ERRATA.

On page 1, last line but one, for the household-gods of the Greek, read his household-gods to the Greek.

,, page 10, line 9 from bottom.-For both, read all.

,, page 29, line 9.-For philanthrophy, read philanthropy.

ENGLAND, THE UNITED STATES,

AND THE

SOUTHERN CONFEDERACY.

THE Civil War in America is regarded by Englishmen and by loyal Americans from very different points of view.

In England some consider it simply as a question of philanthropy; and these think only of the immense evils which must flow from such a contest. Others see only the great disturbance it occasions to British interests; while a third, and most influential class, concerns itself with neither of these two effects, but is chiefly busied in determining how far the war may be made to benefit Great Britain, and injure the United States. The first two classes pray that the war may speedily end, on no matter what basis, in order that its terrible mischiefs may cease. The third class equally desires the prompt termination of the strife, in order that the hopedfor dismemberment of the Union, and the beneficial results to England expected therefrom, may not be endangered by the prolongation of the struggle.

I should be unwilling to intimate that any number of Englishmen could be found to indulge such a hope, from motives so selfish; but it has been proclaimed by the British Press very unanimously, and by Lords and Commons, that "it is for the interest of England that the American bubble should burst, and the Great Republic go to pieces."

To us, on the other hand, the war and its results involve interests far above and beyond those of individuals, considered as such, however great may be their sufferings and trials, or of commerce and industry. Our national existence and the very principles of our form of government are at stake. Unimportant or worthless as these may seem in England, to us they are like the household-gods of the Greek.

B

Whether with reason or not, we are proud of our country and her institutions; and while most of us admit that the latter are by no means perfect, they have, nevertheless, secured to us an unexampled degree of prosperity. We are taunted in England with considering extent of national domain as synonymous with national greatness. Americans are not so ignorant. See what our institutions have accomplished, beyond mere material development, in less than a century. Under their influence our population has increased from three millions to thirty millions. They have covered the land, that part of it, at least, where they have had full sway, with schools so numerous, that England is put to shame; with churches providing an aggregate accommodation greater, comparatively, than the City of London; with benevolent establishments of all sorts, so liberally administered, that England has done us the honour to admire them. Under their auspices the sciences, literature, the aesthetic and mechanical arts have been so well cultivated, that, all things considered, America will bear a favourable comparison with any other country.

Nor is it Americans alone who have benefited by the institutions of America. She has fed the hungry, she has sheltered the stranger, she has clothed the naked, and ministered to the desolate of every nation. Millions of British subjects who have been thrown off from their own country, as though they had been unclean things, have come to America, and America has received them as her own children; she has taken out-cast humanity "by the four corners," as in the strange vision of the Apostle, and welcomed it to recognition. And wheresoever, in all the world, money and selfdevotion are needed for benevolent and religious operations, America contributes her full share, and Americans are there to aid the good work.

For all these things, I say, we are proud of our country and our political institutions, and we think them worth fighting for.

In order that the true principles and obligations involved in the American war may be clearly understood, I propose, in the following pages, to examine into

1. The History of Slavery in America, the condition into which it has brought the Slave States, and its contemplated career;

2. The Causes of the Rebellion;

3. The Duties which the Federal Constitution has imposed upon the Federal Government, in relation to the Rebellion;

4. The Policy and Position of the Federal Government and the People of the Free States, with reference to Slavery and the Negroes; and the Objects of the War;

5. The Attitude of England, her Duties and her Interests.

In all that I shall have to say of the Slave States, I shall endeavour, so far as possible, to make use of facts, arguments, and opinions which have been furnished by the Southerners themselves.

SLAVERY IN AMERICA-ITS EARLY HISTORY.

The first negroes imported into the English colonies in America were brought from the coast of Africa in a Dutch ship, and landed on the banks of the James River, in the colony of Virginia; they were twenty in number, and were purchased by the planters for the cultivation of their tobacco-fields. This event occurred in 1620, only thirteen years after the colony was definitively established, and it is worthy of remark that, in this same memorable year, the Pilgrim Fathers of New England landed on Massachusetts Bay. We may say of this notable coincidence, as Louis XVIII. said to some one who reminded him that the Duke of Wellington was born the same year as Napoleon, "Providence owed us such a compensation."

