The Sun.
London, England, 1839-09-03 00:00:00

THE FOREIGN MONTHLY REVIEW.
This periodical, yet in its infancy, promises in a
short time to assume a high rank among its Month-
ly Contemporaries. To the great ability of many
of- its Reviews we willingly bear testimony, as well
as to the fidelity with which it reflects in its pages
the progress of Continental Literature. The arti-
cles entitled " Italian Novels," and " Works of
Russian Literature," are peculiarly attractive. We
copy from a Review of " the German Quarterly
Periodical" a literary journal which made its first
appearance in January last, an account of the con-
dition of the Negro population in the free and en-
lightened States which compose that model of Re-
publics, the North American Union :
In playhouses no negro is admitted into the pit or
boxes ; a small upper gallery only is allotted to these
outcasts of society ; and from some theatres they are
now altogether excluded. A negro who has occasion
to travel must, in the most inclement weather, go out-
side, as no white man will sit in a carriage with him. In
a steam-boat his whole fortune would not purchase his
admission to the best cabin. If the New York negroes
walk in Broadway on a Sunday, the whites shut them-
selves up that they may not breathe the air contaminated
by the blacks. To all this the free negroes in the
Northern States submit, for they know that the slightest
murmur would be the signal for their massacre by the
whites. In one county of Pennsylvania, the negroes,
according to law, have voted at the election of a Sheriff ;
but the whites forthwith confederated, declared to the
blacks that they would not again suffer such impudence
to pass unpunished, and protested before the Legislative
Assembly against the election.
To bid a negro sit down is a crime against the ma-
jesty of the whites ; the negro, be he tree or slave, who
sits down in the room of a white, is guilty of high trea-
son. " Give way !" cries a drunken white to a negro
at Philadelphia. "Wyso ?" returns the negro.
'4 Knock him down, the presuming runaway slave!"
yell a dozen whites. " Bravo !" claps the mob, and
the negro is stretched on the pavement. At Boston a
free ,segro would send his child to the public school, for
the support of which his earnings are heavily taxed.
"No!" saystheschoolmaster, ' I am not here to teach your
blackbrovd I bring them up as you will, no black brat shall
sit by a white child in my school." The negro applies
to' a private teacher, and is willing to pay for his son's
iastruction. " What fancy's this ?" is the rejoinder ;
" why should your son learn to read and write? You
can make nothing but a servant or a barber of him! If
you persist, hope not that a white would so degrade
himself. Send him to Europe ; the French do such
things for money, but no American." " But lam the
son of a white" cries the mulatto. "My father, grand-
father, and great grandfather were whites," moans the
Quateroon. "No mattrr, so long as you have negro
blood in your veins."
This is a sad picture of American manners, but
it is a true one nevertheless. The following ex-
tract from the article entitled " Political Refugees,"
being a review of the " German in London," will
likewise be read with some interest :
Our author, says the Reviewer, complains somewhat
hastily, we think, of the little sympathy manifested by
the English nation towards the unfortunate Polish exiles,
" many of whom have already been severely punished,
several by imprisonment, and others by transportation
to Botany Bay"—not, however, before they deserved it,
be it remembered. Again, he observes, " France paid
yvarly to the exiled Poles many millions of francs in
the shape of assistance money ; while England,
tardily- enough, and that, too, only after long debate,
granted 10,0001. yearly for that purpose. This
sum was partitioned among the five hundred refugees,
then resident in England, in manner following :—staff-
officers, from the rank of majors to commanders-general,
received, monthly, 31. ; subaltern officers, 2/. ; and in-
ferior officers and privates, 1/. In this manner the
money was to suffice for the subsistence of five hundred
needy men. But how, in England, can a man exist
with '2/. per month, much less with the half of that
sum? The lowest day-labourer receives 3s. per day,
,or,, per week, I/.. or, per month, 41., and still lives mi-
se,-ably ; the workman, who is at all expert, earns dole
ble u'r treble that sum ; if a first-rate hand, four or five
times to much. It is utterly impossible to live in: Lou.
don for tc•ri shillings per week, unless one be content to
sleep in the street, and to eat dry, black bread." '
Our autSor, by the way, would find it somewhat
difficult to fiod in London the black bread he" here
, speaks of ; but this, we suppose, is a mere facon de
parler.
4. The foreigner in England has great difficulty to
obtain employment; the spirit of corporation (Corp°.
rationsgrisl) of the English workmen militates decidedly
\
to
as
against
Portsmouth,
engaged,
Tt h
hired
ierleadt
Polisht
themselves,
h latter
emq
susoleltldvti
ehe
srFkatwfwo livingr. kg e
isi
nf
bp
Plymouth
below
foreigner
0:
houseu: net r
usualaabnnded
average in England, theand farmers and
country-people in the neighwbooraunrhdooord,
ship-builders, handicraftsmen, and clay-labourers, which,
coming to the knowledge of English workmen, the
latter quitted their employ, and compelled their masters
to dismiss the unhappy strangers.
dAlotoctihoefirLonotridaiolnroathis,
then constructing in the tie 0
Poles were, after long solicitationglibu on their part, em
ployed, and paid at tnc rate of three shillings a
.ay ;
staff-officers, noblemen, and even a prince,. submitted
befriended the Poles, wasw
el
it was only after
to this kind of labour,
among the English workmen,
' were compelled to quit the works ; and
long debates, and by dint of
\ nhcearerupon a mutiny ensued
and anynspector, who bad
b •ae killed ; the Poles
prayersandalltoh%rveaatisi,mtiltieadt
to
the English workmen were induce,'. , .
t.'umber of the Poles (about sixty) to work w
ithtierilia
the excavations for the London and Manchester
il-
road." En fish have but
• In ano.4ber place he says : " The g
with
little sympathy with political refugees,
'ro suffering,"
especially, or t‘i'r foreign distress and forei,
foreigners
a discovery which he forthwith proceeds to r.e.aso!i. upon.
English, having',
in his own peculiar way ; they, the