misery, and consigned great numbers to an un timely death.

"The use of tobacco has evidently a deleterious' influence on the natives, whatever may be its effect on others. In smoking, the natives do not sit down deliberately and finish a pipe or cigar but take one or two whiffs, inhaling the full volume of smoke directly into the lungs, and retain it there as long as the breath can well be retain. ed. Individuals have been killed by its effects, and how much disease may have been induced or accelerated thereby, remains to be ascertained.

"The large quantities of foreign commodities earried to the islands, and the increasing intercourse of the inhabitants with foreigners have created such an amount of new and superfluous wants as to destroy their native character, and to make of them an artificial and degenerate race.

"The introduction of Christianity within the last few years has created its usual benign influence; but the changes of every kind have nevertheless been great and rapid, and the people have fallen, and are continuing to fall under the effects of these changes; and their end may be read on the same page, which records the fate of the wandering tribes of America. Such must inevitably be the case, unless a kind Providence greatly bless those measures used for their present and future interest."*

The latest accounts from these islands, as well as from all the Pacific islands where the attempt *American Jour. Med. Sci. May 1837-pp. 55, 56.*

has been made to civilize the nations, increase the assurance that the time is not distant when the native population will be entirely extinct. In the "Narrative of the United States Exploring Expedition, during the years 1838, 1839, 1840, 1841, 1842," by Charles Wilkes, U, S. N. commander of the Expedition, we are informed that in all the islands of the Pacific, where efforts have been made to civilize the natives, a rapid decline in population has taken place. In some places it was ascertained even in the best districts on the islands, and where missionary labors had been most successful, that the number of deaths to births was as three to one. In some places the disproportion was as ten to one; and this, too, in the absence of any epidemic disease, and where infanticide had not been committed for ten years. The native population of the West Indies is completely extinct: not a vestige now remains of their former existence; and there is now but little doubt but that in the course of one or two centuries, the rast population of the East Indies will be extinct.

But the census of 1840 exhibits a decline in the black population of most of the Northern States. From 1810 to 1820 the decline in NewHampshire was 18-9 per cent. In Vermont it was 20-4 per cent. From 1820 to 1830 the de.

per cent. In New From 1830 to 1840,

cline in Vermont was 2-4 Hampshire, 23-1 per cent.

the decline in Vermont was 17-1 per cent. In New-Hampshire, it was 11 per cent. In some few of the States, there has been a slight increase, but this is no doubt owing to run-away Slaves from the South. In proof of this, I take from the Virginian, of January the 10th, 1843, the following, derived from the Annual Report of the Vigi-lance Committee of Abolitionists at Albany:

"They state that they have added about three hundred and fifty run-away Negroes since the opening of navigation last spring. Of these fugitives about one hundred and fifty were men, one hundred and fifty women, and fifty children.”

From all the facts given above, there is but lit- tle doubt but that emancipation would prove the ultimate destruction of the black race at the South: there is no reason to suppose that they would be ex-empt from the law of destruction, which has opera◄ ted among other of the lower grades of mankind.

I have already proved beyond all doubt or cavil that idleness, vice, and disease, with all their attendant consequences, would result from emancipation. Such being the fact, a decline in numbers would be the inevitable result. I have but little hope that the black, or the Indian race, will

ever be civilized to any great extent: they are radically inferior, and of course can never rise above the fixed law of their being. The extinc-tion of the Indian race is certain; and should the Negro ever escape from the condition of Slavery in this country, and should the white man ever fix himself firmly on the continent of Africa, the extinction of the Negro race will be equally certain.

And why should we lament such an event? The extinction of a tribe, or even a whole people, is not more to be lamented than the extinction of one generation to make room for another. GoD, in his dealings with men, has more regard to universal humanity, than to the well-being of any particular tribe, nation, or people. Individuals, nations, and tribes perish, but the race is preserved, humanity is elevated and improved. Our pride cannot brook the idea of the total extinction of a whole nation, tribe, or race of men: it whispers that our own race may, at some future time, give way to another, and a more powerful people. But God cares nothing for the pride of man: he executes his purposes regardless of the whims and caprices of men, and does that which promotes the highest good of universal humanity.

The world has in reality been repeatedly peopled-wave after wave of population has passed

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A DEFENCE OF NEGRO SLAVERY.

over its surface, each successive wave displacing the one that preceded. If it were otherwise, the world in a short time would not be large enough to contain the population: still the number of inhabitants from age to age remains very nearly the same. Whilst population is increasing at one point, it is diminishing at another so, upon the whole, the balance of the world is preserved. For instance, the population of the United States at this time is doubling itself about every twentytwo and a half years. Should the same ratio be preserved for a century, we will have a population of near five hundred millions. Now as the population of the world always remains about the same, there must be a corresponding diminution at some point. This will no doubt take place in Asia, and in portions of the American continent, and in some parts of Europe.

There is now scarcely a doubt but that the Anglo-Saxon race is destined to inhabit the whole continent of America: they will amalgamate with the highest of the Castilian blood; and the lower orders, embracing the Indians and mixed breeds, inhabiting Mexico and the countries south, will become extinct like the Indians in our own country.