The Sun.
London, England, 1862-09-30 00:00:00

SOCIAL PROSPECTS OF AMERICAN

SLAVZRZ

I From the social prospects of Jamaica we are tempted, not
irrelevantly, to glance awhile at the slaveholding States of
the late American Union. There, if American writers
may be trusted, the white population would gradually die
out, but for the steady influx of fresh immigrants from the
North ; while the blacks are already about half as nume-
rous, in spite of the great social and legal barriers to their
growth, and the proverbially wasteful tendencies of slave
life in the cotton fields under a tropical sun. It is a common
assertion, too often, indeed, put forth in defence of negro
slavery, that white men of British blood cannot in those
low latitudes bear the hard work, by dint of which the
markets of the world are supplied with cotton and tobacco.
If the African were not there to help them, they would soon
be driven either to import field labourers wholesale from
other lands, or too flee a country all to hot for their northern
temperaments. As it is, two centuries of hard slavery have
stocked the Southern States with almost the only peasantry
which they seem fitted to grow; with a race of men capable
of working hard in a climate unfriendly to most nations, of
men easy to govern, not slow to learn from their civilised
neighbours, and peculiarly prone to increase and multiply
under circumstances the least encouraging. How much
mere numerous that peasantry might now have been, but
for the life they are too often compelled to lead, and the
efforts of their masters to keep up their market value by
discountenancing the slave trade with Africa, we need not
care to consider here. The fact remains that the numbers
have increased under every drawback at a rate proportionally
greater than the white people of their own neighbourhood.
If this be anywhere near the truth, we may expect to
see that sable peasantry ere long outnumbering the white
population. But even if the truth were very far off from
this, if a race of white men could ever show itself equal to
the negro in the polyp' of uara for anv length of
I nue tuner a Beaching sun, and defying the teleful
effects of a fever-laden atmosphere, there would still be so
many millions of black men living in the same country and
obstinately declining to take themselves out of the way.
How are the white men to deal with this huge mass of
black humanity ? These human chattels cannot be trans-
ferred like mere bales of cotton from one country to
another. You may talk of shipping them off in a body to
Liberia, or driving them off across the Rocky Mountains
into a country set apart for themselves ; but will they go of
their own freewill, and failing that, how are the Americans
to force them away ? Harsh laws have hitherto failed to
stop the influx of Chinese settlers into Australia. An
armed rising would be a dangerous remedy, and even if it
succeeded, the expulsion of the Moors from Spain brought
any thing but good to those they left behind. The wisest
policy is the only one which a Christian nation, if Chris-
tianity with most nations were more than an empty name,
should feel bound to pursue. Let these black millions
who now sit in chains and darkness beside a race of men
bred up in the light of freedom and the Christian's gospel,
be first taught to cultivate what mental powers they have,
and then be gradually delivered from a state of social
thraldom as debasing as it is unwarrantable.—Dublin Uni-
versity Magazine.

A FORTUNA7E PLURALIST.

(From the Money Market Review.)

From the report of the Select Committee of the
House of Commons on the Inland and Customs
Revenue establishments, we gather some curious
information respecting the collection of the income-
tax ; and, as the subject is of public interest,we ex-
tract the following particulars (pages 114 and 115)
of the cost of collecting taxes in the city of Lon-
don :
It appears that, as clerk to the City of London
Commissioners of Income-tax, Mr. Richard Till re-
ceived about £2,400, clear of all expenses, for his
commission in the year ending 31st March, 1861,
and that in 1855 he received £7,194 6s. for pound-
age on income-tax, and £523 7s. Gd. for poundage
on assessed-taxes, making together £7,717 13s. Gd.
for poundage alone. He is also clerk to the City
Land-tax Commissioners and to the Commissioners
of Assessed -taxes, and secretary to the City Cor-
poration income. This would appear enough, and
more than enough, to occupy the whole time:of the
most gifted individual ; but Mr. Till has a fertile
brain, and, in addition to these appointments, he
was managing director of the Electric Telegraph
Company, a director of the Rock Insurance Com-
pany, a director of the Norfolk Railway, a director
of the East Suffolk Railway, and he is also manager
of Lowestoft Harbour, having a marine residence
allowed him in that capacity. No one can blame
Mr. Till for accepting these appointments, but the
Public service suffers whenever an individual is
worked beyond his
that large Power ; and the question may
be asked, Was it for want of more efficient supervi-
sionquantities of income-tax returns
were sold a few years ago to fishmongers at Billings-
gate, cawing the affairs of tradesmen to become
known? About 1,200 of these were recovered, but
800 had been dispersed, and among these were the
returns of clerks in banking houses in Lombard-
street, and others fiom the wards of Dowgate,
Bread-street, and Cordwainer. The subject was
fully explained in Mr. Crawford's Return, N 0.153,
Session 1858 ; and although few persons are satis-
fied with the present method of treating income-
tax returns under Schedule D, there is no proba-
bility that a similar scandal will ever occur agaia
in the city of London.

The evidence respecting defalcations of tax col-
lectors is most important, and it is suggested that
they should be appointed by the Board of Inland
Revenue, in which case the public would not be
called upon to pay rates and taxes a second time
whenever a collector absconds, and the parish au-
thorities have neglected to take proper security.

The Tasmanian, from the West Indies, has
brought £434,000, of which £140,000 is gold, and
£294,000 silver. The proportion of silver from
Mexico on this occasion is about £200,000, and the
advices state that a similar amount will be shipped
from Tampico by the next mail.
The Asia, from Boston, bas brought only £5,3001
The Amount by the Tyne Brazilian Mail steamer
is £25,291.