nterference of their countrymen in the affairs of the republic, and
appreciate the terrible catastrophe to which, if persevered in, it must
eventually lead. I conversed with a prominent abolitionist in Chatham,
holding a public position of trust and honor, who told me that the first
suggestion of the Harper's Ferry attack was made to Brown by British
abolitionists in Chatham, and who assured me that he had himself
subscribed money to aid Brown in raising men for the service in Ohio and
elsewhere in the States. In reply to some questions I put to him, he
stated that he and his associates on the other side looked with
expectation and hope to the day, not far distant, when a disruption of
the Union would take place; for that, in that case, the British
abolitionists would join the republican abolitionists of America in open
warfare upon the slaveholding States. When I reminded him that the
patriotic men of the North would raise a barrier of brave hearts,
through which such traitors would find it difficult to reach the
Southern States, he replied--'Oh, we have often talked over and
calculated upon that; but you forget that we should have the negroes of
the South to help us in their own homes against their oppressors, with
the knife and the fire-brand.'

"I conversed on the other hand with conservative, high-minded men, who
expressed the most serious apprehension that the bold and unjustifiable
association of Canadian abolitionists with the negro stealers and
insurrectionists of America would eventually plunge the two countries
into war.

"We have seen that the immigration of fugitive slaves into Canada is
unattended by any social or moral good to the negro. It is injurious,
also, to the white citizens of Canada, inasmuch as it depresses the
value of their property, diminishes their personal comfort and safety,
and destroys the peace and good order of the community. Mr. Sheriff
Mercer, of Kent county, assured me that the criminal statistics of that
county prove that nine-tenths of the offenses against the laws are
committed by colored persons. The same proportion holds good in Essex
county, and the fact is the more startling when it is remembered that
the blacks do not at present number more than one-fourth of the whole
population.

"In the township of Anderdon, Essex county, this fall, nearly every
sheep belonging to the white farmers has been stolen. The fact was
presented in the return of the Grand Jury of the county, a