of those advantages of which a land
is debarred by slavery. It is a part of the curse of slavery that it
repels the freeman. When we are told that to judge of the effect of
emancipation we must exclude those colonies that imported coolies, we
reply at once that this useful importation has been one of the many
blessings that freedom has brought in her train."[43]

I understand your views now, says the planter: but for emancipation,
your colonies would have sunk to irretrievable destruction. That measure
has prepared the way for the coolie system; and under its operations the
prosperity of your islands is on the increase. But what is the character
of this coolie system, that is working such wonders? In what does it
differ from the slave trade, of which you desire to deprive us? And what
must be its effects upon the colored population, which have received
their freedom at your hands, and whose moral elevation your Christian
missionaries are laboring to promote? On this point I would not multiply
testimony. The character of the coolie traffic is but too well
understood, and is now believed by all intelligent men to be the slave
trade in disguise. A writer, representing the anti-slavery society of
Great Britain, makes these statements.[44]

"I am prepared to show, that fraud, misrepresentation, and actual
violence are the constituent elements of the immigration system, even as
it is now conducted, and that no vigilance on the part of the government
which superintends its prosecution can prevent the abuses incidental to
it. . . . . In China, especially, this is notoriously the case, and I
refer you to Sir John Bowring's despatches on Immigration from China,
for the fullest revelations. I need only add, that he designates the
Chinese coolie traffic as being in every essential particular 'as bad as
the African slave trade,' and that he recommends its entire prohibition.
. . . . The mortality during the sea-voyage is so great, that the
Emigration Commissioners declare 'these results to be shocking to
humanity, and disgraceful to the manner in which the traffic is carried
on.' I beg to call your special attention to the term 'traffic,' and to
refer you for particulars of the mortality, to the Emigration
Commissioners' Report for 1858. They may be briefly summarised. During
the season 1856-57 the deaths at sea amounted to 17.26/100 per cent. on
4,094 coolies shipped from Calcutta--a rate which, if computed for the
whole year, ins