It has been repeatedly stated that Mr. Carroll, of Baltimore, the former president of the Colonization Society, was the owner of 1,000 slaves. The newspapers, in announcing the death of Mr. Pollock, of North Carolina, remarked that he had left 1,500 slaves. In the account of Mr. Madison's funeral, it was mentioned that he was followed to the grave by 100 of his slaves, and it is probable that the women and children were not included. The following article, from the _Gospel Messenger_ for August, 1842, gives us some idea of the feudal vassalage prevailing on the estates of some of your lordly planters. "A NOBLE DEED.--Dr. Mercer, of Adams county, Mississippi, has lately erected, at his own expense, and for the advantage of his _vast_ plantation, and the people on his lands, a neat church and parsonage house, at the cost of over $30,000. He pays the salary of the minister, $1,200 a year, besides his meat and bread. On Bishop Otey's late visit to that congregation, he and Mr. Deacon, the incumbent, baptized in one day _one hundred and eight_ children and _ten_ adults, all belonging to the plantation." At the North a farmer hires as many _men_ as his work requires; at the South the laborers cannot be separated from the _women_ and _children_. These are _property_, and must be owned by somebody. Now when we take this last circumstance into consideration, and at the same time recollect that the very value of the slaves debars the poor from owning them--and connect these two facts with the character of the cultivation in which slave labor is employed; we must be ready to admit that those who do employ this species of labor, cannot on an average hold less than _ten slaves_, including able-bodied men, their wives and children. It appears by the census, that of the slave population, the two sexes are almost exactly equal in number; and that there are two children under ten years of age, for every male slave over that age. Hence, if a planter employs only three men, we may take it for granted that his slave family consists of at least 12 souls, viz.: 3 men, 3 women, and 6 children. We of course estimate the number of children too low, since there will be some over ten years of age. It thus appears that the average number of slaves we assign to each slaveholder is probably far below the truth; but we purposely avoid even the approach to exaggeration. Now the number of slaves in the United States by the last census, was 2,487,113; of course according to our estimate of ten slaves to one master, there can be only 248,711 slaveholders. The number of _white males over 20 years of age_ in the slave states and territories was 1,016,307 Deduct Slaveholders, viz. 248,711 --------- And we have the number we are now addressing 767,596