The doctor places a large earthen vessel, half full of water, over a fire, and over its mouth a grating of sticks, whereon he places a small child and a fowl, side by side, and covers them over with a second large earthen vessel just like the first, only inverted, to keep the steam in, when he sets fire below, cooks for a certain period of time, and then looks to see if his victims are still living or dead-when, should they be dead, the war must be deferred, but otherwise commeuced at once."* The indefatigable expiorer of the Nile fully agrees, with all those investigators who are of opinion that the negro has been the same for thousands of years; that, when left alone, he has never made the slightest advancement. "As his fathers ever did, so does he. He works his wife, sells his children, enslaves all he can lay hands upon, and, unless when fighting for the property of others, contents himself with drinking, singing, and dancing like a baboon, to drive dull care away."t

There is similar unanimity among ethnologists as to the light in which slavery is viewed by the African tribes, its effect upon those who are subjected to its influence, and their subsequent ideas of freedom when they happen to be emancipated. It seems that four thousand years ago, as well as now, and now as well as four thousand years ago, the negro father would sell his own children, young or old, to the slavetrader, for a few bottles of brandy, or a piece of brass or iron, and see them writhe with grief and anguish in the hands of their purchasers without remorse. They are much less affected on disposing of their kindred in this way, not to mention their neighbors, than white people are on disposing of their cows or horses. The victims grieve and fret as they do, often to such an extent as to commit suicide-not through affection for their parents, but through fear of their masters, and the natural repugnance which every human being, be he civilized or savage, has to be taken by force from his native haunts to be brought, he knows not whither. When the negro slave is set free, he is generally much rejoiced for a few days; he refuses to work until absolute want compels him to do so; sometimes he will permit himself to starve rather than exert himself to procure the necessaries of life. Large numbers return to their friends; but many of them, if not the majority, voluntarily return into slavery; or, if they happen to be so shrewd as to secure slaves of their own, they are the cruelest of masters. Trav

* Journal of the Discovery of the Source of the Nile, p. xxiii. + Ibid., p. xxiv.

ellers and investigators have but too many opportunities to test the truth of this; for if there are any who think that the slave-trade no longer exists they are much mistaken. So far as Christians are concerned it may be said to have ceased, except with the Brazilians and Cubans, but it is as active as ever in the East. Thousands of negroes are brought overland, annually, into Arabia, Turkey, Persia, and Afghanistan. But if slavery existed nowhere, save in Africa itself, there would still be an abundant demand for the forced service of the unhappy negro, since he is readily purchased by the people of Zangebar, Mozambique, and Abyssinia, as well as those of all the Barbary States and Egypt. Thus, if we may happily congratulate ourselves that the flag of the United States can no longer be regarded, in any sense, as the emblem of slavery, we must not, therefore, think that slavery is abolished. Alas! there is but little hope that it ever will be. If the institution were abolished to-morrow by Spain and Brazil, it would still exist, in its most revolting forms, in several of the African and Asiatic states which we have mentioned; the negro tribes will continue to make war on each other to supply the slave market, and a large proportion of them will continue to eat those that are slain in the conflict, in spite of all the efforts the civilized world can make to prevent them.

Those who have accompanied us in this rapid glance at the characteristics of the colored races at home and abroad, are much better able to answer the question, What are we to do with the millions of negroes who have so suddenly been set at liberty? than they could have been had they consulted only their impulses, and given themselves no further trouble than to rejoice that the chains of the American slave has been broken after having been used for their sad work for so many ages. It will be admitted, at all events, that any extensive amalgamation of the white and black races is out of the question; nature has placed too wide a gulf between them to render such a result possible. Those who assert the contrary must either be utterly unacquainted with the history of the negro, or be unable to comprehend the simplest and most obvious facts in natural history. Far be it from us to deny that the negro is a member of the human family, decidedly inferior though he be; at the same time we cannot deny that a large portion of the white race, especially in this country, would have far less repugnance to share their bed with a horse or dog than with a negro. If we are correct in this

view it follows that the social equality between the two races of which we have recently heard so much can have no more foundation in fact than the fabled stone which transmutes all metals into gold. The truth is that the class of philosophers who urge the doctrine of social equality are no wiser or more thoughtful, however loud may be their pretensions to the contrary, than those who undertake to construct a language which all nations must adopt, entirely discarding henceforth for ever their own innumerable dialects.

