country under the dominion of the British crown; overflowing with an industrious population; a boundless extent of land, where the cultivation of cotton has not to be learned, but where it has existed from the earliest ages. India is capable of furnishing us with an unlimited supply of cotton. Why we receive so little, is the subject to which I am desirous of directing your attention. Our supplies of cotton from India, in former times, were larger even than from the United States. In 1818, our imports from India amounted to 247,659 bales, while those from the United States that year were only 207,580 bales. and fertility; the riches of India is a popular illusion. But the price of India cotton was then 17d. per lb. In 1822, the price had fallen to 64d. per lb., and the imports fell to 19,263 bales. In 1841, the imports increased to 273,000 bales. In 1846, they fell off to 49,500 bales. Our imports from India have at all times been irregular; the quality of the cotton being inferior to that of other countries, it is only in times of scarcity and high prices that it has been forced into use. The price of Indian cotton, ruling in the market about 2d. per lb. below that of American, so long as the latter can be purchased at 5d. to 8d. per lb., India cotton is neglected, and falls to a price at which imports become unprofitable. The importation of cotton from India has been discouraging; stocks have been held on hand for years, and occasionally have been almost unsaleable, and inports must, at times, have been attended with great losses. The stocks of Indian cotton on hand in our ports at the close of each year, show that, at the average rate of consumption, there were on hand during the years 1818 to 1824, from 120 to 240 weeks' consumption, and so re-reach, which, if applied to purposes of irrigation, cently as 1844, there were 107 weeks' consumption; in 1845, there were 130 weeks' consumption; in 1846, there were 75 weeks' consumption, while the stock on hand on the 31st December last only amounted to 23 weeks' consumption. The cause of the extreme sterility of the soil of India is the want of sufficient moisture. Irrigation, then, is indispensable to increased production. "The savages of Australia," Col. Cotton well observes, "trod upon gold for hundreds of years, while they were often in want of food, and always without a rag of clothing; and very similar has been the state of things in India. With an unlimited supply of water within would more than provide for every possible want, the people of India have been generally barely supplied with the necessaries of life, and often so entirely without them as to perish by hundreds of thousands; and their European rulers, with this treasure within their reach, of far greater value, in proportion to the cost of obtaining it, than the richest gold-mines in the world, have been unable to make their income equal their expenditure." It is scarcely to be expected, with such facts before us of an irregular demand, and prices equally irregular, that India has looked to England as a customer for her cotton. No country will grow produce for an uncertain demand; and until India can rely upon a That the native governments and the people apconstant and steady foreign demand, she will only preciated this invaluable method of increasing the fergrow it with a view to her own consumption. It is tility of the soil, is shown by the ruins in all parts of probable that the advance in prices will bring us the country of great works of irrigation. We have large imports from India during the current year, but instructive proo's of the consequences of the destructhey will not come from an increased growth, but will tion of works of this kind in the present condition of be drawn from the stock grown for home use. Our Egypt, ancient Babylon and Nineveh, once the abodes demand, therefore, being only occasional, is produc- of wealth and civilization, but where, since the abtive of similar effects to the demand for foreign corn sence of irrigation, the soil which maintained their during our corn laws; it was prejudicial, inasmuch vast populations is become a sandy desert; and from as it raised the price of corn upon the inhabitants of the same causes millions of acres, in a similar condiall those countries to which we resorted in our need, tion, are lying waste in India. and who, being unprepared for the demand, had only grown enough for their own supply. It is the interest of India either to have a constant demand for her cotton, or to be relieved from the losses incident to an occasional demand. But to secure a constant demand, it is necessary that she be able to compete with America, and this leads to the inquiry into the capabilities of India for producing cotton equally cheap and good with that country. In 1848, this subject engaged the attention of parliament; Mr. Bright, the member for Manchester, moved for a committee of the House of Commous to inquire into the growth of cotton