th which the country has been
of late visited for its sins from the Country Parson and his disciples.

SLAVERY IN SOUTH CAROLINA, AND THE EX-SLAVES; or, The Port Royal
Mission. By Mrs. A. M. FRENCH. New York: Winchell M. French, No. 5
Beekman street, 1862.

No one can write a book, however unpretentious, on the subject of
slavery, and fill it with plain _facts_, without making a startling
volume. Take the subject up on the grounds of the barest humanity, even
as one would the welfare of animals; laying aside all 'Abolition' or
anti-abolition views whatever, and we find a tremendous abyss of abuses,
inexcusable even according to the principles of the most rabid
pro-slavery disciple. Prominent among the facts which such a work as
the present presents, is the proof that the black, whatever his degree
of intelligence may be, is abundantly capable, under enlightened
discipline, of becoming infinitely more profitable to himself and to the
world than he has ever yet been. From the tales of distress, from the
bewildering, sorrowful negro piety, from the jargon and rags and tears
of poor childish contrabands, as simply and sadly set forth by Mrs.
FRENCH, making every allowance, and penetrating to the depth of the dark
problem, we still realize one tremendous truth--that Slavery, as a
principle of government, is a lie, and that from a politico-economical
point of view it has been a failure. It is a _waste of power_, and like
every waste of human power results in suffering.

The fifty-three chapters of the work before us present the results of
the Port Royal Mission, the truths gleaned from the contrabands of their
past life, great additions to our Northern knowledge of the practical
treatment of slaves, many observations on these facts, and an array of
Instances to prove the capacity of the negro. It will be spoken of as an
Abolition work, and such it is; but we--who look beyond and above
Abolition, and hold the higher doctrines of EMANCIPATION originally set
forth in these columns--to the broad interests of humanity, and of the
benefit which is to accrue in the first place to the white race from
free labor--still commend it as full of material of the most valuable
description to the great cause of progress.

The work is fairly printed, but, we regret to add, is disfigured by a
mass of wretched woodcuts of the worst possible design, which look as if
they had been gleaned from old Abolition tracts, and which we