the most extraordinary men of his age, evincing a sensibility to the sentiments of Europe; and we hope the attention paid to his proceedings in this instance will contribute both to reward him for what is past, and to encourage him in what is to come. The convention adopted in relation to his Highness the following resolution:

That this meeting has heard with deep interest the measures adopted by the Viceroy of Egypt for the suppression of the abominable slave. hunts by his Highness's troops, and especially the declaration of his wish to aid in bringing about the extinction of slavery. That the thanks of this meeting be communicated to him, with the assurance that the friends of civilization throughout the world will hail with delight every step taken by the Viceroy in furtherance of his just and generous purpose, whether by impeding the importation of and traffic in slaves, by the encouragement of agricultural productions in Central and Eastern Africa, by the abolition of slave-markets in his dominions, or by any other legitimate and pacific measures which may facilitate the manumission of slaves and the entire overthrow of slavery.'-Sun, June 18.

The convention directed its attention also to the almost unapproachable subject of slavery in British India, and passed an extended series of resolutions to which we shall not now refer at length. It has been recently stated in the House of Commons that persons have been employed by the government to inquire and report on this specific matter, and that their report may shortly be expected. We trust it will furnish information as ample as it will doubtless be authentic, and that it will prepare the way for the prompt and effectual remedy for this crying evil.

We must find room, however, for the resolutions passed by the convention in relation to Texas, a nest of pirates and banditti striving to thrust themselves among civilized nations as a young republic. The French government, we hope, will not forget the shame expressed in the convention that the independence of Texas had been recognised by Louis Philippe. We may add that proof has been recently given that the slave-laws of Texas are not to be a dead letter, by a proclamation of the president ordering all 'people of colour '-the slaves are chattels, not 'people to quit the state by the first of January, 1841. The following are the resolutions.

Whereas the people of Texas, by their late revolt, have shown themselves signally ungrateful for the national hospitality that was extended to them as strangers, as well as for the benefits conferred on them as emigrant settlers, by the Mexican government, and also in the violent dismemberment of Mexico have shown themselves reckless of the peace and integrity of States; and whereas the said people of Texas, in re-establishing slavery in that country from which the justice and humanity of Mexico had wholly expelled it, and in their formally

authorising and encouraging the slave-trade from the United States, leave no room to doubt that their aim is to perpetuate those iniquitous systems through all time; and whereas the said people of Texas, in thus acting, having shown themselves regardless, not only of the claims of natural justice, but of Christianity, have arrayed themselves in hostility to the public sentiment of civilized Europe, but more especially to the principles and measures of the people and government of Great Britain, in relation to the abolition of negro slavery and the slave-trade throughout the world: wherefore be it resolved,

1.-That Texas ought not to be received into the family of nations whilst she retains in her written form of government a provision for the establishment and maintenance of negro slavery, or authorises and encourages the slave-trade by granting a monopoly of it to the slave-holders of the United States.

2. That, in the opinion of this convention, it would justly bring under suspicion the sincerity of those nations who have abolished slavery among themselves, and pledged their efforts for the suppression of the slave-trade throughout the world, were they to acknowledge the separate national existence of the people of Texas, so long as they continue their detestable warfare against the happiness and freedom of the negro race.'-Sun, June 22.

Brazil, Madagascar, Ceylon, Africa, Sierra Leone, the colored people in Canada; the prejudice against color, the internal slavetrade, and the colonization society, in the United States; compensation, the results of emancipation, and free and slave produce,these and other topics engaged the attention of the convention; but we must pass them all by, with the single observation that we think the last topic received far less attention than it deserves. We have often marvelled at the apathy of abolitionists on this subject, which slave-holders know very well-and they have told us so, but we will not learn even from them-to be the key of the whole case.