in India. I had the honour of being appointed a member of that committee, which obtained a mass of valuable information as to the obstacles which prevent India from successfully competing with the United States. India is connected in the popular mind with wealth The fall of rain in India is more than sufficient to irrigate all the cultivable land. By a free supply of water alone, without any additional skill, the produce of the land might be increased three or fourfold, and the quality greatly improved. The complaint of Dr. Royle, the East India Company's botanist, is, that the climate is too dry, and the methods of raising water in India are all too expensive for the cotton crop. "This country," says Mr. Mercer, the planter brought from America by the East India Company, "is too dry, and we shall find it so in comparison with the valley of the Mississippi. All India is dry; not that there is not more rain falls during the year in some parts of India than falls in the same time in Mississippi, yet what does fall there is scattered throughout the year." Mr. George Vary, who had twelve years' experience in India, and was late superintendent of the government cotton experiments in Sattara and Sholopoor, says, "The cotton plant, as at present cultivated, is an annual. The seed is sown towards the end of the monsoon. The bush seldom exceeds 3 feet high, and 40 lbs. per acre of clean cotton is considered a fair crop. Atter the cotton is collected the bushes are pulled up and burned, as they all die during the hot weather for want of moisture. By irrigating cotton you will be able to retain the same bushes for several years. I have seen a bush nine years old, producing three crops yearly of fine cotton; you will, therefore, get two or three crops yearly instead of one. Instead of 40 lbs. per acre you will probably get 200 to 300 lbs. yearly per acre, and the quality of irrigated cotton is 150 per cent. better than field cultivated cotton, which is easily accounted for. In the non-irrigation system, the hot weather suddenly sets in, the bush, from the want of moisture, becomes dried up and stunted, and this renders the cotton short and crisp. The samples of cotton I have seen grown in gardens, or where there was plenty of moisture, are as fine, long, and silky as any in the world, and there is no doubt, if it could be produced in large quantities, it would be preferred to American or any other." Dr. Buist bears similar testimony to the effects of irrigation, which he has seen, in increasing the quantity, and in improving the fineness and length of staple of the cotton. We have, besides, the authority of Sir John Lawrence, that the produce of cotton from irrigated land near Delhi was 384 lbs. of clean cotton per acre. This evidence is decisive that, by means of irrigation, India can produce cotton of equal quality and in equal quantity with America. There are all over India remains of works of irrigation in a state of ruin or decay. The existing mode of watering the land is rude and costly, consisting, 1st. Of the Persian wheel, by which water is lifted in earthen jars of about two quarts each; sometimes worked as a treadmill, by manual labour, but more commonly by bullocks. 2d. Lifting water from pools or tanks with a leathern bag. 3d. Lifting it with a wooden shoot. 4th. Lifting it from wells, thirty to sixty feet deep, with a bucket. The cost of irrigating one crop, by the least expensive of these modes, would amount to 12s. to 36s. per acre. Almost all the existing canals for irrigation are constructed in an extremely defective manner, and only supply water to the land sometimes during four months, and sometimes only during two months of the year. That which is required is, that we should avail ourselves of the superior engineering skill of the present age to devise a great systematic plan of irrigation, by which the whole country should be furnished with canals of irrigation, supplied by the rivers at all times with water, and which might also be used as canals for the cheap conveyance of produce. India affords great facilities for works of this nature, and it is estimated that land might be furnished with a constant supply of water for irrigatiou, by these means, at a cost of 2s. 6d. per acre per annum, besides providing water conveyance. The awful depopulation of the country by famine, in 1837-1838, in consequence of droughts, roused the government to emulate the Mogul emperors in works of irrigation, and to make the Ganges canal, which, including branches, is 800 miles in extent. But the whole of these kind of works executed by the government in 100 years, at an expense of about £2,500,000, are only calculated to irrigate about 4,000,000 of acres, in a country comprising an area of about 800,000,000 of acres of land. Roads and communications are a fundamental element of national prosperity and wealth. But it may be said of India that she has no roads, there being only 3000 to 4000 miles of metalled