The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1858-01-17

breecbes pocket and which had something to do
with the action Of Congress in relation to the
Fort DIES Moines Improvement Company. While
we are about it, we may as well have a general
overhauling of all the matters connected with
the lobby, editorial services, tariffs, improve
mcnts, grants, robbery and dishonesty of all
sorts. Now is the time for it.
The New Movements In The World In Regard
20 Slave Labor.
The question of . supply Of labor for the
dilapidated West Indian colonies of England
and France is renewing in Great Britain, at
least, the discussion of the old subject of slavery
and the slave trade. In France, under the i'm
perial sway, no discussion of the question il al
lowed; but the Emperor has set to work in a
practical way to retrieve the disasters that have
resulted from the prevalence of the crazy
opinions of the Exeter Hall enthusiasts. His
traders are to be found on every favorable spot
Of the coast of Africa, purchasing negroes for
Guadalupe and Martinique.
In England, however, the battle of opinion
WAKES strong, and the London Time, takes up
the subject in a practical way, while the oppo-
nents of it's views can only bring forward the
old arguments of the philanthropists, which
are already refuted and weighed down by their
falsifed predictions and blasted hopes. But the
Times has not yet come to a comprehensive view
of the ground it assumes, aud the changed cir
cumstances which bear upon the question.
Recognizing the facts that the white man,
with bis active and fever inclined brain, can
not labor by the side Of the negro in the
tropical fields, and that the negro twill not be
stimulated to greater industry by any increase
of wages" it applies itself at once to the ques-
ton Of how the agricultural industry of the
British West India colonies is to be reconstructed.
1t thinks it finds the solution in the fact that
the coolies which have been brought to Trini-
dad and other British islands ''are ambitious
and work for wages" while the negroes 'go off
and squat in remote districts, content to support
life on a little" In order, therefore, to prevent
a complete triumph for slavery, it holds that a
plan of free labor must be carried out. "Our
colonies in the West" it says, "are the field for
such a scheme, our Empire in the East may
furnish the laborers, and the new hold we shall
have on Asia will give facilities for doing what
we wish"
The leading London journal is right in its
acknowledgment of the utter failure of the phi
lanthropic schemes of Exeter Hall, but it mis-
takes the remedy. Besides q great social error
of omission in its scheme, it does not read Alright
the signs of the times The agriculture of the
British West Indies cannot be successfully
rcsuscitated by a large importation of coolie
labor from India. Such experiments may
succeed on a small scale, because they
are not Of sufficient magnitude TO bring
into operation the natural laws that govern all
society. We admit that the 600. 900 negroes
now inbabiting the British West Indies will not
work tor weges, except to gain the very little
that they wtiAto live upon. But suppose that
they are displaced by G00,0 900 coolies, who,
working continuously, will produce quadruple
the amount now produced by the indolent
blacks, what is to become Of the 600, 900
negroes? Are they to become complete paupers
and squatters upon the land? That they will
be deprived of labor wherever coolies can be
obtained, is not for a moment to be doubted.
They must become either a burthen upon 30
ciety, or a caste Of psriahs at war with it, and liv-
ing upon q few plantains which will grow spon-
taneously, and the pigs and chickens they may
be able to steal. We do not infer that they will
commit the greater crimes, for we know very
well that the negro nature is unequal to great
crime, as it is also unequal to great good. But
the society that will have to restrain and provide
for such a mass of ignorant and lazy paupers
rop pevar rnpnpata nn a larna coala With nfhar
centres of active industry working under a
different social organization.
But the London journal errs in its reading
Of the signs of the times and the great
duty that is before it. We admit its premises,
that the civilized world must have sugar, coffee,
cotton and tobacco; that the East will furnish
laborers in countless abundance; and that the
new hold which England has on Asia will give
her facilities for doing what she wishes-that
is, for meeting this great want Of tropical pro-
ducts. But II will not be done by bringing
hundreds u thousands Of Indians to new homes,
across twenty thousand miles of ocean. 1t is
to be done by carrying the steam engine to the
East, together with the mechanical and scien-
tifc skill to direct its labors there. II must re-
organize government and the tenure OF land in
Its Asiatic possessions; 1t must put steamers
upon it, rivers and locomotives upon Its roads.
When it does this, the countless laborers of the
East who are ambitious to work for wages'
will have their productive power increased a
thousand fold, and the British colonies in the
East will pour into the marts Of q
mighty food Of tropical products
That lie what the events Of every day are pro-
claiming to England and to the world. Her
West Indian colonies are annitilated. Their
death blow was struck in 1886, and no empiri-
cism can resuscitate them. When compared
with her East indian colonies, their value is
that of q pebble compared with the Koh-i-noor
diamond England will revolutionze the COM
merce Of the world by recognizing India, and
o.~rw;ux hcx c..o.t,o u.ol-,s,.lo .i .uJ..x...t