"It has been asserted that, of free blacks collected in our cities and large towns, a great portion are found in abodes of wretchedness and vice, and become tenants of poor-houses and prisons. As a proof of the tendency of their condition, the following striking facts among others, ascertained a year or two since, have been mentioned: In Massachusetts, where the coloured population is small, being less than 7,000 souls, (only 1-74th part of the whole population,) --> about 1-6th part of the whole number of convicts in the state-prison are blacks. In Connecticut, 1-34th part of the population is coloured, and --> 1-3d part of the convicts. In New-York, 1-35th part are blacks; --> 1-4th part of the convicts in the city state-prison are blacks. In New-Jersey, the proportion is 1-13th coloured; and of the convicts 1-3d. In Pennsylvania, 1-34th part of a population of more than a million of souls, is coloured; and more than one-third part of the convicts are black. "I need not pursue these illustrations of the degradation of the free blacks in the non-slave-holding States. It appears from these statements, which I find in the First Annual Report of the Prison Discipline Society, that about _one quarter_ part of all the expense incurred by these States for the support of their institutions for criminals is for _coloured_ convicts. The bill of expense in three of these States stands thus: that is, the expense for the support of coloured convicts for the specified number of years preceding the report from which this schedule is made, is in Massachusetts, 10 years, $17,734 Connecticut, 15 years, 37,166 New-York, 27 years, 109,166 in one prison. -------- $164,066 --> This sum was expended in an average of less than eighteen years, on convicts from among a population of only 54,000 coloured persons. "Illustrations, borrowed from the criminal statistics of the South, would place this matter in a far more unfavourable light. References to the expenses for the maintenance of paupers, would give a similar result." According to the above statement, it appears, that in Massachusetts, there are (in proportion to the whole population) TWELVE coloured persons to _one_ white, in poor-houses and prisons! In _Connecticut_, ELEVEN Coloured, to _one_ White, in Do.! In _New-York_, EIGHT Coloured, to _one_ White, in Do.! In _New-Jersey_, FOUR Coloured, to _one_ White, in Do.! In _Pennsylvania_, ELEVEN Coloured, to _one_ White, in Do.!