Lynchburg daily Virginian. [volume] (Lynchburg [Va.]) 1852-1861, 1853-03-22
0be Dailp birsiuiau.
From the Richmond Dispatch.
The Negro Question In Europe.

i
various comments from the press in all quar-.
ters One of them by Theophie Gautirc, a
writer for the Partisan press, of great emf.
nence, we translate from the original French
and place below.
| TRANSLATION.
| "fhe success of "Uncle Toms Cabin" com.
mencing With La Presse. and continued in the
other journals, is extended to the stage. Eve.
ry Theatre must have its "Uncle Tom" and
tor whole month we shall be condemned to
a black feuiheton. The French have become
a little characterised, so far as this mania is
concerned; which is propagaed with amazing
rapidity, no man knows why.
|
| 1--WE have no negroes in France. They
would indeed, he vaueess here for cultivating
the sugar. .cane,which we have not, ,& the whites
are all sufficient, in this temperate climate for
the culture of the beet root. Our colonies
have no longer any but free ,aborers, and the
question of slavery, SO exciting on the other
side OF the Atlantic, is interesting TO US only
i'll general view of tho human race. That
however, is sufficient to move all hearts, and
the pathetic situations Of Madame Stoves ro.
nance, have made as many sentimental tears
flow here, as abotionist tears there.
"Form our own part, We too have always
been deeply impressed by that mysterious
race if not exactly after the phsnthropic fash
ion of Wilberforce, at least after fashion PHI
losophically elhnographic. Are those dark
phanthoms "hich appear to have been knead
ed of soil different from the red earth out of
which God fashioned Adam, really of the same
species with as? What curse condensed the
shadow upon their faces. Must we believe
the rabb'nical story which tells US that the col
or OF Ii nm was changed as a punishment for
his having mockod his father Noah while he
was drunk, and that he was thenceforth con.
demned 10 a perpetual inferiorty to his broth.
or? Has the fierce sun of Africa charred their
skins TO the color of charcoal Or. leaving the
book OF Genesis entirely out of the question
must " C follow the immense scale OF life which
ascends from the prmordia cclulc by an un-
interrupted gradat,on, up TO man, and take the
negro as The connecting Link between the On.
rang Oang and ourselves Under that suppo
sIlon the negro must have preceded the " hite
man upon the earth. during those ante .histor
&c periods which are lost in the night OF ages.
These are problems the solution of which would
require volumes, and a degree Of knowledge
which, perhaps, no man possesses. We con
tent ourselves with merely stating them.
'lhls strange race concentrated IN the i'm
penetrahc heart Of Africa, fertile in monsters,
leads IA savage life, in the midst of the climate
ard even to parchlng, or wildly exuberant i'll
dlsorderly vegetatlon-upon sands scorching
as the sands of a burnt world, or among al
Inextricabe labyrinth of opuntia, mangoes,
baobabs, mlmosas, euphorhuses, and giant
canebrakes 1t propagates In darkness, with
out religion, without laws, without tradition.
without arts, IN the bosom of deserts which no
European has ever penetrated in the depths
OF fabulous countries. traversed by chimerical
rivers, which rise. no one can tell in what spot
and empty, no one can tell where from the
elevated region of Abyssinia, to the Cape of
Good Hope. The darkness of its count7ancc
seems to be reflected in its history.
"ln that ancient land, one of the first which
presents itself and in which alone it is at ori
glnal, it has never raised buildings of greater
preiensions than leaf or mud huts; it has, in
deed, remained in its primitive barbarism; in
religion, not getting beyond the grossest tett-
chtSm; IN art, stopping at shell necklaces,
and the process of tattooing; in language. not
progressing farther than the jabber OF lnancyi
while its black generations have succeeded
each other without leaving any trace behind.
All that woolly curly, hideous people, varying
in color from ebony to chocolate, keep up a
perpetual war among themselves. pursuing
each other, killing each other, eating each 9th,
er, and being, each to other, not less formda
BILE than the elephants, crocodiles, hippopoa.
muses., rhinoceroses. lions, panlhers, and the
monstrous menagere that screams, weeps,
neighs, bellows roars barks. and news a.
round its kraals There little children, with
refinement Of cruelty altogether inconceiva'
ble, are still sacrificed on the alarstf a black
Moloch, the creature of African superstition.
There the sentimental father barters hls wife
for bottle OF tafia, and his tender offspring for
handful of nails. There prisoners of war
are sold for few charges Of gunpowder a
few old muskets, or few yards of calico, un'
less the captors prefer to reserve them for the
Spit and in an atmosphere as hot as furnace,
and under white heat sun, violently comfort
ing and agitating theirlimbs. larded from head
TO foot with melted butter. basted with rocou,
with the trepidation and gesture Of baboons,
the wild tribes OF Hottentots, Bushmen, great