by any hostility to the pecuniary or social interests
of their section of country. The most important and influential
classes of the population, both of England and of the northern States
of this Union, have a direct and strong pecuniary interest at stake,
in the prosperity and welfare of the south. If the people of
Massachusetts or those of Lancashire were employed in raising cotton
and sugar, and if the prices which they obtained for their produce
were kept down by southern competition, then there might perhaps be
some ground for suspecting a covert hostility in any action or
influence which they might attempt to exert on such a question. But
the contrary is the fact. New England and Old England manufacture and
consume the cotton and sugar which the south produces. They are
directly and deeply interested in having the production of these
articles go on in the most advantageous manner possible. The southern
planter is not their competitor and rival. He is their partner. His
work is to them and to their pursuits one of co-operation and aid.
Consequently his prosperity is their prosperity, and his ruin would be
an irretrievable disaster, not a benefit, to them. They are thus
naturally his friends, and, consequently, when in desiring a change in
the relation which subsists between him and his laborers, they declare
that they are not actuated by any unfriendly feeling toward him, but
honestly think that the change would be beneficial to all concerned,
there is every reason why they should be believed.

There was a time when the laboring population of England occupied a
position in respect to the proprietors of the soil there, very
analogous to that now held by African slaves in our country. But the
system has been changed. From being serfs, compelled to toil for
masters, under the influence of compulsion or fear, they have become a
free peasantry, working in the employment of landlords, for wages.
But this change has not depressed or degraded the landlords, or
injured them in any way. On the contrary, it has probably elevated and
improved the condition of the master quite as much as it has that of
the man.

Imagine such a change as this on any southern plantation: the
Christian master desiring conscientiously to obey the divine
command,--given expressly for his guidance, in his responsible
relation of employer,--that he should "give unto his servants that
which is just and equal,--forbearing threatening,"--resolves that