roads for a population of 150,000,000, while in England there are 120,000 miles of metalled roads. What would England be without roads, canals, railroads, ports, and public works? For want of roads in India cotton is brought a distance of 400 miles to a shipping port on the backs of bullocks, each bullock carrying about 240 lbs. The journey occupies two to three months, and it frequently happens that the cotton is overtaken by the rainy season, the streams and torrents become impassable, and droves of bullocks die on the road from over-fatigue. When the railway reaches the cotton district, which, at the past rate of progress, may be expected some ten to fifteen years hence, the transit to a shipping port, which on an average has hitherto occupied 64 days, will be accomplished in 36 hours. Mr. Mackay says, "It is a misnomer to call the rude tracks in Guzerat roads; in the civilized and ordinary sense of the term there are none in the province." He relates that it took him seven hours to traverse in a bullock cart the road between Jamboosar and the port of Tankaria, a distance of twelve miles, and long before his arrival at the end of his journey there was scarcely a bone of his body which was not the seat of pain. "On the way," he says, "the mamlutdar amused us with several stories of accidents which had occurred on the road, one of which related to the sad fate of a trader, who received such a jolt as made him inadvertently bite the end of his own tongue off." Nor is this road a mere byeway, leading to a village or two, but a great thoroughfare, forming the main outlet to a large and rich tract of country. So long ago as 1839 railways were projected in India, but they have hitherto made the same slow progress with everything useful in that country, only about 200 miles being yet opened, while during the same period in the United States, upwards of 20,000 miles have been completed. It remains to be seen whether railways, constructed more for political and military purposes than for commerce, will fulfil their professed objects of facilitating the carriage of produce to shipping ports. Railroads are better than no roads, but bulky produce will not bear expensive carriage from long distances. If it were not for the cheap water communications of America, probably not a hundredth part of the produce now brought to a port down the Mississippi, and other parts, from great distances, would find a market. The cost of conveyance in America by the lakes is from th to ths of a 1d. per ton per mile; by the Erie canal it is. In India, down the Ganges, it is d. to d.; and by the Madras canals, d.; while the freight of cotton from Berar to Bombay on pack bullocks is 10d. per ton per mile. One of the greatest obstacles to the increased production of cotton in India is the tenure of land. A wise tenure of land lies at the foundation of the future welfare and improvement of the people of India. It has been said that, in Eastern countries, from time immemorial, the sovereigns have been the sole owners of the soil, and have generally levied for the requirements of the state a certain portion of the produce, varying from one-tenth to one-fourth. In our Indian possessions, the government claim the same sovereign rights-and, except in Bengal, no person in India, native or European, can own in fee-simple a single acre of land. Mr. Mangles, the present chairman of the East Irdia Company, in his evidence before the India Cotton Committee, thus defends this right:-"The rent of land (he says), has never been private property in India. The government of India, like any other government, may be an unfaithful trustee, but I hold that the land revenue of India, if there were a republic constituted in India to-morrow, belongs to the community as their right, for the purposes of good government, including irrigation, and roads, and canals. If there was the freest government in the world, it would be for public purposes, and if you gave that, or any part of it gratuitously to the person who happened to be a cultivator of the soil, or to have certain rights in connection with the soil, you would rob the other classes of the community. If the government, as trustees, take this money, and waste it in foreign wars, or waste it in any other way, they are, pro tanto, unfaithful trustees. It is a great public fund, like the tithes in this country, appropriated to the national church; any diversion of that would be a robbery of the parties to whom it belongs. It is in that point of view, and because I wish to see other impolitic taxes abolished, that I desire to see the land revenue maintained in its full integrity, and, if it can be justly done, increased." It is no less remarkable than instructive, however, that in the district of Rajahmundry, where the lands have been rendered more productive by irrigation, and the condition of the people improved, it is no longer necessary to use threats or force to collect the rents. They are now cheerfully