he has a fairer skin than those who make laws to oppress him.  If he inhaled the free atmosphere from abroad, can it be that there is contagion in it, and Malcome Brown is the dreaded medium of its communication?  And if the statement rung in our ears be true, “that the free colored of the North suffer while the slave is cared for and comfortable,” why belie ourselves?  Malcome’s influence is, and always has been, with the whites, and manifestly good in the preservation of order and obedience on the part of the slaves.  He pursues his avocation with spirit and enterprise, while he is subjected to menial and oppressive laws.  His father visited New York, and was forbidden to return.  He appealed again and again, set forth his claims and his integrity to the State and her laws, but all was of no avail.  He was hopelessly banished, as it were, from ever seeing his son again, unless that son would sacrifice his property and submit to perpetual banishment from the State.  If we reflect upon the many paternal associations that would gladden the hearts of father and child to meet in happy affection, we may realize the effect of that law which makes the separation painful and which denies even the death-bed scene its last cheering consolation.

We have conversed with poor Brown on many occasions, found him a very intelligent man, full of humour, and fond of relating incidents in the history of his family-even proud of his good credit in Charleston.  He frequently speaks of his father and the gratifying hope of meeting him at some future day, when he can give vent to his feelings in bursts of affection.  He wants his father to return and live with him, because he says he knows they would be more happy together.  “I suppose the law was made in justice, and it’s right for me to submit to it,” he would say when conversing upon its stringency; and it also seems a sort of comfort to him that he is not the only sufferer.

If South Carolina would awake to her own interest, she would find more to fear from the stringency of her own laws than from the influence of a few men coming from abroad.

CHAPTER X.

The prospect darkening.

After the Colonel and little George left the Captain, as we have stated in the foregoing chapter, he descended into the cabin, and found Manuel sitting upon one of the lockers, apparently in great anxiety.  He, however, waited for the mate to speak before he addressed the Captain.  The mate awoke and informed the Captain that a slender, dark-complexioned man had been aboard a few minutes after he left, making particular inquiries about the steward; that he spoke like an official man, was dressed in black clothes, and wore spectacles.