r
Lachlan--Demoralized condition of the blacks as
indicated by the crimes they committed--Elgin
Association--Public meeting protesting against its
organization--Negro meeting at Toronto--Memorial
of municipal council--Negro riot at St.
Catherines--Col. Prince and the Negroes--Later
cases of presentation by Grand Jury--Opinion of
the Judge--Darkening prospects of the colored
race--Views of Rev. Henry Ward Beecher--Their
accuracy--The lesson they teach.

BUT little progress, it will be seen, has been made, by the free colored
people, toward an approximation of equality with the whites. Have they
succeeded better in aiding in the abolition of slavery? They have not,
as is abundantly demonstrated by the triumph of the institution. This is
an important point for consideration, as the principal object
influencing them to remain in the country, was, that they might assist
in the liberation of their brethren from bondage. But their agency in
the attempts made to abolish the institution having failed, a more
important question arises, as to whether the free colored people, by
refusing to emigrate, may not have contributed to the advancement of
slavery? An affirmative answer must be given to this inquiry. Nor is a
protracted discussion necessary to prove the assertion.

One of the objections urged with the greatest force against
colonization, is, its tendency, as is alleged, to increase the value of
slaves by diminishing their numbers. "Jay's Inquiry," 1835, presents
this objection at length; and the Report of the "Anti-Slavery Society of
Canada," 1853, sums it up in a single proposition thus:

"The first effect of beginning to reduce the number of slaves, by
colonization, would be to increase the market value of those left
behind, and thereby increase the difficulty of setting them free."

The practical effect of this doctrine, is to discourage all
emancipations; to render eternal the bondage of each individual slave,
unless all can be liberated; to prevent the benevolence of one master
from freeing his slaves, lest his more selfish neighbor should be
thereby enriched; and to leave the whole system intact, until its total
abolition can be effected. Such philanthropy would leave every
individual, of suffering millions, to groan out a miserable existence,
because it could not at once effect the deliverance of the whole. This