paid; and Mr. Taylor, the revenue officer of that district, officially reports that twenty-four villages in one talook, stimulated by the improvement in their outward circumstances, had voluntarily proposed that a permanent addition should be made to their land-tax, to be applied to the establishment of schools for the education of their children. Journal of the Society of Arts. (To be continued.) THE PRAYING BANKRUPT. SOME twenty-five years since, in a town of some maritime importance, there resided a deacon, who was enInstead of levying their rent in produce, the East gaged in lucrative business. Although of prudent India Company levy it in money. In some of the habits, his benevolence led him to endorse largely for cotton districts the practice is for the government to one who had won his confidence as a Christian bromake an annual assessment of each field cultivated by ther, but afterwards proved to be a designing knave. the ryots, at such times as the state of the crops enables This issued in the good deacon's failure, when, with the collector to estimate the amount which the culti- scrupulous integrity, everything that could be claimed vator may be able to pay. It must be evident that a by his creditors was given up. A winter of great system like this is destructive of all stimulus to exer- severity and of general business depression followed. tion or improvement. It converts the ryots into mere His wife and young children looked to him for a subhuman bees, permitted to exist for the sake of creat- sistence which he knew not how to furnish, as his ing wealth, but like those industrious insects, denied most diligent efforts for employment were unsuccessful. the reward of its enjoyment-every year collecting a fresh store, but every year stripped of all, except enough to maintain existence until the season returns for repeating the robbery. That such a tenure results in creating a most abject class of cultivators is not surprising, when it is stated by Mr. Davis, one of the East India Company's collectors, that the whole sum left by the government, for the subsistence of the human bees in his district, amounted to 3s. for cultivating an acre of cotton! The rack-renting of the Bombay ryots, and the necessity of reducing their assessments, was proved before the committee of the House of Commons, in 1832, but it was not until it had caused the utter ruin of the people in some parts of the country, and the consequent decline of the revenue, that the government were induced to listen to a considerable reduction of the assessments, and to giving leases to the cultivators. The system of granting leases at low average rates for thirty years, has been carried out in the southern part of the Bombay presidency-the government reserving the right to re-assess every field at the expiration of this term, to increase the rent, in proportion to the increased value derived from the application of the labour and capital of the cultivator, and to turn out the existing occupier, if he refused to pay the increased rent demanded by the tax collector. But even this partial improvement does not appear to be yet begun in the cotton districts of Candeish and Guzerat, or in Madras. The exactions of the government from an impover ished people produce the usual results of oppression, demoralization, chicanery, deceit, and cunning, and render it difficult to collect the government rents without resort to some kind of force. Official inquiries have proved the practice of torture for the purpose of exacting exorbitant rents, and that even women are tortured in a manner which cannot be mentioned. Those acquainted with the country state that the practice obtains, more or less, throughout India, and will continue so long as the system of op pressive exactions and a corrupt and demoralized police are permitted by the government. A debt incurred with no prospect of payment was in his estimation sin; and he sadly saw the little stock of provision they possessed rapidly diminishing, with no way to obtain more. He was a man of prayer as well as action, and carried the case to Him who feedeth the ravens. Yet long weary weeks passed, and no succour came. At length the morning dawned when the last stick of wood was on the fire, and little Hatty told her father that the candles were all gone; "and how," asked she, “shall we take care of dear mamma to-night?" The question went to the father's heart with daggerlike poignancy. The vision of his suffering wife gasping her life away in the last fearful stages of consump tion, her comfortless sick-room, unwarmed, unlighted, and the thick darkness which he knew would enshroud her mind, when made aware of the extent of their destitution, would have driven him to distraction, were it not that he yet had hope in One mighty to save. He fled to his closet, and there in an agony of prayer besought the Lord for help; and, forgetting all other wants, pled and pled again for the two articles now specially