The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1861-02-02

stree the peace of 1882, has received an extern
sion, which would have been deemed the
widest hallucination Of crazed brain, had it
been then foretold Bankruptcy would be the
result of the loss to her of this republic as
market, and the withdrawal of an alliance the
signal for her political as well as commercial
ruin What Injuries US, reacts unhealthy upon
her, and every step taken by us in advance, is
for her advantage. Equally beneficial to her
would be the loss of Canada. The population
Of three millions in Canada, will have be-
come, like ours, thirty millions in half q
century, and her imports from Great Britain,
which, in 1860, amounted to but fraction over
eighteen millions, will be nearly two hundred
millions, in the same period. 1t Is therefore for
the interest Of Great Britain that her American
provinces shall become free, and part of the
vast republic which nature DEGREES shall rule
this continent.
The remembrance of the recent visit of the
Prince of Wales to this country, and the man.
ner in which he was received here, should
teach the lesson to England, that no cause can
possibly discover the bonds of peace that unite
her to her colonies and to the United States,
short of the absolute dictates of duty. The
highest obligation of every people, however,
is to guard its own rights and to secure the
fiuition of its own freedom. The Canadians are
already beginning work of preparation to-
wards this great end, which will lead to the de-
claration Of their independence, and the an
nexation of their territory to the United States.
The British government should aid in the &C
complishment Of what it cannot possibly pre-
vent. A war, similar to that of the last CEN
fury, would inevitably terminate as inglorious-
ly as did that which preceded the peace Of
1888. Let the advisers of Queen Victoria re-
cognise, then, that the period has arrived for an
amicable severance of the ties that bind the
British provinces Of North America to the
crown; yield gracefully to the exigencies of the
age; and permit the people OF Canada to launch,
unmolested, into the new sea of enterprise
towards which destiny calls them.
The NEGRO IN THE METRopoLrs.-Ih statistics
of the colored population in New York, which
we published the other day, must suggest to
every thinking mind the inferiority of condition
WHICH sharacterizes the negro race in the free
States, as compared with the African living un
der the Southern system Of servitude. Since
1860 the total population Of the city has in
creased some three hundred thousand, while in
tho same time the negro population, black and
mulatto, has decreased from 1885 in 1850 to
1881 in the present year-a falling of Of
nearly three thousand in single decade. AT
this rate Of decrease the whole free negro popu-
lation of the country will have vanished in
half century from now, unless preserved by
some unusual migration from the Southern
States Out of the ten thousand negroes now
in the metropolis, only eighty-fve own any real
estate, and not quite eight hundred own per-
sonal estate. They have completely aban-
doned all employments requiring activemanual
labor, and are to be found for the most part in
the position of walters and domestic servants,
and the females in the capacity of washerwo-
men and laundresses. A negro mechanic is a
'rarity-the whole number in the city not reach
ing eighty; and in any higher pursuit there
are none to be found, excepting fourteen clergy
men of different persuasions, eight physicians,
eight musical professors and seventeen school
teachers.
In the wards where they are the most numer-
Gus they form the very lowest stratum of socie-
ty; in the Fifth ward especially prostitution
and indiscriminatc intercourse between the
sexes is the common rule of life. The
number of mulattoes among the CO.
lored population shows the immortality
Of the female portion in very marked
manner, considering that only thirty two cases
of intermarriages with wh;..e women are re.
turned by the ceps.s marshals, and not one
case Of interrlarriage between white man and
a black woman OF the thirteen thousand COL
ofeca people in the metropolis, nevertheless, no
less than three thousand are the offspring OF
black and white parents, and the census shows
that more than five sixths Of them were born in
free States, and most of them in this city.
These facts prove that the negroes in the
much Landed condition Of frecmeu are descend
ing in the scale of civilization and diminish
In in numbers. No such results can be de-
duccd from the statistics Of the negro in South
ern serviiude. The very converse Of the pic
lure is presented there. The negro of the
South is physically strong and sound, healthy
and fruitful, happy, contented, and in many
cases, moral and religious; increasing in num-
bers year by year, and never exposed to the
vicissitudes Of poverty. There is something in
this to induce philosophical reflection. 1t Is
the best answer that can be made to the fanati-
cal outcry about the equal right of the black
man and the white to perfect liberty and
joint civilization.
STONE PIERs.-We are glad to perceive that
the Board of Aldermen have taken the sugges-
ton Of the City Inspector with reference to the
construction Of stone piers at our wharves In
place Of the present dilapidated wooden struc.
lures, which are disgrace to the city. With
the finest water front Of any port in the world,