freedmen of that cheerfulness and mirth which
he naturally expects to find in their homes. A simple explanation of
this fact may be found in the _sense of insecurity_ which the uncertain
issue of the civil war that rages about them creates in their minds.
They have seen one after another of those islands which have been in our
possession given up to the reoccupation of the rebels; the disastrous
battles of James's Island and Pocotaligo and the fruitless campaigns in
Florida are fresh in their minds; while that wearisome waiting for
something to be accomplished which spreads such a spirit of restlessness
and discontent among our soldiers, is felt even more keenly by the
freedmen. There is very much in the uncertainties of their present
condition to justify the favorite allusion of their preachers, who often
compare the freedmen to the children of Israel before they had fairly
gained the promised land. Until a permanent peace shall give to these
people that feeling of security, without which, though there may be
contentment, there can be little joyousness, it is absurd for us to
'require of them mirth,' or ask them to sing songs of gladness.

FREE LABOR.

Cochin, in his admirable work on the 'Results of Emancipation,' asserts
of the negroes: 'This race of men, like all the human species, is
divided into two classes, the diligent and the idle; freedom has nothing
to do with the second, while it draws from the labor of the first a
better yield than servitude.' Has this statement proved true on the Sea
Islands? The prejudiced are ready with their negative answer, and point
to the comparatively small amount of cotton raised during the past year.
By such persons no allowance is made for the peculiarly unfavorable
circumstances under which the experiment of free labor thus far has been
tried, and they are only too happy to charge upon emancipation all the
evils which labor has suffered from the presence of our soldiers and the
continuance of the war. The causes of the smallness of the cotton crop
produced last year, are obvious to the most careless observer. Owing to
the late arrival of the first company of superintendents who were sent
from the North, no preparations were made for planting till more than
two months after the usual time. On many of the plantations the seed
used was of a poor quality, while it was almost impossible to find any
implements of culture or to obtain the necessary mules or horses. As a
consequence