needed, specifying them with reiterated earnestness. He arose from his knees in full assurance of faith and with heavenly tranquillity, and went forth expecting deliverance, looking for it, however, in but one way-through his own earnings. But, after a fruitless day of seeking employment, gloomily he returned home. He entered his gate, and was startled to see before him a generous pile of wood. Little Johnny opened the door, clapping his hands, exclaiming, "O, father! we've got some wood and some candles!" "But where did you get them? Are you sure they were not left here by mistake?" "O no, father!" interrupted Hatty, "they were not left by mistake. A man knocked at the door with his whip, and when I opened it, he asked if you lived here. I told him you did. Then he said, Here are some candles and a load of wood for him." "I asked him if you sent them; and he said, I rather think your father don't know anything about it." "Who did send them, then?" said I. "O!" said he, "I mustn't tell, but you may say to your father that they are a present." But to what instrumentality they were indebted for the relief was a mystery. And what particularly interested Deacon P. was the character of the anonymous presents-that the very things so much needed, and no others, should be sent; and he was sure he had mentioned his want of them to no human ear. He questioned the children anew. They described the man who knocked at the door, the horse and truck he drove. A new thought struck him. "Why," said he, "that team belongs to my old enemy, Graff. Can it be possible he is the donor? If so, surely the finger of God has touched his heart." Deacon P. was, however, so convinced that he was their benefactor, that he resolved on an immediate call on that gentleman. But who was Mr. Graff? was of no use; I had to succumb. The more I ridiculed and fought it, the more vivid and irresistible was the impression, until to purchase peace, and in some awe, I confess, I bade John load his team with wood, and leave it at your door. "For a moment I was at rest; but only for a moment. The imperative whisper came, 'Send some candles!' Said I to myself, This is too absurd; I will not gratify this whim. But again I was so beset with the mandate, and so distressed and baffled in repelling it, that as a cheap way to get out of torment, I handed John a package of candles also. "This matter has been in my mind ever since. Sometimes I have thought it almost a freak of insanity, and then again, such was the strange character of the impression, so unexpected, so solemn, and powerful, and such the singular peace following compliance with its dictates, that I almost believe it to be supernatural.” Some years before, the sacredness of the Sabbath was openly violated by a brisk trade in fish. The hundreds of boatmen, sailors, and their friends, en- "It is indeed the doings of Him who is wonderful gaged in this desecration, were so potent in influence, in working," replied Deacon P. "It was about ten that nobody thought of risking interference. Deacon o'clock, I well remember, that I pled with God for the P., though a man of peace, was also a man of moral very articles you sent me. It was then, too, that my courage. He determined to put a stop to the iniquity. soul was filled with the conviction that my prayer was His friends warned him that his life would be endan-heard and relief would come." gered, but at first alone, and afterwards with a brother deacon, he would take a walk along the wharves of a Sabbath morning to ascertain who broke the laws by traffic on that day. Men swore at him like fiends, fired his dwelling at several different times, and at last "bound themselves with an oath" to kill him. Yet they feared his presence, and at his approach stores would be deserted of customers and closed with great celerity. This species of Sabbath-breaking was at length broken up, after various hair-breadth escapes on the part of Deacon P. and his compatriot, the authorities being shamed into action by their fearless zeal. The brutal drunkenness of the sailors, and the degradation and suffering of their families, with which Deacon P. was in this enterprise brought into contact, opened his eyes to the evils of the liquor traffic; and, turning over his Sabbath reform to the legal authorities, he became known as a temperance advocate. This also brought him enemies, sometimes changing even friends into foes. Distiller Graff was among the latter, from a warm friend becoming bitterly alienated. In vain did the grieved deacon strive to conciliate by explanation and personal kindness. Even the trifling civility of a bow was rudely unnoticed by Mr. Graff. Deacon P. entered the distillery of his old friend. For the first time for years its proprieter looked up with a nod and smile of recognition. It was evident something unusual had softened his heart. "I have called," said the deacon, “to ask if you can tell me who sent some wood and candles to my house