The Portland daily press., 1863-04-13

dissolution of commercial partnership. The
Union separated from England to be free; the
South separates from the Union-for whatp
In order not to diminish the profits of cot
ton and the revenue of the trade in men.
SLAVERY IN CUBA.
If luxury were wealth. if the enormous pri-
vate fortunes which are seen by Europe, be-
cause they are spent in Europe, were a CON-
mon fact. the island of Cuba might be regard
ed as the land of opulence, and the city of
Havana, so brilliant and animated-the
city OF charming prodigality and luxurious
ness-a paradise. But these appearances are
wells which we must raise. Let us go to the
sources of wealth. More than one IS dried up.
The commerce being almost entirely in the
hands oil foreigners, it Is the ownership and
working OF the land which makes the wealth
Of the island. But the price of slave labor is
increasing Ii the population had been free
1t would have gradually spread over all the
most fertile places. Captive, it has been pen
ned up in single province
In Spain there are $50 inhabitants per
league; at Cuba, 5S7 per square league in the
western part of the island; everywhere else
laborers are lacking, and the island remains
uncultivated- To manufacture sugar with
the aid of slaves, artificial meadows and the
raising of cattle have been entirely neglected;
the forests OF centuries have been cut down to
cultivate the sugar-cane, and drought and
insalubrity have been the result: and the
discovery and working of important coal
mines have been neglected. The extensive
planting necessary for the production of sugar
cane not easily permitting the division of es-
tates, the sugar works have long enjoyed the
privilege of being sold only TOR debt equal
ling their value tStat. 10, Tit. 16, Book 5 of
the Code OF the lndies) the apportionment of
the lands having been injudiciously made in
the beginning to such point that single
family (Recios) owns two hundred square
leagues; the habit of luxury inducing great
improvidence-the result of all these circum-
stances is, that real estate is heavily encum-
bered, and that it "fnds itself' says Quelpo,
as If lost in an nextricable labyrinth, an inex-
haustible source oflawsuits, which disturb the
peace OF families, endanger and diminish for
tunes, ruin honest creditors, and, easily spun
out, end for the most part in the sale OF the
plantations"
The rates OF interest are very high on ac-
count of this want of security Ready money
is scarce. Living Is very dear. European
colonists and capital dare not venture there.
Meanwhile sugar, to which everything has
been sacrificed, is brought more and more
into competition with the sugars from Java.
Louisiana and Brazil. The English and French
colonies are resuming their powers. Large
fortunes more or less credtabIy acquired
by the side of general uneasiness concerning
property; prosperity revived by transient
causes, the end OF which is already beginning
to be visible; habits OF luxury and prodigaIity.
contrasting with the cruel lot of the slave and
consumating the concealment and consequent
precipitation of deeply rooted sources of
run-such, then, after reading an official de-
fender of Cuba, is what we are led to think of
this material prosperity of which the partizans
of slavery make SO complacent display-a
prosperity which might indeed become inn
mense on the day when the efforts of men
correspond with the Incompatible gifts of the
Of the Creator.
SLAVERY IN BRAZIL.
1t is useless TO say that slavery Is mild In
Brazil; whoever has seen the drunken, gam
bling, thieving and licentious negroes at Rio,
whoever has visited the GAIA de Correcdo.
whoever has penetrated TO the southern estan-
ctds, knows what is to be thought of the mo-
rality and happiness of the blacks. But TO
speak only OF the whites, they are themselves
the victims Of slavery. It produces there
what IL produces elsewhere-the corruption
OF the family, the corruption of justice, and
the corruption of religion; and when these
three sacred things are debased what remains
i do not pretend that the little communities
in the rest Of South America are, alas more
virtnous or more upright than Brazilian soci-
ETY.. IL is, on the contrary, because the latter
holds the first rank, because the future of this
country Is destined, as l believe, to a marked
place in history, that blush to find on its
brow spot which it alone bears on this
magnificent yet unhappy continent. To
serve God and own slaves, TO be a husband
and father and own slaves-this is what a
Christian European of the nineteenth century
can no longer comprehend; this is what Is
witnessed in Brazil.