of the South," who outnum- "The Slave States," he says, "practically govber the actual slaveholders with their fami- erned the Union directly for fifty years. They lies in the proportion of at least three to one. govern it now indirectly through the agency of They are almost wholly destitute of educa- Northern hands temporarily enlisted in their suption: they are wretchedly poor; and it is port. So much, owing to the decline of their only necessary to compare their condition power, they have already conceded to the Free States. The next step, if they persist in their with that of the labouring class in the free present course, will be the resumption and exerStates to see at a glance that their degrada- cise by the Free States of the power of the govtion is owing to slavery. Yet they are the ernment, without such concessions as they have willing tools of their proud and lordly hitherto made to attain it. Throughout a period neighours, and are always ready to perpe of nearly twenty years, the defenders of slavery trate any amount of violence at their bidding; cils. Now they practically confess to the necesIt was they who invaded Kansas, intimidated sity for defending it here, by initiating the disthe judges, and did the tarring and feather-cussion themselves. They have at once thrown ing business as it was wanted. It is they away their most successful weapon, compromise, who, when they emigrate, retire to the out- and waived that one which was next in effectiveskirts of civilisation, where they lead a semi-ness, threats of secession from the Union." savage life, owning no law but that which they themselves carry out under the familiar name of Lynch. Whilst slavery is upheld, there is confessedly no chance of supplying their place with a more industrious or better-conditioned race. "Slave labour and free labour," says Governor Reeder, "as all men admit, North and South, cannot exist together. Dedicate a State to slave labour, and northern emigration, guided by the sure hand of self-preservation, will shun it as it would the valley of the upas-tree. Having shut the gates of Kansas and the other future states against northern emigration by making them slave states, whither will you turn this immense empire-building human stream? Theory and experience both demonstrate that no temptation of natural advantages or low prices will induce it to enter a slave state."

The logical corollary to this indisputable truth is, that the internal increase of wealth and population must be in favour of the Abolitionists, and that all the future Chicagos will throw their weight into the scale against the hitherto triumphant and domineering policy of the South. The slaveholding interest can only maintain its position by the annexation of new states lying in southern latitudes; and for this reason their continued predominance will infallibly be found synonymous with an aggressive and

But no extent of idle flourishing can wear out or blunt a powerful and trenchant weapon, although, like the cry of wolf in the fable, it may have ceased to inspire fear; for separation touches the pockets as well as the natural pride of the Northern States. If they refuse to protect the slave interest, the Southern planters will refuse to protect manufactures; and the abandonment of slavery will be revenged by the proclamation of free-trade. At present one set of vicious and impolitic measures or regulations is kept up by way of compensation for another, and the paramount considerations of self-interest, well or ill understood, bid fair for some time to prolong both. That slavery should be actually voted illegal, without separation or civil war, is hardly to be anticipated; and much as we may regret or reprobate the tone assumed by the now dominant faction, we cease to wonder at it when we reflect that their lives and property are imperilled by every fresh appeal or demonstration of the Abolitionists. News arrives as we write that formidable conspiracies have been recently formed amongst the slaves of several districts, and that fresh laws have been passed for subduing them, and keeping them, in point of knowledge, as much as possible on the level of the brutes that perish. From all we read or hear, it

their interested or prejudiced support of slavery at home has given them a perverted taste for oppression abroad. She denounces "young America" as the habitual partisan of the arch-enemy of French freedom, and exclaims, " Thus from the plague spot at her heart has America become the propagandist of despotism in Europe."

seems clear that things have not changed or instruction from what they see and hear for the better since Mr. Tocqueville thus amongst foreigners. Mrs. Stowe, with her spoke of the impending struggle between mind full of her own subject, complains that the races :-"The danger, more or less distant, but inevitable, of a struggle between the white and black population of the South of the Union, is unceasingly present, like a painful dream, to the imagination of the Americans. The inhabitants of the North converse daily about these perils, although directly they have nothing to fear. They seek in vain for the means of conjuring away the evils they foresee. In the States of the South they are silent; the future is never mentioned to strangers; they shun coming to an explanation even with their friends; each hides it, so to speak, from himself. The silence of the South has something in it more appalling than the noisy fears of the North."