to-day?" "Yes, sir, I sent them." "You are very kind; but pray, tell me how you came to do so?" "But first let me inquire if you really needed them?" "O, I cannot express to you how much!" "Well, then, suppose I must explain," said Mr. Graff. "It's all very singular, and sometimes seems very foolish. This morning, about ten o'clock, as I was busy at my work, suddenly a voice seemed to say to me, 'Send some wood to Deacon P.; he is in want!' I was astonished. I could not believe you needed it. And I could not send it to you of all others. I tried to banish the thought, and went to work again more earnestly. But the voice-it seemed within me-said again with painful distinctness, 'Send some wood to Deacon P.; he is in want!' I scouted the idea as weak and silly-a mere phantasy of the brain; but it Since hearing a venerated relative relate this incident in h's own life, we have often wondered how the sceptic can dispose of such occurrences. While it would be presumption for the believer to expect to live by prayer alone, to be fed without his own cooperation, as was Elijah, yet are there not events happening all along the history of the church, in the experiences of individual members, to be accounted for only on the ground of a special Providence regardful of the emergencies of the believing, suffering people of God? Surely "light is sown for the righteous," and to them, "The deepest dark reveals the starricst hope." -Christian Treasury. -Anon. (CIRCULAR.) TESTIMONIAL TO WILLIAM AND HANNAH LEAN. REPORT OF THE PRESENTATION. ON the First of Twelfth Month, 1857, Twenty-three of WILLIAM LEAN'S old scholars, several of them from distant parts of the country, assembled as previously agreed upon, at his house at Edgbaston, Birmingham, to present him and HANNAH LEAN, with the testimonial contributed by thyself and others. The testimonial presented to WILLIAM LEAN was a handsome purse, containing One Hundred and Sixtysix New Sovereigns; that to HANNAH LEAN was a Davenport, (a Lady's Escritoire) made of finely grained walnut wood, and fitted up with handsome stationery. The purse was presented to WILLIAM LEAN with the following address, engrossed on vellum, richly bound in red morocco, and containing the names of all the donors: THE ADDRESS TO WILLIAM LEAN. "On its being known that thou hadst given up school, with its numerous duties and responsibilities, a desire was simultaneously expressed by thy old scholars, in several parts of the country, to present thee with some slight proof of their happy and grateful remembrance of their school days. The Committee, upon whom has devolved the agreeable duty of carrying out this desire, have great pleasure in presenting thee with the result of those feelings, in the simple form in which it was expressed. It is scarcely necessary, in performing this duty, to do more than allude to those feelings; the best proof of whose depth and sincerity lies in the hearty sentiments in which this testimonial originated. Fully certain, as they are, that it would be most distasteful to thee, were they to enlarge upon their estimation of thy efforts on their behalf, they confine themselves, therefore, to assuring thee of their sincere regard, and to the expression of their best wishes. This occasion suggests the hope that thou wilt long enjoy the increased leisure at thy command among those literary occupations so congenial to thy tastes. They present this purse, containing the sum of One Hundred and Sixty-six Sovereigns, in the name of thy old pupils." Here followed the Names. WILLIAM LEAN, on rising to reply, seemed almost overpowered by the feelings the address and testimonial had called forth. After adverting to the great pleasure it afforded to himself and HANNAH LEAN to see so many of their old pupils together, he warmly expressed the gratitude he felt for the testimonial; which, taken in its pecuniary sense, would be exceedingly useful; and when viewed in connection with the feelings of kind and grateful remembrance, in which it originated, was in the highest degree satisfactory to them, and seemed amply to repay them for the toil and anxiety they had undergone; showing them, as it so clearly did, that their labours had been appreciated: and he desired the Committee most warmly to thank the absent Contributors for their great kindness. After this, HANNAH LEAN'S testimonial was presented, which she seemed most highly to appreciate, and for which, through WILLIAM LEAN, she returned her grateful acknowledgments. The rest of the evening was spent very pleasantly in listening to remarks made by many of those present, on the attachment and regard felt for WILLIAM and HANNAH LEAN by their old pupils, and on the light in which they viewed the years passed under their care, and also in reviving reminiscences of old school-boy days. At the conclusion, WILLIAM and HANNAH LEAN again expressed their warm thanks and hearty appreciation of the kindness of their old scholars. ELOQUENCE.