but it affords the magistrates another
opportunity of lamenting that there should so
speedily be furnished no less than five additional
instances of the rapid increase of crime in this
(hitherto in that respect highly fortunate)
District, arising solely from the recent great
influx of colored people into it from the
neighboring United States,--and who unfortunately
not only furnish the major part of the crime
perpetrated in the District, but also thereby a
very great portion of its rapidly increasing
debt,--from the expense attending their
maintenance in jail before trial, as well as after
conviction! . . . .

"In spite of these solemn admonitions, a large
proportion of the criminals tried at the ensuing
September Assizes were colored people; and among
them were two aggravated cases of rape and arson;
the former wantonly perpetrated on a respectable
farmer's wife, in this township, to whom the
wretch was a perfect stranger; the latter
recklessly committed at a merchant's store in the
vicinity of Sandwich, for the mere purpose of
opening a hole through which to convey away his
plunder. And, notwithstanding 'the general jail
delivery' that then took place, the greater part
of the crimes brought before the following mouth's
Quarter Sessions (chiefly larceny and assaults)
were furnished by the same people!--a circumstance
of so alarming and distressing a character, that I
was again led to comment upon it in my charge to
the Grand Jury in the following terms. 'Having
disposed of the law relating to these offenses, I
arrive at a very painful part of nay observations,
in once more calling the particular attention of
the Grand Jury, as well as the public at large, to
the remarkable and appalling circumstance that
among a population of near 20,000 souls,
inhabiting this District, the greater portion of
the crime perpetrated therein should be committed
by less than 2,000 refugees from a life of _abject
slavery_, to a land of _liberty, protection and
comfort_,--and from whom, therefore, if there be
suc