'The odious distinction of having first interested England in the slave-trade belongs to Sir John Hawkins. He had fraudulently transported a large cargo of Africans to Hispaniola, in 1562. The rich returns of sugar, ginger, and pearls, attracted the notice of Queen Elizabeth, and when a new expedition was prepared, she was induced not only to protect, but to share, the traffic. And, nearly a century later, in 1645, a ship of one Thomas Keyser and one James Smith, the latter a member of the Church of Boston, first brought upon the English colonists the guilt of direct participation in the traffic in African slaves. They sailed for Guinea to trade in negroes; but throughout Massachusetts the cry of justice was raised against them as malefactors and murderers. Richard Saltonstall felt himself moved by his duty as a magistrate, to denounce the act of stealing negroes as "expressly contrary to the word of God and the law of the country;" the guilty men were committed for the offence; and, after advice with the elders, the representatives of the people, bearing "witness against the heinous crime of man-stealing," ordered the negroes to be restored, at the public charge, "to their native country, with a letter expressing the indignation of the general court at their wrongs. (See Bancroft's "History of the United States.")

This new element of labour was introduced into the Carolina colonies, when they were founded at a later period, somewhere about 1670. In the colony of Georgia, according to the original charter granted in 1732 by George II., negro slavery was expressly prohibited, in consequence of the bad effects it had already produced in Virginia and the Carolinas, and because this new colony was intended to be settled by poor but deserving people, for the purpose of benefiting them; and it was understood that in such a colony, to

ensure success, labour must be held in respect, not degraded by being a badge of slavery. But the evil example of the neighbouring colony of South Carolina infected the English settlers in Georgia, who began to clamour for the introduction of negroes. The Scotch and German colonists, however, without exception, remonstrated against this measure. For twenty years the trustees were worried with demands and remonstrances. The line of argument and of conduct was then pretty much what it has since been: the proslavery English colonists contended that the "British Constitution, zealous for the rights and liberties of mankind, could not permit subjects to be deprived of the common privileges of all colonists; that the chief cause of all their troubles was the strict adherence to a chimerical and impracticable scheme" (of dispensing with slavery) "The leading men in the Scotch and German settlements, who opposed the introduction of slaves, were traduced and persecuted; the churches were induced to represent it as desirable that Africans should be imported, that they might be converted to Christianity; the Clergy were flattered into preaching and praying for an institution sanctioned by the Bible. The standing toast at Savannah was, 'The one thing needful,' meaning slavery." At last the trustees, wearied out, yielded up their charter to the King, who immediately removed all impediments to the introduction of slavery. -(Olmsted's Seaboard Slave States," 527-8.)

But, besides the negro slaves, there were in the colony of Virginia other persons held to slavery

1. Christian bond servants, "Redemptioners," as they were called. These were white persons who were brought over from Europe to labour in the colony. They were bound to repay, "by the entire employment of their powers for the benefit of their masters," the cost of their importation and support. They received no wages, but were maintained by their masters, until their term of service had expired, when, on application to the governor, they might become free inen of the province.

2. English criminals and other offenders, who were, from time to time, given to the courtiers by the King, and by them sold to the colonists as slaves, to the annual number, just before the American Revolution, of three hundred or more. The same class existed also in the colony of Maryland. The first introduction of such persons into the colony of Virginia occurred in 1619, in consequence of a petition from the colonists to the King, that he would make them a present of "vagabonds and condemned men." His Majesty was graciously pleased" to grant this request, and a hundred head of the inmates of the London prisons were shipped to Virginia. Charles II. ordered a shipment of Quakers to Virginia, where they. were sold as slaves. In 1720, Beverley, the annalist of Virginia, says " As for malefactors condemned to transportation, though