PRECEDING PROPOSITIONS,

ETC. 179

the scene around us. At last Ellesmere, who, I observe, soon gets tired of the contemplation of natural objects, asked for another reading.

MILVERTON. We must begin at once, then, as the next section is a very long one.

ELLESMERE. Well, we have all the afternoon before us; and nobody can come and call upon us, or send letters to us, or molest us in any way. We have a little peace here.

LUCY. Oh, Mr. Milverton, do look. A regiment of soldiers is crossing the bridge of boats.

MILVERTON. How the light glancing from their bayonets, and varying with each movement, seems to be marching too. They are sturdy fellows: hark, they are singing "God save the Queen."

DUNSFORD. I suppose they come from Schleswig Holstein.

ELLESMERE. Yes: that war is another of the precious follies of these frantic times.

DUNSFORD. No; I think they are going to put down some disturbance at ; I heard that some

soldiers were to be sent there.

MILVERTON. Well, there are very few things I have made up my mind upon, as I think I told you last year; but one of the few is, that if I were in authority, I would put down in the most swift and resolute manner any thing like mob domination.

ELLESMERE. Did you ever hear my definition of a

mob?

LUCY. I certainly have not, Mr. Ellesmere, so pray

let me have it.

There are such things as female mobs

you know.

with. Now, for

ELLESMERE. Yes and not the easiest to deal my definition: a mob is a compound mass of human beings in which each one has for the moment all the follies and evil passions of the rest, in addition to his own, and his usual common sense and good feeling divided by the total number of persons collected together.

DUNSFORD.

I do not know how you arrived at these precise quantities; but I dare say you have your own way now, as you used to have at college, of making out difficult problems. But we must not talk any more until after the reading.

Milverton then went for his papers and soon returning, read the following section of his essay.

5.

THAT THERE ARE NO RACES IN RESPECT TO
WHICH THE PRECEDING PROPOSITIONS
AGAINST SLAVERY DO NOT APPLY.

There are many races who have been tried both as masters and slaves, and been found wanting in both capacities. The Romans had slaves from most nations, and I do not know that they spoke favorably of any. Amongst the present masters there is a large proportion of the Anglo-Saxon race, (to say the least of it, an active,

independent, thoughtful, humane race,) yet they cannot be said to shine as slave-owners. And on the other hand the European slaves in Moorish countries bear the worst of characters.*

The negro race, however, is thought by many persons to be essentially different from all others, and to be peculiarly fitted for slavery. If this be true, it is one of the most important facts in human nature; if false, it is likely to be a sleepless prejudice of the most pernicious kind. Either way it demands rigid inquiry.

Unhappily, the question of negro fitness for slavery is not a question lately mooted, but one which has been settled for a long time by many of those who have to deal most with it. The opinions upon which they proceed vary much in intensity, from the unsparing assertion that "the negro is a species of orang-outang," † down to the quiet assumption that the negroes are of

*If we look among the North African Moors, what is the state of the European slaves? They bear a worse character, and are inferior in value to the negroes themselves, on account of their untrustiness and treachery!-Portuguese Possessions in S. W. Africa, vol. ii. p. 132.

† I was at a dinner party, where I met a planter from the South, who maintained, or rather asserted, that the negro was a species of orang-outang, and ought not to be considered, and, consequently, not to be treated as belonging to the human race. His slaves, he added, were his property-his cattle; and he spoke the sentiments of all in the South, when he declared he would draw his sword against any one who should dare to interfere with his rights.— Abdy, vol. i. p. 377.

such an inferior capacity, that it is difficult to imagine their being able to exist in self-governing communities. The want of sympathy, or to speak plainly, the disgust, arising from these opinions also varies much. In America it is scarcely too much to say that it has been carried to the utmost extravagance. There are many people, excellent, I dare say, in other respects, whose prejudice against the dark race is such that they do not like to eat with them, journey with them, have their children educated with them, sit at any public place with them, worship near them, or approach the communion table in their company. Such are the social disabilities attendant upon a dark skin, or upon any shade of dark, visible or possible. It need scarcely be added that civil disabilities less hard to bear, perhaps, than social ones, are found, as usual, to` accompany them.

Now is there any ground for all this exclusion and disgust? What is the capacity of the negro, and to whom is he related? First, as to his capacity.

In estimating the capacity of any race of men, the circumstances in which they have been placed must be carefully weighed. It is the opinion of some of the learned, that no instance has been found of a savage people becoming civilized without extraneous help. Yet we cannot doubt that amongst savage races there have

been, and are, many capable of high civilization. Without subscribing to the opinion of these learned men, I give it as an instance to show how slow must have been the observed progress amongst savages for such an opinion to be tenable at all. On the other hand, see what a rapid change in the nature of a race, a change of circumstances will produce. Nobody can deny that a considerable alteration has taken place in the nature of the white Americans (whether of English, Gallic, or Germanic origin) since they first settled in that country. Indeed, according to the account of a most intelligent traveller,* this change takes place in one or two generations. Now, many persons would think it at least as great a change as that from a white skin to a black one. If we did not know the origin of these relations of ours, the white men in America, we should be ingenious to a degree in pointing out the wonderful difference which

* An opinion, which travelling in this country has caused me to modify, is that which respects the permanence of national hereditary character, as transmitted independently of local and political circumstances. Almost every body here tells me that even in the second generation (that is in the children of emigrants) it is nearly impossible to recognize a distinction in habits or character between those of English, Scotch, and Irish blood. They are all American, wherever there is constant intercourse with the mass of the population, though, of course, not so where they live in districts or towns, exclusively together. My own experience stands strongly to confirm this remark. -Godley's Letters from America, vol. ii. p. 166.