The Express.
London, England, 1853-11-18 00:00:00

view of the positioa of Turkey in the political eels-,
Lions of the glebe, and its importance to the general
eases of humanity. Of the system of Mahotnedan
states—of the great world of Aslans—Turkey is the one
which comes into closest local contact with Christen-
dom, and which is morally the best qualified to dis-
charge the office of intermediator between the two
systems. The Mahometan faith is in the ascendant
throughout Tarkey,Arabia,Persia,on the Oxus,and in
Afghanistan, and over great part of Northern Africa.
In Hindostan, the Asiatic Archipelago, Abyssinia,
Mahometans form an important and influential part
of the population. In Central Africa, and as far as
Sierra Leone and the Delta of the Niger, all the
more civilised and energetic negro tribes are
Mahotnetans. Here is a large portion of the world's
population united by the ties of a common faith, as
intimately as the peoples of Christian states; and, like
the Christians, divided among themselves by sectarian
and national shades of difference. The Arabian
Wababee, the Turkish Sunnite, and the Persian Sciite,
differ among themselves in as marked a manner
as the Protestant., Romanist., and Orthodox
Greeks of Christendom. The Turks, Arabs, and
Persians have national characters as charac-
teristically differing as the Teutonic, Romanee,
and Sclavonian nations of Europe. Among all
these races there has been diffused of late years a
more extended and intimate acquaintance with Euro-
pean Christians, and as this acquaintance has ex-
tended, so has a kindlier feeling for those men of a
different creed, and a desire to learn from them in
the mechanical arts, and in the arts of military and
civil organisation. Islam is thus becoming recon-
ciled and essimilated to Islam, and commerce and
general civilisation—material wealth and intellectual
power—are being incalculably extended thereby.
Now, it is admitted by every one who has had op-
portunities of observing that of all the nations
of Islam the Turk comes nearest in his
qualities to the European. Without denying
the intellectual acuteness of the Arab, or
the. graceful vivacity and bonhommie of the
Persian, both of them are inferior in civil and social
life to the Turk. Wherever the races have come

into contact the Turk has seized and maintained the
ascendancy. He is among the Islamites what the
Teutonic nations (Germans, Dutch, English) are in
modern Europe, and what the Romans were in old
Europe. He is the master of the rest ; —master
in virtue of his greater forecast, greater power of
persevering, consistent action, greater regard for his
word. It is puerile ignorance to imagine that all the
civil and social institutions of Islam are derived from
the Koran. Islam was erected on the ruins of the
Eastern Empire, as the modern system of European
States was on the Western ; and both have derived a
large proportion of their law and civil organisation
from Rome,:the one through the scholars of JuvrislAN,
the other through Greek professors of the same legal
codes. The Arab has excelled in abstract science ; the
Persian in poetry : but the Turk has a better notion
of law and government than either, and one more in
accordance with our notions. Independent, there-
fore, of the importance of Turkey as a dam to arrest
the turbid torrent of Russian ambition, it is impor-
tant as the ,lahornetan State with which it is most
easy to extend amicable relations, and most likely
(both from local position and its influence in the
general councils of Islam) to sot as a valuable
channel of communication with the rest.