We cannot pass without notice, however, an admirable paper which was drawn up and read by Mr. John Sturge, on the comparative cheapness of free and slave labor. It is an idea that yet lingers in the minds of many, that produce can be raised at less cost by slaves than by free laborers, so that, while condemned in principle as unrighteous, slavery has nevertheless the argument from cupidity on its side. And this, marvellous to say, has been thought to be proved by the high price of sugar at the present moment! This inference proceeds upon the inconsiderate and fallacious assumption that the cost of production regulates the cost to the purchaser. Nothing can be more untrue. The cost to the purchaser is determined by the supply in the market, and by nothing else. If there is a short supply of any article, he pays dear for it, however cheaply it may be produced; and, although it may cost the producer very dear, if the market is glutted, every buyer

gets it cheap. With the present ratio between the supply and the demand, sugar could not be cheaper than it is if it were grown and manufactured for nothing. The high price of sugar, therefore, is no evidence of the dearness of free labor, or of the cheapness of that of the slave. A consideration of the subject on its proper grounds leads to the conclusion that free labor is decidedly the cheaper of the two. The substance of Mr. Sturge's paper is embodied in the following resolutions, which we think sufficiently important to subjoin entire.

" 1.-That upon the evidence of facts to which the attention of this convention has been directed, it is satisfactorily established as a general axiom, that free labor is more profitable to the employer, and consequently cheaper, than slave-labor.

2. That of all kinds of slave-labor that of imported slaves has been demonstrated to be the most costly, and the least productive.

3. That the large profits which, notwithstanding the disadvantages of slave-labor have been realised in the cultivation of sugar, cotton, and other tropical productions, have arisen from, and depend on two circumstances: first, the large tracts of rich, unoccupied soil, which, by their extraordinary fertility, have repaid the expenses of imported slave-labor, under the rudest and most wasteful husbandry; and, secondly, the artificial maintenance, by fiscal regulations, of the high prices it gained for tropical productions on their first introduction into Europe-those prices being so high as to support slave-cultivation in the absence of the planters from the management of their own estates, by and under a system which could not have succeeded in any other branch of the agriculture, commerce, or manufactures of this or any other country.

4. That the continued employment of slave-labor invariably tends to lessen and exhaust the fertility of the soil, so as eventually to destroy the profits of the planter, who finds himself unable to compete with the possessors of fresh lands. That, owing to this course, the cultivation of tropical produce by slave-labor has been to a great extent abandoned in the middle States of the American Republic, where the slavepopulation is reared for the purpose of being sold to the planters of the South; thereby proving that the value of the slaves would otherwise have been destroyed by their numerical increase and exhaustion of the soil, as also that imported slave-labor is dearer by the profit realised upon the rearing of the slaves.

5. That the higher cost of imported slave-labor, even the labor of a native slave-population is strikingly illustrated by the fact, that the cultivation of cotton in the United States has reduced the marketprices of the cottons of Brazil, cultivated by imported slaves, about onethird, and that, while the cultivation of Brazilian cotton has been stationary, that of American cotton has steadily increased.

6.-That the superior cheapness of free-labor has been strikingly evinced in the cultivation of indigo, which, fifty years ago, was wholly supplied by slave-labor. As the result of British skill and enterprise, the indigo of India has gradually displaced from the market the slave

grown indigo of the Carolinas and South America, till there is now not an ounce imported into Europe; and, so far as regards the cultivation of that article, the labor of hundreds of thousands of slaves has been superseded by free labor, the annual produce averaging in value between three and four millions sterling.

7. That there is every reason to believe, that the success which has attended the application of free labor to the growth of indigo in India, would follow upon the extended cultivation of other tropical produce by the free natives of that vast empire, and of other portions of the world; so as to supersede in other articles the produce of slave-labor, and thereby contribute to extinguish both slavery and the slavetrade. That in particular, as slavery in the United States is mainly dependent for its existence upon the import into Great Britain of the slave-grown cotton of America, to the amount, in 1838, of more than 400,000,000 lbs. weight, were measures adopted to encourage the growth of cotton in India and elsewhere by free labor, not only would an incalculable benefit be conferred upon the millions of the human race now unemployed, but by supplanting slave-grown cotton in the European market, it would, as the certain result, materially aid the extinction of American slavery.