But, we say with Mr. Senior, our own experience does not enable us to confirm Mrs. Stowe. We may have heard "young America express astonishment, mingled with something like contempt, at the blindness with which contending factions paved the way for the iron heel that was to trample down all of them, or the tameness with which Frenchmen submit to political nonenIf the blacks were emancipated, what tities, or the complacency with which many would they do, or what would become of of them hug themselves on their good forthem? This is a question which the Abo- tune in having got a government of Foulds, litionists have hitherto failed to answer sat- Walewskis, Billaults, and Persignys to take isfactorily; yet it is one to which every care of them. But the élite of the Amerithoughtful moralist or philanthropist, as well cans settled in Paris are content to look on, as every prudent politician, will demand a like other rational observers, whilst the reply, before impoverishing a full third of country whose hospitality they accept is workthe leading families in the Union, and placing out her destiny; and their aspirations for ing three millions of human beings in a her eventual restoration to her proper place condition of responsibility for which they amongst free nations are as ardent, if not have been advisedly disqualified from in- quite so loudly or so indiscreetly uttered, as fancy. Mrs. Stowe's.

The object of this Article, however, is not What is far more difficult to excuse in to suggest caution or to give advice to their conduct is the fastidiousness which has American statesmen, but to describe and ex- led to their voluntary exile, their preference plain, for British readers, the present state of the polished circles of a European metroof feeling and opinion in the great federal polis to a sphere where-at some sacrifice Republic. With this view we have referred of comfort, it is true-they might apply to speeches and writings, as well as to their wealth and their acquirements to beneknown deeds and supposed views, by way ficial and patriotic uses. But their influence, of affording the most striking illustration of though greatly lessened by distance, is not the tone and manner in which measures and altogether lost upon their countrymen, who questions of paramount importance are de- are sensitively alive to European and cided and discussed amongst the most en- (above all) to French and English opinion. lightened people of the New World. The No one has enjoyed better opportunities of estimate would be incomplete without com- ascertaining to what extent the United States prising some account of the travelled or would be lowered in the scale of nations by travelling Americans, who crowd the hotels any of the irregular proceedings demanded of Germany, Switzerland, and Italy, and of him by the ultras of his party than Mr. occupy a prominent position in the society Buchanan, and he has obviously no inclinaof Paris. These differ widely from one an- tion to be hurried into the open defiance of other in breeding, fortune, habits, and modes international law, justice, and propriety, of thinking. They have been inaccurately which marked the turbulant close of his preset down as a class; and what may be true decessor's rule. He knows that we have, of many of them, is commonly untrue of the and can have, no well-founded alarm for majority. Their least prepossessing features Canada, which is well able to protect itself; and most unfavourable peculiarities are dis- and that our desire to retain a voice in played when they get together and take to Central American arrangements has no imboasting; and as they rarely speak plainly aginable connexion with projects of territoany language besides their own, no travel-rial aggrandizement. The renewal of diplolers (except the French) derive less profit matic relations by the nomination of so dis

tinguished and accomplished a representa United States; and it would be with pecutive as Lord Napier, is a decisive proof of liar reference to internal discussions and dif the spirit in which American questions will ficulties that our Transatlantic brethren, be discussed on our part. Despite, then, of when they boast of their growing prosperity, the Ostend Manifesto and electioneering nnight be addressed :-" Fortunate men, pledges, there seems little reason to fear any you have lived to see it. Fortunate, indeed, aggressive movement which should practical- if you live to see nothing to vary the prosly interrupt the commercial and friendly in- pect and cloud the setting of your day!" tercourse between Great Britain and the

NOTE.

In our last Number, (Art. VII., Cockburn's Memorials, pp. 138,) in the passage referring to Lord Jeffrey's change of feeling towards Christianity, the following sentence occurs : "In Cockburn's hands the materials of explanation were placed, which he had no right to keep back." In that sentence we alluded to information regarding certain circumstances in Lord Jeffrey's history, which indicate that, in the closing years of his life, he was led to take a deep interest in Christianity. These circumstances were known to not a few before the "Life of Jeffrey" was published; and we were led to suppose, that documentary information regarding them was placed before his biographer. In this we now find that we have been mistaken; there being no evidence that the materials we referred to were placed in his hands, or that their existence was known to him. At the same time, we must express our great regret, that facts of so much moment in their bearing on Lord Jeffrey's history, were either unknown to his biographer, or, if within his knowledge, were regarded as unworthy of notice.