does now or has yet threatened her, is from the too rapid immigration of such colonists as we are able to send her.

On this point, Rev. J. Leighton Wilson-eighteen years a missionary in Africa-writes: "The directors of the colonization enterprise, we think, have erred in directing their efforts too exclusively to the one object of transporting emigrants to Liberia. Many regard the number actually sent out as the true, if not the only test of the prosperity of the enterprise. But this is a serious mistake, and if adhered to much longer may prove the ruin of the cause. It requires something more than mere numbers to constitute a thrifty and flourishing commonwealth. On the other hand, an undue accumulation of idleness, improvidence, and vice, such as would be likely to accrue from thrusting large numbers of these people indiscriminately into the bosom of this infant republic, would certainly result in its entire overthrow." (Western Africa, p. 410.) Rev. D. A. Wilson-principal of the Alexander High School in Liberia in the October Number of the Presbyterian Magazine, writes: "A mere passage across the Atlantic works no transformation of character. Would that Colonizationists would think of this, and regulate their actions accordingly. Would that masters in emancipating their slaves would remember it, and learn that their first duty is, not to emancipate them, but to prepare them for freedom. Indiscriminate immigration has been a great curse to Liberia."

That we may form some idea-upon reliable data of what a republic can do in the way of assimilating an immigrant population, let us call to mind the experience of our own country. We number not far from thirty million of the best portion of the human race. Our average immigration is not far from a quarter of a million annually; and these immigrants are certainly as far advanced in all that fits them for becoming good citizens as any we can hope to send to Africa for a long time to come. And yet, this nation is tasked to the utmost to assimilate this immigration, and no thoughtful patriot would be willing to see it greatly increased at the present time.

SECTION VIII.-TRUE FIELD OF OPERATION FOR COLONIZATION.

The Colonization Society was formed, and the colony of Liberia founded, not to operate as an adjunct to a general emancipation, but with a very different object.

The second article of the constitution of the American Colonization Society declares, "The object to which its attention is to be exclusively directed, is to promote and execute a plan for colonizing, with their own consent, the free people of colour residing in our country, in Africa, or such other place as Congress shall deem expedient."

In order to a fair understanding of the case, let me ask your attention to the following points.

I. The African race in America consists of two distinct classes, viz.: the free people of colour, and slaves. The number of the firstmentioned class is now not far from half a million, of whom rather more than one-half are resident in the slave States; the remainder in the free States.

II. In so far as any claim upon us is concerned-either on the ground of our common humanity, or any wrong done to their fathers by our fathers in their original transfer to this countrythe two classes stand upon precisely the same footing. Neither class can claim precedence of the other.

III. The present condition of the free people of colour, in this country, is worse than that of our slaves; and their condition in the free States is worse than in the slave States. For proof of this I refer you to the statistics of "pauperism" and "crime" in the census returns for 1850.

IV. The portion of the race in slavery are rapidly multiplying, and gradually rising in all that constitutes civilization, in the best sense of that word; whilst the portion of the race in freedom in the free States, like the poor Indians, are fading, and must ere long perish, unless something more can be done for them than has yet been done.

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V. The portion of the race in freedom furnishes the best and most hopeful subjects for Liberian colonization. The representations given by some-not pro-slavery men-of this class as "a debased and degraded set"-"more addicted to crime, and vice, and dissolute manners than any portion of the people"a pestiferous class, whose increase in Ohio would be the increase of crime, misery, and want, to a fearful extent," whilst true of them as a class, as the census returns proved beyond all question, yet fails to make a distinction which truth requires at our hands. Among this degraded class there is to be found a number, say one in ten, of the most intelligent and best prepared for successful colonization, of all the African race in our country. "Many of them have been emancipated either for merit in themselves or their ancestors" (Governor Wise); and the deteriorating effects of freedom, in contact with the white man, must have been rapid, indeed, if this be not the case.

To these, my observation would teach me, that we ought to add, say one more in every ten, who are as well prepared for colonization as those who would be sent to Africa under the operation of such schemes of emancipation as that we are considering.

Thus it appears that one-fifth, or one hundred thousand of the free coloured people of our country, are as well or better prepared for colonization, on the coast of Africa, than the portion of the African race now in slavery.

Bring together, now, these facts. These two classes, the free

coloured people and the slaves, have an equal claim upon us, in so far as our common humanity or wrong done to their fathers is concerned. The present condition of the one is worse than that of the other. The one, unless it can be saved by colonization, or some other such instrumentality, must ere long perish, whilst the other is multiplying and improving; and this portion, more miserable at the present time and in prospect, yet will furnish a large body of colonists, better fitted for successful colonization than those which will be procured from the other portion. And does not every principle of a wise, Christian philanthropy require us to adhere to the course marked out by the founders of the Colonization Society, and attend first to the free people of colour, and only after our work here has been done, to think of resorting to colonization as an adjunct to emancipation?

SECTION IX.-WHAT THE COLONIZATION SOCIETY HAS DONE.

At the close of my second letter, in a quotation from Bishop Hopkins, a small portion of those now in slavery are pointed out as proper subjects for colonization in Africa. These would become free in the natural course of things, and in all such calculations ought to be counted with free persons of colour.

