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Show 86 r.IO'l'.I<:S ON odd; of its inhabitants, over 512,000 are unable either to read or write. I doubt if anything like that proportion could have been found among the slaves of the last generation. 'Vith the present generation it is different; as a. general thing, they arc not permi~tcd to be taugl~,t to read. That it should be so, we "un:1nunously deplore, but there is no help for it: a hard necessity is upon us ;-a necessity, of life ttud death. Let the abolitionists cease to flood tho South with incendiary publications reeking with the fires of hell,-lct the inculcation of such devilish doctrines be given over forever, and let the South be assured of this, and, my word for it, our Legislatures will repeal forthwith the l<1ws against the eduvation of the sbvcs. Dut, it will be saiJ, the very fact that such laws nrc necessary, proves that tho institUtion of slavery is a bacl one. Nay, it proves no such thing: it only proves that plausible falsehood is dangerous to those who receive it for gospel. If all the slaves could be made to see, (as some fugitives ltave seen, and gone back to tell their ma.stcrs,) how much better off they are than the free negroes at the North,na. y, how much better off they arc than the great majority of the European peasantry,-abolitionists might como among us, nnd preach insurrection, to their heart's content, and no harm come of' it: so far from the negroes being excited to bloodshed by it, they woulu be content with their condition, and heartily thank God for hav-ing called the1n to such a "state of salvation" from the miseries of the peasantry of Europe. A reu.l parallel, tl1en, with the Guardian's leave, can be drawn, not between "a bad institution" and "ignora.nce, misery, and vice;" but between the resu1ts of two institutions good or bad; and this is what I propose doing, or rather, setting the reader to do for himself; for if he will turn to Appendix, K., and read the documents there UNCLF. 'rou's CABIN. 87 cited, he will need few words of mine, in the way of comment. What would be said, if the statements there made (and they are. only a specimen of what might be ma.dc,) could be made, ~vtth equal truth, of the slaves of the South? ~.Phe "labormg classes" working for less than one dolla.r and tlJrce quartc1:s a week, (see Appendix, K ., 2, (5),) and out of that, feed1ng and clothing a. family, aud paying for fuel and ~·cnt, and unable to get constant employment, CYan at that. On~/t~n:d·re~ thousand persons, in the city of London alone, . nsmg m the morning without the ccrtn.inty of a me~~ d~r1.ng tho day!" "prowling about the tlwroughf~ rcs, ,~xistmg "partly by petty pilfering," and lotlging at night, . seventy or eighty persons huddled together, in a. small eight-roomed house in a footid alley, buil' up close at the back, so that the circula.tion of· even the smn,llcst current of air is. rendered impossible!" (Appendix, K., 2, (1).) 1t1Iscry so abJect that, in the words of tho London .Morning Herald? (sec Appendix, K., 2, (2),) "we may venture to set agaz.nst all tlte degradation of ltuman nature tltat prevails ove1· ten tlwusand sqttare miles of tlte most savage district upo.n e~rtlt, tlte uUer abasement of our fellow-creatw·es, wltzclt ts, at tiLe very ltoztr wlten we write, contained wit !tin the Urnits of tlte metropolis of great and Ch1·isUan .A'ngland !" "'\Yhite slaves," in the words of the London 'l'imes, (Appendix, K., 2, (3),) "of a sex and age least qualified to struggle with the hardships of their lot-young women, for the most part, between sixteen and thirty years of age, worlccd in gangs in ill-ventilated rooms, or rooms ' that are not ventilated at a.ll," Jest particles of soot and smoke, coming in with the air, sh~uld soil and damage the ':ork ~n which they arc employed ; sewing "from morning till mght~ and nigltt till ~rning-stiteh, stitch, without pous9-w1thout speech-without a smile-without a siglt !" |