One thing alone can check tie honors of the
81ave Trade in Cuba, and it is—The growth of anti-
slavery opinion in England. Spirt is too corrupt,
too indolent, and too poor to release without compul-
sion the negroes now in her chief colony, or to stop
the importation of fresh victims from Africa. The
people of the United States, though boasting a con-
siderable, and an increasing, abolition-party, have too
many slavery-sins and difficulties on theirown soil to
offer any chance of help for the Cuban Degrees. The
Yankees, if they had Cuba. might, and no doubt would,
very promptly stop the importation of new slaves from
Africa, but though they would thus abolish the
greatest of the many evils of an infamous system, all
the minor ones would doubtless flourish as completely
as ever. The southern Americans would not deal in
the commodity " foreign negro," but would go on as
briskly as ever with their dealings in " home-grown
blacks." Slaves would not be brought from Africa,
but slaves from Virginia would be bred
and bought, and sold more actively than
ever. A Protectionist party in the Slave States
would have the value of their human cattle kept
up by the careful suppression of all foreigu-grown
negroes. Though Cuba would thus in the hands of
America get rid of slave importations, slavery would
necessarily continue. Neither Madrid nor Washing-
ton, therefore, can be looked to for any willing ac-
tion for the abolition of slavery in Cuba.
Neither Spaniards nor Yankees will, of their own
accord, relieve the earth from the grievous sin.
Where, then, must humanity turn for hope and help
in this matter ? To England. This country was the
first to set the world the example of a nation volun-
tarily taxing itself a huge sum for the manumission
of its slaves ; and to the same quarter must we look for
a continuance of the good work so nobly and
disinterestedly begun. Nor is the teak so difficult as
might be supposed. Spain is a wretched and corrupt
country, whose creditors are to be found by thee.
sands in Great Britain. She has neither money nee
morale, and has a national existence as much by
sufferance as by the possession of any inward force
of her own, either commercial, social, or military.
Being penniless, she has no means of evading by
force an honest demand : without moral weight she
has no possible means of evading justice if Eng-
land sternly requires her to fulfil the engage-
ments she has made by treaty for the suppression of
the Slave Trade. She is bound, as completely as trea-
ties can bind her, to put down this abominable
traffic to Cuba. She has been paid again and
again, all the world knows too fully, fur the emcee-
miens to humanity she has undertaken to make on
this subject. How often has English help
preserved her national existence ? How much
Inglish blood been shed to save her from
her enemies ? How much English treasure
been lavished to replenish her exhausted
treasury exhausted by waste, by debauchery, and
grime? How many Englishmen have b.en ruined
by trusting to Spanish faith by taking Spanish
bonds, and how many widows and orphans have
bad to deplore the policy which sent English
bayonets to win barren laurels on the fields of the
Peninsula? Millions of money are now due to this
country from the Government of Isaueua,—who
indeed owes her throne itself to English assistance.
With what chance of success, therefore, can the
Spanish Government persist in outraging the con-
ditions of anti-slavery treaties ? Certainly with none,
if the English Cabinet do their duty manfully.
But Downing-street has other work to do.
There is the Turco-Russian quarrel, the New Reform
Bill, a whole host of internal improvements to be
considered, Ministerial ground to be made good, and
official jealousies and intrigues to arrange. In the
I abundance of other work anything that is not
et urgent consequence is sure to bo postponed
by a Minister. A sense of justice and an
honest indignation against wrong may lead
the Foreign Secretary to send a sharp note to
Madrid. Such a note may secure the upset of a court
minion, of an obnoxious or corrupt Governor. But
this is not enough. We must have engagements kept
and the Slave Trade stopped. Spain has agreed to stop
it—the terms are on record—the bargain was long
since made, and Spain must bemade honest—in this in-
donee at all events. The English Cabinet have ample
power and full justice on their side, and that power
they can use and will use—when public opinion in
England compels them to do so. But not before.
When we stated that the Slave Trade was in
full vitality in Cuba, Governor CANEDO cried out,
" Calumny." FREDRIYA Bacseu now comes into
court to support the evidence of previous witnesses
against Negro Slavery. Will Cammo's friends
now call her a calumniator, and forbid the sale of
her book in Cuba ? We shall see ; but, meanwhile, let
us ask—Will Lord ABERDEEN be content with the

FREDRIKA BREMER'S last and very pleasant
book, " Homes of the New World," sketches amongst
other things the Homes of Cuba. She went to that
beautiful island in a temper full of amiability, and
with a pen ready to depict everything in its best
light. But even she could not close her eyes to
the horrors amongst which she there found herself.
Evidently blind to very much : she was not blind to
all. Unlike Mrs. Stowe, she did not search
for the terrors of the great evil, and, painting
them in all their abominable reality, complete a
tableau that should stamp its image of hor-
ror on the minds of millions, and make them
mentally protest against slave-dealing as one of
the deadliest sins. Yet, in Miss BREMER'S book we
find here and there certain explanatory references
to Cuban slavery; and these, few as they are,
amply bear out the statements before published on
this subject. Women working day and night under
the crack of the whip—slaves " worked out", that is,
worked to death in six years—slaves regarded as
cattle—slaves landed in flagrant violation of treaties,
the government of the island receiving 50 dollars for
each slave as " hush money." All these facts are
supported by FREDRIKA BRE-31E11'3 testimony, as
may be seen by a few pumps from her book. She
writes :

Matanzas, March 1, 1851.--Slaves on the plaatations hers
are regarded altogether as rata*, and the slave trade with
Africa is still carried en actively, although privately. A
few days ago a cargo of 700 nogrose was secretly (mimed
from Africa to Havanaah. The goomment of the island
received 60 dollen for sac► slave as "hush sassy," and
was silent.

