hundred or six hundred dollars—­that is, about one hundred pounds; but now, during the present season, I have known instances in which a slave man has been sold for two hundred and thirty pounds.  There are more slaves raised in Virginia and Maryland than they can use in those states in labor, and, therefore, they sell them at one hundred, two hundred, or three hundred pounds, as the case may be, for cash.  All that Mrs. Tyler intimates in that letter about slavery in America, and the impression it is calculated and intended to convey, that they treat their slaves so well, and do not separate their families, and so forth, is all mere humbug. [Laughter and cheers.] It is well known that Virginia has more profit from selling negroes than from any other source.  The great sources of profit are tobacco and negroes, and they derive more from the sale of negroes than tobacco.  You see the temptation this gives to avarice.  Suppose there is a man with no property, except fifteen or twenty negro men, whom he can sell, each one for two hundred pounds, cash; and he has as many negro women, whom he can sell for one hundred and fifty pounds, cash, and the children for one hundred pounds each:  here is a temptation to avarice; and it is calculated to silence the voice of conscience; and it is the expansion of the slave territory, and the immense mercantile value of the cotton, that has brought so powerful an influence to bear on the United States in favor of slavery. [Hear, hear.] Now, as to free labor coming into competition with slave labor:  You will see, that when the price of slaves is so enormous, it requires an immense outlay to stock a plantation.  A good plantation would take two hundred, or three hundred hands.  Now, say for every hand employed on this plantation, the man must pay on an average two hundred pounds, which is not exorbitant at the present time.  If he has to pay at this rate, what an immense outlay of capital to begin with, and how great the interest on that sum continually accumulating!  And then there is the constant exposure to loss.  These plantation negroes are very careless of life, and often cholera gets among them, and sweeps off twenty-five or thirty in a few days; and then there is the underground railroad, and, with all the precautions that can be taken, it continues to work.  And now you see what an immense risk, and exposure to loss, and a vast outlay of capital, there is in connection with this system.  But, if a man takes a cotton farm, and can employ Chinese laborers, he can get them for one or two shillings a day, and they will do the work as well, if not better than negroes, and there is no outlay or risk. [Hear, hear!].  If good cotton fields can be obtained, as they may in time, here is an opening which will tend to weaken the slave system.  If Christians will investigate this subject, and if philanthropists generally will pursue these inquiries in an honest spirit, it is not long before we shall see a movement throughout the civilized world, and