with a human heart, that slavery, however disguised, is not a bitter draught."

It is sometimes said, that liberty is not greatly prized by the slaves, or even by the free blacks themselves. I have seen the attempt made to convince the slave that liberty would not place him in more eligible circumstances. He would sometimes yield to the arguments, but there was always something in his manner which showed that, even if the reason was confounded, the heart did not yield its assent. Although the condition of the free blacks in the southern States is proverbially wretched, and most of them are sufficiently apprized of its inconveniences and miseries by their own bitter experience, yet none of them manifest an inclination to return to slavery. Fully acquainted with both conditions, they submit to the inconveniences of freedom, not indeed contentedly, but with no design of improving their circumstances by sacrificing their liberty. While residing at the south, I knew an intelligent free mulatto, whose name was Sam. I do not remember in what manner he obtained his freedom, but he richly deserved it by his uniformly good behavior. A friend of mine who took a deep interest in his welfare, often conversed kindly with him concerning his prospects, and endeavored to suggest plans for his benefit. He was struck with the unfortunate circumstances in which the free blacks were placed, and once endeavored to convince Sam that his condition had not been improved by obtaining his liberty. Sam listened to his representations in respectful silence, conscious of his own inability to maintain the cause of freedom by an array of argument. When my friend had concluded his appeal, Sam's only answer was, "AFTER ALL, IT'S A HEAP BETTER TO BE FREE.” Brief, however, as the answer was, it spoke the feelings of the whole human race, whether bond or free. If liberty could ever be accounted worthless, it would be such a liberty as falls to the lot of the free negro, when surrounded by slaves and their masters. Yet, with no better prospects than these, he was able to decide, with a clearness of apprehension that nothing could confuse or mislead, that freedom was still invaluable. While this principle remains in full operation in the heart, it is in vain that the slave is convinced that his external circumstances would not be improved by

obtaining his freedom: though satisfied that by remaining a slave he shall be better fed, and clothed, and sheltered, and nursed when sick or old, he still feels that the power to choose for himself and to direct his own actions, is more than an equivalent for all these advantages, and his heart replies, " After all, it's a heap better to be free."'—pp. 107-109.

What is slavery in the city of Washington ?-the slavery which is too sacred to be touched by the exclusive jurisdiction of Congress? The facts described below occurred last summer. Our author's informant was "a gentleman well known in this country for his literary and scientific attainments."

A negro, about twenty-five years old, who is married, and has three or four children, has just applied to my informant, stating that he is to be sold immediately to a slave-dealer, and separated forever from his family, unless he can find some resident in the District who will consent to purchase him. He is a member of a church in this city, and has uniformly sustained a Christian character. His master wishes to raise a few hundred dollars, which he has not the means of doing conveniently, without the sale of one of his slaves. Now it happens that the purpose for which this money is to be raised is well known, and is no other than to purchase a mulatto woman, with whom he is known to be criminally connected. As if even this were not a sufficient provocation to the moral sense of the community, there is an aggravation arising from the motive which determined the master to sell the slave of whom I am speaking, rather than any other. He had endeavored to employ this slave in bringing other colored women into the same relation to him, as the mulatto woman whom I have mentioned, but here the servant felt that he had a Master in heaven, whom he was bound to obey, rather than his earthly master. His refusal had greatly irritated his master, and led to his being selected for sale.'-pp. 111, 112.

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One of the most interesting topics in the whole field of inquiry respecting slavery and abolition, is the progress of Maryland toward becoming a free

State. Some facts in relation to this subject have been collected by Mr. Andrews, which are well worthy to be considered by all who would understand what prospect there is of the abolition of slavery. It is only to be regretted that these facts, instead of being scattered here and there through a series of somewhat familiar letters, were not arranged and combined in such forms as to show more distinctly the great principles which they involve. Perhaps, however, the book might in that way have lost in popular interest more than it would have gained in philosophical precision.

"In this State," says our author, "slave-labor employed in agriculture has long since ceased, with few exceptions, to be valuable." This everybody knows already; and everybody knows the reason of it. Slave-labor, in Maryland, comes into competition with free-labor, and is therefore unprofitable. And when the political economists of the south have "exhausted the argument" for the superior profitableness of slave-labor in agriculture, it is answer enough to point to the agriculture of Maryland, and to demand of them an instance in which free labor has become unprofitable when placed in competition, on equal terms, with the labor of slaves. Slavelabor then must cease to be profitable everywhere, just in proportion as the labor of freemen can be employed in the production of the same commodities. Let the time come when the labor of intelligent freemen shall produce cotton, rice, and sugar, on a large scale, and slave-labor will cease to be more profitable in the agriculture of Louisiana and Mississippi, than it is in the agriculture of Maryland.

In consequence of the unprofitableness of slavelabor, there is an increasing desire among the citizens of Maryland to be rid of slavery. The transportation of slaves by thousands to the southern States, does not indeed indicate such a desire. But other things mentioned by our author, do indicate the desire in Maryland to become a free State. No serious legal difficulties are thrown in the way of emancipation. The testimony of one respectable witness, that he is well. acquainted with the party, and that he knows him to bear a fair character for honesty and temperance, is regarded by the courts as sufficient to secure for the emancipated slave the privilege of a continued residence within the State. Emancipations are frequent, and are increasingly popular. It is stated that not fewer than fifteen hundred slaves had been manumitted within the three and a half years preceding the date of our author's inquiries; and that the majority of these were manumitted without reference to their emigration. Can it be doubted, that if at any time slave-labor should become equally unprofitable in the more southern States, there will be in those more southern States the same disposition to be rid of slavery which now exists in Maryland ?

Slavery in Maryland is actually on the wane. The number of slaves has been, for a quarter of a century, continually diminishing. At the first census, viz., in 1790, the number was 103,036. At the end of ten years the increase had been 2.52 per cent. During another ten years the increase was 5.55 per cent.; so that in 1810 the number of slaves was 111, 502, or 8,466 more than in 1790. From 1810 to 1820, the decrease was 3.68 per cent.; and from

1820 to 1830, it was 4.1 per cent.; so that in 1830 the slave population of that State was less than it was in 1810 by 8,508. The white population in the meanwhile has increased in a constantly increasing ratio for the first ten years, 3.68 per cent.; for the second, 8.68; for the third, 10.67; for the fourth, 11.87. The time is not far distant, then, when Maryland will be numbered with the free States. Must not other States in their turn yield to the same influences, and become free?

The diminution of the slave population in Maryland, has been accompanied with a great increase of the free colored population. In 1790 the number of free colored persons in Maryland was only 8,043. In 1830 the number was 52,938, making an increase of 558 per cent. in forty years. From 1820 to 1830, the increase was 33.24 per cent., just about three times as great as the increase of the white population for the same period. It is to be noticed, however, that since the prohibition of the foreign slave-trade, the increase of the entire colored population, bond and free, has not been rapid. In the ten years, from 1800 to 1810, the increase was 16.13 per cent. But from 1810 to 1820, it was only 1.17 per cent. From 1820 to 1830, it was 5.98 per cent. If Maryland has her Prof. Dew, let him tell us how much the internal slave-trade has to do with this diminished per centage. But however this may be, the great increase of the free colored population, is proof decisive of the tendency toward emancipation.

Some indications of the same kind appear in other States. In Virginia, the increase of the free blacks in the ten years preceding the last census, was