That the negro should be allowed to testify in our courts of justice, is but fair; but it does not follow from this that he is equal, even as a witness, to the white man, since both judge and jury will be influenced by his character in estimating the amount of credence they ought to give to his statements. If they accept the views of the most eminent scientific men, who represent that he has an almost uncontrollable propensity to lie, his evidence amounts to nothing, and he has rather lost than gained by being brought into court and sworn. Nor is the privilege of voting of much greater value to him, for similar reasons. If he votes for one of his own race, it is not likely that he will be elected, even where he has most friends among his white neighbors. We may assume, perhaps, that negro influence will elect a white candidate to an important office, but if we do we must also assume that the new official cannot entertain any very exalted opinions of merits which were only perceptible to his negro fellow-citizens. If we admit the fact to be otherwise, then the question arises, can the functionaries thus elected .do any more for the negroes, as a race, than the representatives of white men? Not a particle! In order that voting might serve them as it serves the whites, it would be necessary that they could assimilate themselves socially and otherwise, with the great body of our citizens, a thing which we have shown to be impossible.

It may be urged that in time they may become more numerous in certain districts than their Caucasian fellow citizens, in which case they could elect rulers of their own race. But these few representatives could do them little good either in Congress or the State Legislature, although it is by no means so clear that they could not do much harm themselves to their white neighbors. Let their sanguinary outbreaks at different times in several of the West India Islands answer whether this is a groundless apprehension. Much as we have done for the negro we could not pretend that

we have done more than England; but what gratitude has he shown the latter when he thought he had it in his power to exterminate Englishmen ? Can we flatter ourselves that he would not cut out the bowels of Americans with as little remorse as he has those of Englishmen, women, and children? Those who have read even the most meagre accounts of the negro atrocities during the recent insurrection at Jamaica will hardly deny the truthfulness or justice of the worst charges of treachery, cruelty, and bloodthirstiness against the race which we have quoted above from travellers and scientific men.

Does it follow, then, that we ought to do nothing for the negro? On the contrary, it is both our opinion and wish that he should receive every reasonable encouragement and aid to elevate his condition. But we are convinced that the way to do this is not to try to set aside irrevocable laws. We must utterly discard the idea of equality in this case as contra naturam; to advocate it is but to mock and decave the poor negro. Instead of telling him that he is the equal of the Caucasian, and capable of competing with him in the struggle for life, he ought to be taught to understand, if possible, that it is a universal law throughout nature, in the vegetable as well as in the animal kingdom, that if the strong and weak grow up side by side, the former has an inevitable tendency to crush the latter. The only hope for the negro, therefore, is in colonization. We have no such dislike to him that we would send him back to Africa, where he would be in danger of being sold again into much worse bondage than he has ever experienced in our southern states; we would set apart for him an amount of our southwestern territory (which is now unoccupied) nearly equal to that of the empire of France, and give him all the aid which he ought to require for the first year or two, not only in rendering the gift available for the purpose for which it was designed, but also in organizing a suitable form of government. We do not pretend that no objection can be made to this project; but we are convinced that it is less objectionable than any other which really contemplates the amelioration of the race.

ART. V.—1. History of Epidemics, Ancient and Modern. By WM. C. HAYNES, M.D., LL.D. London, 1851.

2. Asiatic Cholera, as Distinguished from other Epidemics. By THOMAS B. PINCKNEY, M.D., F.R.S. Edinburgh, 1838.

3. Historie des Maladies Epidemiques, &c. Par M. LE DOCTEUR OZANAM. Paris, 1840.

OBSERVING no known laws in relation to the times of its visitation, disease hovers on the wings of every wind, and, with the caprice of a bird of prey wheeling in the air, it alights when and where it is least expected. Whether it be typhus fever, yellow fever, or cholera, no skill of divination, no data of long and patient observation, have enabled men to determine what meteorological or atmospherical conditions influence its rise and decline. For over ten years now the civilized world has been exempt from the terrible ravages of those scourges, until, under the sunny sky and dry a tmosphere of Alexandria, the most destructive of the grim cohort, Asiatic cholera, burst forth with all the violence which marked its birth on the banks of the Ganges. Taking a zigzag course through the East, decimating some towns and villages, and passing over others with lighter pressure of its wing, and incomprehensibly sparing some, it sped westward to the Mediterranean, dealing swift destruction in its course. It ravaged the southern portions of Italy, spread to the shores of France, travelled inward, then southwards to Spain, and at last accounts had reached Southampton, England. There is something astonishingly irregular in this devious up-and-down course, entirely unconnected with climate, latitude, and elevation. In the previous visits of this unwelcome guest we noticed more method, a closer adherence to the supposed laws which govern its movements; but this year, as if in mockery of human science, it has shaped its course, like the beasts that roam the forest, without any definite aim or determined direction. May this irregularity 80 far extend itself as to cut suddenly short the career of this fell traveller, that our shores may be spared from his havoc, and that hearths and homes already sufficiently afflicted may not be plunged into deeper gloom! Yet the enemy is hovering around us, his scouts have come to the very waters of our harbor, and it behooves all to take such measures of prevention as common sense and science shall dictate. But in