'8.-That the advantages of free-labor cultivation cannot be fairly tested or fully realized under a system of husbandry and general management which has grown up under the existence of slavery, and which is attended by a waste of human labor, that, but for monopoly prices, must have absorbed all the profits of cultivation. That the unrestricted competition of free-labor in the cultivation of sugar would necessarily introduce a new system, by which the cost of production would be further diminished, and the fall of prices that must ensue would leave no profits upon slave-grown sugar.'-Sun, June 20.

On none of the subjects to which the attention of the convention was directed were the statements more satisfactory, or the gratification more sincere, than in relation to the rapid progress, domestic, social, moral, and religious, exhibited by the negros since the period of their emancipation. These are unspeakably the most important bearings of that great measure, and its most valuable results. If it ever was an experiment its issue in these respects has been not only satisfactory, but triumphant. On this point we have much pleasure in quoting the language of Sir T. F. Buxton, who addressed the convention after Mr. Knibb had sat down.

'He said it was not every one in that large meeting that could appreciate or enter into his feelings of delightful satisfaction, and still stronger feelings of intense gratitude to the Great Creator, which filled his mind at being allowed to hear the statement made by his worthy and philan thropic friend, the Rev. Mr. Knibb. He well remembered the day when he and his hon. friend near him (Dr. Lushington) were treated with the utmost scorn, because of what was called their fanaticism, in thinking and saying that the negro would do all those things which his

Then

friend Knibb said they were now doing. He remembered the time when they were laughed to scorn for saying that the negro would work for wages-when he was asked was he a friend to humanity; for, if his views were carried out, the whites would be all massacred, the colonies would be ruined, and the blacks themselves would again become barbarians. These alarms did not come from slight authorities. Even in 1832 a man of high standing as a merchant-the Governor of the Bank-told the Government that such must be the results of emancipation. These fears were the greatest obstacles in their way. with what grateful satisfaction must he look back to the career of the emancipated, when he found that every one of those predictions had been falsified? Where was the great increase of crime? He would tell them to look at the empty gaols. Was there any increase of immorality? He would cite to them the large spread of religion, and the increase of marriages. Had the planter been ruined? He would point to the fact of the enormous increase in the value of property in Jamaica. -(Cheers.) It was said that the whites would be liable to constant him great satisfaction to insults and assaults from the blacks. It find, from the reports made by the Governors of the Colonies up to a late period, that ever since the abolition there had been only one case of assault of that nature.-(Cheers.) Then how they were taunted, and contradicted, and laughed at, when they affirmed the negro would work for wages! Their enemies said they were friends of freedom in the abstract; prove to us that they will work for wages, and all our The story now was very different, for they doubts will be removed. have found the negro so very fond of wages, so well acquainted with the principle, that they will not work unless they are well paid.-(A laugh.) The masters found them too astute upon the question. Then let them only conceive the immense spread of education and Christianity. He had hated slavery for its cruelty to the body, but far more because its cruelty to the mind, and to the soul.'-(Cheers.)-Sun, June 20.

gave

To this testimony we are constrained to add the resolution passed by the convention, in which they not only expressed their delight in the advancing welfare of the negros, but did full and most cordial justice to the worthy but maligned agents by whom it has mainly been achieved. The resolution we are about to quote refers specifically to Jamaica, and the Baptist missionaries; one subsequently passed comprehends all other missionaries and ministers who have acted in a similar spirit.

That this convention, having heard with the deepest interest and the greatest satisfaction the proofs adduced by the Rev. W. Knibb, and the Rev. John Clark, of the moral advancement, the orderly behaviour, and the Christian progress, of the emancipated laborers of Jamaica, expresses its warmest sympathies with those devoted and calumniated men, Mr. Knibb and his coadjutors, who, under circumstances of much excitement and great difficulty, have, by their prudence, firmness, and Christian courage, protected their colored brethren in the