It is from this class, I believe, most of the colonists, hitherto sent to Liberia, have been obtained. Of the five hundred and eighty-seven persons carried by the Mary C. Stevens, sixty-three only were born free. (See Forty-first Annual Report of Colonization Society, pp. 13, 14.) As yet, then, the Colonization Society has hardly touched the large class of free coloured persons in our country.

The Colonization Society was formed in 1817, but not until 1824 can the colony of Liberia be considered as fairly established. Since then thirty-four years have elapsed, and the colony now numbers about ten thousand, of whom but a part, say three thousand, are from the class of free coloured persons in our country.

SECTION X.-WHAT LIBERIAN COLONIZATION MAY REASONABLY BE EXPECTED TO DO.

1. I have already directed your attention to the grand obstacle to rapid immigration, in so far as Liberia is concerned, viz. the difficulty in assimilating such an immigration as we are able to send her.

On the subject of "Christian appliances," as you term them, in their relation to the rate of immigration, listen to Rev. J. Leighton Wilson: "Another thing against which it behooves these missionary societies to be guarded, is that of doing too much for the Liberians, in the way of providing gratuitous education and preaching. We regard it as one of the chief failings of the Liberians,

and one of the most serious hindrances to their improvement, that they are too willing to be taken care of. They have no self-supporting schools; very little has been done to support the Gospel among themselves; and there is a disposition to look to the missionary societies to do everything of the kind for them, and the sooner they are taught to depend upon themselves the better." (Western Africa, p. 410.)

2. The grand obstacle to a rapid emigration, on the part of the free people of colour in our country, is their deep-rooted distrust of the capacity of their own people for safely conducting the affairs of government. This obstacle is well set forth in the language of a young free coloured man I had in my employ for four years, endeavouring to fit and persuade him to go to Liberia, when be put an end to the matter by saying, "I know more of negroes than you do, and I had rather live among white folks."

Both of these obstacles are of such a nature as to require time to overcome them, and to teach us the absolute necessity of great prudence in the management of African colonization.

If now it has taken us thirty-four years to place a colony of ten thousand, about three thousand of whom are from the class of 66 free persons of colour," on the coast of Africa, when can we reasonably calculate that our work will be done with the one hundred thousand who remain, and who, upon every ground of sound policy as well as humanity, claim precedence of the portion of their race in slavery?

"Across that bridge of boats," said a certain eloquent speaker, referring to the line of steamships which it was proposed that the General Government should establish between this country and Liberia, "there will go, with a tramp like an army with banners, a mighty crowd, whose exodus will be more glorious than the exodus of Israel." Well, it would be an easy matter for our people to build this "bridge of boats." It would be, comparatively, an easy matter to start the "mighty crowd," amid the waving of banners and great rejoicing; but what is to become of them at the other end of the bridge? I confess, there is no vision rises before my eyes but that which Dr. Baxter saw, the vision of this "mighty crowd," through "unwillingness to labour, sinking into the savage state, and living by the chase, or the spontaneous productions of the earth, or else establishing new forms of slavery among themselves."

And can I, as a God-fearing man, favour any scheme involving such a catastrophe as this. I may be mistaken in my opinions respecting this matter, but they are opinions honestly entertained, and not hastily adopted. I am a friend to Liberian colonization. I have confidence in its accomplishment of great good if prudently conducted; and it is because I am a friend, that I deprecate any such measures as are contemplated in the popular emancipation

schemes.

SECTION XI.-THE WORK AND THE WAY.

Is there nothing we can do, and do now, for the slave race among us?

I reply, yes; there is much that can be done; work at which we may labour now, work for the Church, work for the Christian citizen, work for the philanthropist, and all of it work which will tell upon the slave race, and their preparation for ultimate freedom, if freedom be what God in his providence has in store for them.

As I read the lesson which history teaches-and in revelation I find no deliverance on the subject-there is but one way in which a people, in whose case the process of degradation by sin has been going on through many generations, and upon whom, in consequence thereof, slavery has come, can be raised and fitted for freedom again, and that one way is through the agency of a gradually ameliorating slavery, the amelioration taking place as they are prepared to profit by it. Individual exceptions will occur, as stated at the close of my second letter, but for a race, history points to no other way. In this way our Anglo-Saxon race, once sunk under a more galling slavery than the African has ever suffered in our country, was prepared for freedom.

This process of amelioration is going on, and has been going on ever since the introduction of new bodies of slaves, through the agency of the slave-trade, ceased. Many of the cruel laws, once necessary to restrain a barbarous people, have disappeared from our statute-books, whilst the others have become, to a very large extent, a dead letter, and, in the natural order of things, will dis

appear.

For all such amelioration, Christianity lays the only sure foundation. The Church of God, without departing from the letter of her instructions, without stepping aside at all from the course which Christ has marked out for her, must do a great work in preparing the way for any amelioration of slavery, safe and profitable for the slaves themselves; and when the Church has once done her work, the Christian citizen and the philanthropist will do what remains to be done.

But for unreasonably protracting this letter, I would present this matter more in detail. As it is, I must refer you for a fuller exhibition of the scheme to the "Christian Doctrine of Slavery," pp. 117-136.

SECTION XII.-EFFECTS OF ENTERTAINING THIS EMANCIPATION

SCHEME.

As I have remarked, I have no confidence in the happy operation of any general emancipation scheme; at least, for a long time to come; and the present agitation of the matter is doing harm,