New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1860-02-18
rHR CoOLIK sLAvR.TRADR.

The Coolie trade is by no means the only thing
! in the world in regard to which excellent reasons
may be given for a bad purpose. The healthfulness
of labor, the wisdom Of constant diligence, the VIZ
tue of contentment, are charming themes for the
essayist but Chattel Slavery is none the more true
or lust because labor and diligence are enforced by
il, and some sort of contentment may come with
submission to an inevitable lot. So undoubtedly
it is well that the teeming population Of China
should be relieved By emigration, and that people
who have nothing to look to at home for subsist-
ence but the labor of their hands should carry that
labor from the country where it only saves them
from starvation to other regions where it will Sc
cure them abundance. And it is happy eODjunc-
ton of circumstances when countries on which ma
ture has ayished her gifts of climate, of soil, and of
Ores are opened 20 the industry and enterprise of
men sWsrming from the hives of elder nations
where the supply of labor far exceeds the demand
1t is however, no mere evidence that the traffic
in Coolies u voluntary and natural emigration, be-
cause such circumstances exist where 1t Is carried
on, than il IL proof Of the bene6cence of Slavery
that labor in the open air is healthful employment
It is, perhaps some mental or moral obliquity of
vision which prevents our correspondent at Macao,
whose letter We publish in another column, from
recognizing this obvious distinction.
The emigration OF Coolies from China is of two
sorts, the one enforced, the other voluntary. The
latter is no more Objectionable than the emigration
of the Irish or the German TO the United States,
and has its origin in precisely the same causes
perjury and wretchedness at home, and the desire
and prospect of lettering their condition abroad;
the other differs little in its results from the African
Slave trade and is carried on in the same spirit and
with the same purpose, but with this additions.
wrosg, that its victims, when not kidnapped, arc
inyeigled by promises which are never meant to be
kept, and entrapped into a virtual slavery which
they never contemplated, and from which they caa
never escape. Our correspondent defends the
latter form of emigration by arguments and facts
which apply, and belong only to the former
On the face of Il there is certainly no good reass On
why Chinese laboIers, who are suffering at home
from all the evils which rest upon country over
burdened with population and stagnant with an
undeyeloped industry, should noteeek fresh fields
and pastures new" where The earth lays bare
her bosom to the hand of man, needing only 10 be
pressed to send forth rich and ABUNDANT streams to
noulish and enrich him. There ia the same reason
WHY people fed upon a seanty supply Of rice
hould seek, by emgraton, t0better their coalition,
that another people, whoss only food IVES pota-
oes should abandon the soil which haa almost
eased to supply that precarisas root Bui to make
he cases analogous we mpst suppose tho same in
diligence ard the same -will-inteligence as TO
he possibilities and promises Of the sew circum-
tancos which it is proposed to them IA try, and
ire freedom as to whether they viii avail them
selves of them or not. A SYSTEM Of emigration
based upon such principles, regulated BY laws en-
acted for the protection Of the weak, the ignorant
and the poor, is not merely Innocent and legitimate,
but may be blessing both to those who seek de-
mard for their labor, snd to those for vhs d