rry to run against
any proper feelings on the subject, but I do honestly believe that if
any person of average propriety and right-mindedness were shown these
creatures, and told that their lot was to become the property of others,
and work in return for food and lodging, he would come to the conclusion
that it was all they were fit for--indeed, he might think that they had
gained in exchanging their wretched savage life for one of comparative
civilization. I would not pretend, upon the strength of a hurried visit
to a city, to offer the slightest opinion upon the native domestic and
social economy; but I can say, that whenever I have seen the black
slaves abroad, they have been neatly dressed, and apparently well kept;
and that, if shopping with their mistresses in the bazaars, the
conversation and laughing that passed between them was like that between
two companions. The truth is that the "virtuous indignation" side of the
question holds out grander opportunities to an author for fine writing
than the practical fact. But this style of composition should not always
be implicitly relied upon; I knew a man who was said by certain reviews
and literary _cliques_ to be "a creature of large sympathies for the
poor and oppressed," because he wrote touching things about them; but
who would abuse his wife, and brutally treat his children, and harass
his family, and then go and drink until his large heart was sufficiently
full to take up the "man-and-brother" line of literary business, and
suggest that a tipsy chartist was as good as a quiet gentleman. Of this
class are the writers who even call livery "a badge of slavery," and
yet, in truth, if the real slave felt as proud of his costume and calves
as John feels, he might be considerably envied for his content by many
of us.

As we entered the court-yard, a girl rose and asked Demetri if I wanted
to buy her. I told him to say that I did, and would take her to England.
She asked Demetri where that was, and on being told that it was so many
days' journey, she ran away, declaring that she would never go so far
with any body. We next went up to a circle of black females, who had
clustered under the shade of a tree. A Turkish woman in her vail was
talking to them. I made Demetri tell them that we had no slaves in
England, as our queen did not allow it, but that every one was free as
soon as they touched the land. This statement excited a laugh of the
loudest derision from all the p