recall of CANED, and the cry of " calumny," and

Ariadse Liberia, March 7.—1 have now been here for
more this a week in the very lap of slavery, and daring
the Ant kw days of my visit I was so depressed that I wee
not able to do much. Close before nay window I could sot
avoid amiss, the whole day, agree, of Negro women work-
ing wider the whip, the cracking of which above their
heeds and the driver's impatiently reputed cry of be quick !
gum ! kept them working on without may intermission.
And through the night—the whole night—l heard their
weary footsteps u they spread out to dry upon the flagged
pavement, outside my window, the crushed sugar cane,
which they carried from the wear mill. I know that the
labourers on this plantation were changed every seven
hours, so that they always kayo six hones is every twenty-
four hours for rem cad refreshment, sad that during two
nights is the week the sugar mill rests, sad they are able
to sleep—het still I could not reeensile myself to it.
Bt. Amelia haulms, Marsh Amelia Inheguo is a
large sugar plantation, sad I am sow sitting in the smoke
of the sugar mill, which eaten through the open window
into my room. This plantation is much larger than the
one I visited in Limonar, and • considerable portion of the
slaves (two hundred in number) have lately been brought
hither from Africa, and have • much wilder appearance
than thole I saw at Ariadae. They are worked also with
much more severity, because here they are allowed only
four and a half hours oat of the four and twenty for rest ;
that is to say, for their meals and sleep, and that during six
or *even months of the year! Through the remainiag por-
tion of the twelve months, the " dead season," as it is
called, the slaves are allowed to sleep the whole
night. It is true, nevertheless, that, even now,
upon this plantatioa, they have one sight a week
for sleep, and • few hours in the forenoon
of each alternate Sunday for rest. It is extraordinary how
any human beings can sustain existence under such circum-
stances; and yet 1 see here powerful negroes who have
been on the plantations for twenty or thirty years. When
the negroes bars once become accustomed to the labour and
the life of the plantation it seems to agree with them ; but
daring the first years, when they are brought here free and
wild from Africa, it is very hard to them, and many seek to
free themselves from slavery by suicide. This is
frequently the case among the Luccomies, who appear to be
among the noblest tribes of Africa, and it is not Ion; since
eleven Laceomies were found hanging from the branches
of a guasima tree—a tree which has long horizontal
branches- They had each one bound hie breakfast in a
girdle around him; for the African believes that such as
die here immediately arise again to new life in their native
land. Many female slaves, therefore, will lay upon the
corpse of the selfmurdered the kerchief, or the head gear,
which she meet admires, in the belief that it will thus be
conveyed to those who are dear to her in the mother
country, and will bear to them a salutation from her. The
corpse of a suicide slave has been seen covered with hun-
dreds of such tokens!

Shall we ever give these unhappy creatures a better
refuge than suicide ?

allow the Slave Trade after a little lull to be carried
on as before P There is always the fear that a tired
and worried Minister may forget a troublesome duty
if public opinion is not brought to bear upon him—
if it is so brought to bear, he dare not neglect its
honest demands.

THE EXPRESS, FRIDAY EVENING, NOVEMBER 18, 1853.

LATEST FROM ABROAD.

RUSSIA AND TURKEY.

PARIS. TXUNIDAT EVIMINO.

The French Consul at Bucharest sends word that
the Ruffians assure bim that the Turks have re-
crossed the Danube at °Unites.

The Russian also affirm that they attacked the
Turks with 40,000 men sod defeated them.

The Consul declines to guarantee these state-
ments, but says that a cannonade on the Danube
was audible when he wrote (N0v.14.)
The two forces are contending for the island of
Mokanon.

The Russians give out that two army evrps are on
their way to Wallachia.

We have a telegraphic despatch from Berlin,
stating that the Turks have gained another victory
at Oltenitza. The despatch contains no date or
other details.

CONSTANTINOPLE, Nov. 3.

On Monday last his Majesty the Sultan, attended
by his suite, went to the Porte, where a Grand
Council, composed of the ministers, the principal
ulemas, and the chief civil and military func-
tionaries, was assembled. When the session was de-
clared opened, his Majesty gave to Reschid Pacha an
imperial "hat" or declaration, addressed to hius-
tapha Pacha, the Grand Vizier. The minister having
received it from his Majesty read it to the council.
The following is a translation :

" IMPERIAL HAT ADDRESSED TO THE GRAND
VIZIER. ocr. 31.

"My faithful Vizier,—l cannot sufficiently praise
the zeal and enthusiasm of my troops, the devotion
and fidelity of all my servants. and the sentiments
which my subjects generally, during all the prepara-
tions that have taken place, have never ceased to
display towards me since the day when the difference
which had arisen between my imperial government
and Rossi► appeared likely to end in war.
" Now, however, war has actually broken out, and
I do not doubt that every one will henceforth be
ready to do his duty with more eagerness than ever.
"As the true cause of this war consists only in a
laudable resolve to preserve the sacred rights, and
the independence of my empire, trusting in the om-
nipotence of the Creator of all things, and invoking
the holy spirit of our prophet, I have determined to
be present in person at the accomplishment of a
patriotic duty at the commencement of the spring.
"It is therefore At to look forward from the pre-
sent time, to the preparations which my cortege will
require ; and as the first head quarters of my guard
will be fixed at Adrianople, it is urgent that every-
thing necessary for the troops which will be under
my command, should be previously prepared there.
" Yon must, therefore, with all my ministers,
hasten to take fitting measures to that end.
" May the Most High, through his love for the
holy prophet, render my empire in every circum-
stance victorious and triumphant ; and may all those
who contribute to the success of that task be able to
obtain happiness both in this world and in the next."

After the reading of this document, his Majesty
quitted the Porte, and returned to tho imperial
Palace of Teheragan.

Two French and British vessels are at anchor in
the port of Constantinop!e. The admirals of the
two fleets have landed, and are in the capital.
A vessel of the Russian navy has been captured.
She went ashore near Iregri, on the coast of Asia,
and was taken by a Turkish cruiser.

It is generally believed that the diplomatic corps
Rill accompany the Sultan to Adrianople.

VIENNA, THURSDAY.
The Austrian Currespondeu: says: —" On the
13th, the Turks blew up their works at Oltenitea,
and retired to Bulgaria."
It is officially declared that the corps of observa-
tion, which is to In concentrated at Temesyar, is for
the purpose of securing the Austrian frontier as well
as to maintain the principle of neutrality.