sent that Mr. Smith would not be admitted nor the vessel that carried him, to persist in a course of conduct obnoxious to a friendly power; and it was imprudent, when it must have been obvious that he could not carry his point; thereby eventually adding strength to the Spanish authority.  When, all the fuss and vapour was made by Mr. Law and his friends, they seemed to have forgotten the old adage, “People who live in glass houses should not throw stones.”  President Filmore, in his statesmanlike observations, when the subject was brought before him, could not help delicately alluding to Charleston, a city of America.  Americans at Charleston claim to exercise the right—­what a prostitution of the term right!—­of imprisoning any of the free subjects of another nation who may enter their ports, if they are men of colour.  Thus, if a captain arrives in a ship with twenty men, of whom ten are black, he is instantly robbed of half his crew during his whole stay in the harbour; and on what plea is this done?  Is any previous offence charged against them?  None whatever.  The only plea is that it is a municipal regulation which their slave population renders indispensable.  In other words, it is done lest the sacred truth should spread, that man has no right to bind his fellow-man in the fetters of slavery.[W]

Was there ever such a farce as for a nation that tolerates such a municipal regulation as this to take umbrage at any of their citizens being, on strong suspicions of unfriendly feeling, denied entry into any port?  Why, if there was a Chartist riot in monarchical England, and the ports thereof were closed against the sailors of republican America, they could have no just cause of offence, so long as the present municipal law of Charleston exists.  What lawful boast of freedom can there ever be, where contact with freemen is dreaded, be their skins black or any colour of the rainbow?  Why can England offer an asylum to the turbulent and unfortunate of all countries and climes?—­Because she is perfectly free!  Don’t be angry, my dear Anglo-Saxon brother; you know, “if what I say bayn’t true, there’s no snakes in Warginny.”  I feel sure you regret it; but then why call forth the observations, by supporting the childish obstinacy in the “Crescent City” affair.  However, as the housemaids say, in making up quarrels, “Let bygones be bygones.”  Spain has maintained her rights; you have satisfied her, and quiet Mr. Smith enters the Havana periodically, without disturbing the Governor’s sleep or exciting the hopes of the malcontents.  May we never see the Great Empire States in such an undignified position again!