and. The trend of the American Negro
is upward, but the South African native remains on an unchanging plane
of misery and oppression. For the American Negro, in spite of
discrimination, lynching and riot, the star of hope shines with
ever-increasing luster, but its beams, at the present time, seem
scarcely to reach his South African brother. The British protectorate
of self-governing South Africa has not been a boon to the South
African native, for the home government has abandoned him to the hands
of his oppressors.

D. A. LANE, JR.

FOOTNOTES:

[1] The facts concerning South Africa herein given are obtained from
select constitutional documents in the appendix of _The Bantu_, by S.
M. Molema. This book was published by W. Green and Son, Ltd.,
Edinburgh, 1920.

[2] Molema, _The Bantu_, p. 220.

[3] _Ibid._, p. 237.

[4] Molema, _The Bantu_, p. 241.

[5] Molema, _The Bantu_ (appendix), p. 378.

[6] _Ibid._

[7] _Ibid._, p. 378.

[8] Molema, _The Bantu_, p. 368.

[9] Molema, _The Bantu_ (appendix), p. 384.

[10] Molema, _The Bantu_, pp. 245-246.

[11] Molema, _The Bantu_, pp. 264-266.

THE BAPTISM OF SLAVES IN PRINCE EDWARD ISLAND

Somewhat early in the history of Christianity the thought became
manifest that it was at least questionable for one to hold a
fellow-Christian in slavery. This went so far that at length it became
"fireside law" that the baptism of a pagan slave _ipso facto_ effected
his emancipation. There was no foundation for this view in positive
law, but it appears from time to time in non-legal and quasi-legal
writings.

For example, _The Mirror of Justice_, written in Norman French in
Plantagenet times, about the end of the thirteenth century, has it:
"Serfs devenent francs en plusours maneres, ascuns par baptesme sicom
est de ceux Sarrazins qe sont pris de Christiens ou achatez e amenes
par de sa la meer de Grece e tenent cum lur serfs ..."; _i.e._,
"Slaves become free in various ways--some by baptism, as is the case
with those Saracens who are captured by Christians or purchased and
brought from beyond the Sea of Greece and held as their slaves." _The
Mirror_, while received as high authority even by so learned and
capable a lawyer as Sir Edward Coke, Lord Chief Justice of England, is
now quite discredited, the latest editor, Sir Frederick Maitland,
going so far as to say of the author, "The right to lie he exercises
unblush