r anything else belonging
to what we call civilised life. Very fit to live on little, and wear
nothing, in Africa; where it would have been a blessing to themselves
and the rest of the world if they had been left unmolested; if they
had had a Friar Bacon to surround their entire continent with a wall of
brass.

_Mr. Falconer._ I am not sure, doctor, that in many instances, even yet,
the white slavery of our factories is not worse than the black slavery
of America. We have done much to amend it, and shall do more. Still,
much remains to be done.

_The Rev. Dr. Opimiun._ And will be done, I hope and believe. The
Americans do nothing to amend their system. On the contrary, they do all
they can to make bad worse. Whatever excuse there may be for maintaining
slavery where it exists, there can be none for extending it into new
territories; none for reviving the African slave-trade. These are the
crying sins of America. Our white slavery, so far as it goes, is so far
worse, that it is the degradation of a better race. But if it be not
redressed, as I trust it will be, it will work out its own retribution.
And so it is of all the oppressions that are done under the sun. Though
all men but the red men will work for a master, they will not fight for
an oppressor in the day of his need. Thus gigantic empires have crumbled
into dust at the first touch of an invader's footstep. For petty, as
for great oppressions, there is a day of retribution growing out of
themselves. It is often long in coming. _Ut sit magna, tamen eerie lenla
ira Deoruni est._{1} But it comes.

Raro anteccdentem scelestum
Deseruit pede poena claudo.{2}

1 The anger of the Gods, though great, is slow.

2 The foot of Punishment, though lame,
O'ertakes at last preceding Wrong.

_Lord Curryfin._ I will not say, doctor, 'I've seen, and sure I ought
to know.' But I have been in America, and I have found there, what many
others will testify, a very numerous class of persons who hold opinions
very like your own: persons who altogether keep aloof from public
life, because they consider it abandoned to the rabble; but who are
as refined, as enlightened, as full of sympathy for all that tends to
justice and liberty, as any whom you may most approve amongst ourselves.

_The Rev. Dr. Opimian._ Of that I have no doubt But I look to public
acts and public men.

_Lord Curryfin._ I should much like to know what Mr. MacBorrowdale
thin