-The fire of genius, the glow of imagination, must be the eukindling torches in the senate, at the bar; but though not altogether useless in the pulpit, yet they are not the lawful sources of animation there. It is not the blaze of genius, or the glow of imagination, but the sacred flame of fervent piety, the holy kindlings of a mind moved by principles derived from heaven, and the generous efforts of a soul impelled by an intense desire for the salvation of a dying world, that must impart life and energy to the correct but glowing statements, the warm and impassioned appeals of the ambassadors for Christ. Other sources of animation may be exhausted by exercise and dried up by time, but this can never fail. It will remain the same when the head of the venerable prophet is covered with hoary hairs, and the body is sunk in the decrepitude of age; nay, as in the case of the apostle Paul, it will rise into brighter radiance as he advances to the termination of his course. A more ardent panting for the salvation of mankind will mark his dying hours than that which attended his entrance on his labours; and, with David, the last prayer his spirit breathes will be for the universal diffusion of that gospel which it has been the business and honour of his life to preach:-"Blessed be the Lord God, the God of Israel, who only doth wondrous things. And blessed be his glorious name for ever; and let the whole earth be filled with his glory. Amen, and Amen." Correspondence. FRENCH SCHEME OF AFRICAN IMMIGRATION. To the EDITORS of THE BRITISH FRIEND. DEAR FRIENDS,It is gratifying to see that, in common with the generality of the friends of the African race, you are on the alert to expose and resist the French scheme of African Immigration, which will prove to be, in fact, a new slave-trade. It is very important that vigilance should not relax, and I trust you will do your part to maintain it. One remark in your editorial article of last month may lead to misapprehension. You say that "to a perfectly free and voluntary emigration, no one can object; and you have long been of the mind, that if it could be carried out under government superintendence, and independent of all planters' influence, it could not fail to be productive of advantage to the West India colonies and to Africa"-and certainly no one who would promote freedom of action, would object to man, whatever his race, moving to a new sphere where he might be more advantageously placed. But with regard to the natives of Africa, the extracts in your own paper prove that "free emigrants cannot be got from Africa. Free men will not emigrate from Africa, and slaves cannot. If slaves emigrate from Africa, it is because their masters have first received compensation, in other words, have sold them"-and, as Lord Gray said recently in the House of Lords, "let the scheme be hedged in as closely as possible, no and I think we have had evidence on evidence to prove limitations can be of any avail, it must be abandoned;" the dangers to Africa involved in all government schemes of immigration. But what I wish principally to prevent, is the inference that may be drawn from your remark, that the West Indies (I speak particularly of the British West Indies), need a fresh supply of labourers. It is one of West Indian emancipation has been a failure; that the favourite calumnies of pro-slavery people, that the negroes would not work without the lash; that they were lazy, &c., and that therefore the planters must resort to the importation of Coolies, &c., that their plautations may not run to waste. Refutations of these charges are so numerous, that their production, even of those close at hand, would overcharge your columns; but I request the insertion of one or two extracts, hoping that you will kindly grant a little space for them. The first is from Lord Brougham's speech before the House of Lords, on the 17th of Sixth Month last: Now, with regard to the alleged want of hands in the colonies, what is the real cause of it? I will read to your lordships an extract from a letter written by Mr. Clark, a gentleman who has lived in Jamaica for twenty years, relating to that subject. Mr. Clark in that letter, dated June 4th, 1955, says :-'Agriculture and commerce are now looking up, and still, notwithstanding the price of produce is more than doubled, the labourers are almost everywhere compelled to work at the same rate, as when it was at the lowest ebb-9d. and 18. a-day. The papers have, however, taken the matter up, and I hope that ere long 1s. 3d. and 1s. 6d. will be paid, without any agitation or strike on their part. There is again the old cry for immigration from Africa; whereas our planters who treat the people fairly and kindly, are getting all the labour they require, and if more be wanted, they have but to increase the rate of wages, and their wants will be supplied more abundantly than by the importation of thousands of immigrants.' "In reply to the question as to whence these negroes |