amusement; he has instant medical assistance at all periods of
necessity for himself, his wife, and his children. Of course he
pays no rent, fears no baker, and knows no hunger. I would not have
it supposed that I conceive slavery with all these comforts to be
equal to freedom without them; nor do I conceive that the negro can
be made equal to the white man. But in discussing the condition of
the negro, it is necessary that we should understand what are the
advantages of which abolition would deprive him, and in what
condition he has been placed by the daily receipt of such
advantages. If a negro slave wants new shoes, he asks for them, and
receives them, with the undoubting simplicity of a child. Such a
state of things has its picturesquely patriarchal side; but what
would be the state of such a man if he were emancipated to-morrow?

The natural beauty of the place which I was visiting was very great.
The trees were fine and well scattered over the large, park-like
pastures, and the ground was broken on every side into hills. There
was perhaps too much timber, but my friend seemed to think that that
fault would find a natural remedy only too quickly. "I do not like
to cut down trees if I can help it," he said. After that I need not
say that my host was quite as much an Englishman as an American. To
the purely American farmer a tree is simply an enemy to be trodden
under foot, and buried underground, or reduced to ashes and thrown
to the winds with what most economical dispatch may be possible. If
water had been added to the landscape here it would have been
perfect, regarding it as ordinary English park-scenery. But the
little rivers at this place have a dirty trick of burying themselves
under the ground. They go down suddenly into holes, disappearing
from the upper air, and then come up again at the distance of
perhaps half a mile. Unfortunately their periods of seclusion are