The Express.
London, England, 1863-10-17 00:00:00

AMERICA.

(FROM Al

WASHINGTON, D. 0., Sm. 29.

I have just reached this place after a stay of •
few days in a farmhouse on the old-fashioned eastern
'hobs of the Chesapeake Bay, • flat and fertile dis-
trict, long settled and thinly inhabited, and re-
markable, geographically, from the winding creeks
which in some counties give a river front to almost
every farm. The supporters on either side of the
arms of the State of Maryland are a man with a
spade and a man with a fish in his hand, and are
peculiarly emblematical of the county which I have
lately visited, where every planter can catch rock
fish and take oysters within a few yards of his
house, and where fine peaches sell in the markets
at ninepence the peck. Socially this part of the
State is most interesting in connection with the
slavery question.

To put the matter shortly, the able-bodied slaves
in Eastern Maryland are all running away. Three
years ago a likely slave boy was worth 2501. As
lately as three weeks ago, in • village which I
visited, • youth of 16 years was sold for 601.
Today, through the unscrupulous action of the
government, slave property in Maryland is totally
,nsisalitlis,, Tim osaitre.of the movement h die
coloured camp at Baltimore. The means employed
are steamboats calling at different points along the
coast, which receive on board the runaways, and
carry them off to Baltimore under the stars and
stripes. There they may be seen daily in
the grey slouched wideawakes and tattered
'the
of their slave life, marking time and learn-
ing their facings before their Yankee officers, who
commend them highly, and say that they have •
natural aptitude for military life. Their injured
owners flock, into the camp to get the certificates,
by which, at a future flay, they may claim the 300
dollars, or whatever sum Congress shall allow them.
" Rebel in de camp ; run lam out ; run him out,"
about the negroes as a Wenger enters. "Come
to look for slaves, eh r' said one of them to
me. " Reckon you'll not find any of
them here." The candidates for certificates look
very glum as they pass between the grinning ranks
of their quondam chattels. Meanwhile, on the
eastern shore the broad flat fields of maize are ready
for cutting, and nobody can tell how the crop is to
be saved in time to get the seed in, or indeed how
much of it can be wed at all. The richest planters
suffer most. I heard of one who has lost as many
as 85 servants. Another told me that he had lost
16 out 0f.52. Of the
.smaller proprietors whom *
metone had lust four boys, another had lost
one. My host had not' lost any. And what
alarms them most is that they have not the slightest
mcmity against all the rest going off to-night and
leaving them with the women and children and
this old and infirm males ou their hands. The
behaviour of the slaves, too,. has surprised and per-
plexed them. There has been no insubordination.
Up to the time of their departure, they wield their
hoes and eat their corn be with all the old docility.
Thin they suddenly disappear, to turn up on the
muster roll at Baltimore. Not one of the slime-
owners whom I met believes that the negro can fight.

"I know the negro, air, as well as if I had made
him," ?old one of them ; "hell no more fight than
.fat sa'm NillevaidezirpotKLisebt (*awn

for the Degrees. "They do not know what they
are engaging for. Abolition of slavery means the
destruction of the black race. Free negroes must
knock under when put into competition with white
labour." Others again fear that if negroes are
permitted to become soldiers they will claim to be
°dicers also, which would be manifestly against
nature. Several persons whom I met explained to
me the Divine origin of slavery. " You are an
Englishman, sir, and I trust that you believe
the English Bible," said a methodist parson whom
I met ou board the steamboat. " Look at Genesis
x.; is it not there declared that the descendants of
Canaan are to be the slaves not only of Japhet and
his descendants, of whom you, air, ars one, but
also of Shem and his descendants 1 Are we to go
against the word of God 1" 1 asked him whether
the curse applies equally to mulattoes 1 " I wish,
air," he said, quite fervently, " I wish that
I had time to explain that point to you. It
is the simplest thing in the world. You
will observe that the slavery goes with the mother."
Here we touched Annapolis, and my friend had to
land, so that I missed his exposition. I heard a
good deal said also about the similarity existing
between the lower orders in England and the slaves.
It seems that considerable delusion exists here on
this point. So far as I saw, an Englishman is pre-
sumed to favour slavery from a similarity of insti-
tutions. "I do enjoy reading the English articles
on American subjects," said one Seceah lady to me,
after expounding this view of English society,
"they do seem so to understand and sympa.
thine with our feelings—the Times and
Blackwood above 811" There is no apprehen-
sion entertained of a St. Domingo here. My
host took me a pleasant excursion on Sunday
afternoon, part by boat and part ou foot, from
which we did not return till long after dark, his
wife and children being meanwhile alone in the
house, and no white man about. As to the future
supply of labour there is great anxiety and much
scope for the prophecies of the sanguine and of
the despondent. One thing is clear, that at pre-
sent there is a great demand for free labour in
Eastern Maryland. It seems, moreover, a reason-
able opinion that the abolition of slavery in the
State, which may now be considered inevitable,
will cause the substitution of small farms of 50 to
100 acres, worked by free labour, for the large
slave plantations ; that cultivation will thereby be
improved and the free population multiplied ; and
that thus, when once the trying period of transition
is passed, the State will become far more prosperous
and populous than it has been under the old regime.
If I had to settle in America to-day, either as
labourer or as farmer, I should choose for my
location a border Slave State.

The Church Congress at Manchester was brought
to • ekes ea Thursday, the third day.
KING'S CULLUM EVISING (`teas®.—lnrL6`ta-
nox►6 Law.—Professor LION Levi gave hie introductory
lecture ma the " Hinkley of laternatiocal Lew.'" on Thurs-
day lash Having gives a sketch of the rise end progress of
the schisms, and • abort nodes of its literature, the professor
dwelt us the various attempts made for establishing a caw
meg of nations to meet penothoelly for the settlement of
matters of common intereat, and having made Memos» to
the useful results of the conferences of Paris in WA as
respects pnvateering and neutral rights. be urged the admin.
tags of holding similar imalevences from time to time, with
• view of coming to some agreement upon many questions.
which, if let utwettled, often cause endless serotistioes
and wars. Professor Levi's course this year includes lec-
tures on international awl commercial law ; on life, fire, sod
merino insurance, oil the commercial policy of Britain, and
on the commerce of the principal shipping porta of this and
other countries.