Answer I must; so, putting on an Exchequery expression, I said, “Sir, if a national stain is to be washed out, the nation are in honour bound to pay for the soap.  England has set you a noble example under similar circumstances, and the zeal of the abolitionists will, no doubt, make them tax themselves double; but as for suggesting to you by what tax the money is to be raised, you must excuse me, sir.  I am a Britisher, and remembering how skittish you were some years ago about a little stamp and tea affair, I think I may fairly decline answering your question more in detail; a burnt child dreads the fire.”—­The ’cute man disappeared and took the vision with him; in its place came the reality of 2 A.M. and the candles flickering in their sockets.

Reader, I have now done with the question of the gradual improvement and ultimate emancipation of the slave.  The public institutions of any country are legitimate subjects of comment for the traveller, and in proportion as his own countrymen feel an interest in them, so is it natural he should comment on them at greater or less length.  I have, therefore, dwelt at large upon this subject, from the conviction that it is one in which the deepest interest is felt at home; and I trust that I have so treated it as to give no just cause of offence to any one, whether English or American.

I hope I have impressed my own countrymen with some idea of the gigantic obstacles that present themselves, of which I will but recapitulate three;—­the enormous pecuniary interests involved; the social difficulty arising from the amount of negro population; and, though last not least, the perplexing problem—­if Washington’s opinion, that “Slavery can only cease by legislative authority,” is received—­how Congress can legislate for independent and sovereign States beyond the limits of the Constitution by which they are mutually bound to each other.  I feel sure that much of the rabid outcry, the ovation of Mrs. B. Stowe, and other similar exhibitions, have arisen from an all but total ignorance of the true facts of the case.  This ignorance it has been my object to dispel; and I unhesitatingly declare that the emancipation of the negroes throughout the Southern States, if it took place to-morrow, would be the greatest curse the white man could inflict upon them.  I also trust that I may have shadowed forth some useful idea, to assist my Southern friends in overtaking a gangrene which lies at their heart’s core, and which every reflecting mind must see is eating into their vitals with fearful rapidity.  My last and not my least sincere hope is, that some one among the many suggestions I have offered for the negro’s present benefit, may be found available to mitigate the undoubted sufferings and cruel injustice of which those with bad masters must frequently be the victims.  Should I succeed in even one solitary instance, I shall feel more than repaid for the many hours of thought and trouble I have spent over the intricate problem—­the best road from Slavery to Emancipation.