The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1854-06-28

cargoes OF c0l0nlsts, doubts or the sincerity OF
the Spanish government will always exist, and
grave suspicious win be entertained in many
quarters that the whole business of the
DEGREES Is merely another CLOAK to the prose-
cution of the slave trade on new basis
and with renewed vigor. Should we hear,
however, of the actual registration having
commenced, the duty of our government will
be plain and obvious. Every slave that is
manumitted under the working of that system
and by reason of some omission on the part of
his master or some flaw in the register will
diminish the value of the island, and endanger
our security.
The Count Of San Luis well observes. that
"the scarcity of laborers presses urgently upon
the Island of Cuba; agriculture is affected by
it; its effects begin to be noticed in commercial
transactions; and il it be not OPPORTUNITY RENE
died the rich treasures which that fertile island
contains will soon be diminished if not exhaust
ed" But his excellency has not devised the
proper remedy Registers and cOlonists will
not help tie matter. Royal DEGREES are lost
upon SO radical an evil. The disease is organic,
and the cure proposed will, if any thing, aggra-
vate the case. Had the Spanish minister pos
sessed a more intimate knowledge of the ones
ton before him, or dealt with it boldly and
frankly, he would have stated that SO long as
the Island remained a colonial dependency of
Spain, the evil of which he complains would
press urgently upon its best interests; and that
the proper, the only cure for that and the other
ills of Cuba was to yield gracefully to fate,
and to hand it over to the United States At
some not distant day the successor OF the Connt
OF San Luis will be forced to hold this language
NrLLIFcATIoN IN CoNNEcTIcUT.-Our Eastern
neighbors have not altogether come to their
senses yet. The honest burghers of Providence
gave us some hopes of them when they repent
ed OF their threat to pass the Fourth of July in
fasting and penitence; but the epidemic has not
disappeared entirely 1t has loomed ND quite
recently in Connecticut where the Judiciary
Committee have reported to the Assembly
bill which we publish elsewhere, .sfor the de-
fence Of liberty in that State" The drift Of
this bill is to fine and imprison any individual
who falsely represents that any person. is or
was slave, and any witness who falsely swears
to the same. Every claim made for the SUI
render Of slave is to he deemed "false and
Malicious" the claimant being bound to prove
the contrary by the direct evidence of at least
two witnesses. Of course under this bill, il
would become impossible to execute the Fugi-
tive Slave law in Connecticut; this, in fact, is
confessed by the authors of the bill to be their
object. The common and statutory law of
Connecticut was quite sufficient for the defence
Of liberty, and for the protection Of citizens
wrOngfully claimed as slaves Had the Judi
ciary Committee sought nothing beyond Sc
curing the safety of the citizens of that State
aud preventing illegal captures of individuals
falsely represented to be slaves, no fresh legis-
lation would have been required The bill we
this day print was introduced for the purpose
Of multiplying and violating the supreme law of
the land. Should it pass, Connecticut will
place herself in an attitude of open hostility to
the Union.
This attitude has been long since assumed by
demagogues in every State in the North Mos
sachusetts has teemed with them for nearly
half q century. But it seems as though the
HUNT vi making inc nret ecriouS ottack on the
constitution was reserved to the State of Con-
necticut. We congratulate the citizens of that
commonwealth on the position in which their
representatives have placed them. Connect cut
has always presented contrast to her neigh
bors. Not many years ago it was penal to
kiss ones wife in the streets of Hartford and
New Haven; it is now made penal for master
to claim his slave except under certain condi-
TONS The blue laws we're simply ridiculous;
This bill "for the defence Of liberty" is some
thing worse, as Connecticut will find when any
measure comes up in Congress in which her in.
terests are concerned.