It may be here remarked that so long as Slavery remains a prominent institution in a State, its influence upon labor, and upon the estimation in which labor is held, has the effect of protecting the class of free negroes to a considerable extent from the competition, and its results, of white labor. The slaveholding interest is the bulwark of the whole colored race; it stands between them and destruction. Here in Baltimore there are no ordinances excluding free negroes from particular occupations. The competition of white labor, however, mostly Irish and German, has driven the free negroes from many sorts of employment on Fell’s Point, especially from the wharves and coal yards. If Slavery were abolished and the slaveholding interest extinct, the whole force of an irresistible competition would come directly upon the colored people, and would overwhelm them utterly. When we are considering emancipation, therefore, we must consider other things also, if we would be mindful of our duty as having in charge a docile inoffensive class, whose fate depends so much upon our conduct towards them. One other thing remains to be here mentioned before we pass to the next and last division of the subject. In the event of emancipation, if we trust to the action of our domestic policy to drive the black population into other parts of the Union, it must be borne in mind that the reactive policy of our neighbor States, both north and south, will be immediately operative to repel the influx of blacks, likely to be poured upon them from Maryland. Can it be supposed that Pennsylvania will open her arms to receive the exiles rejected from our bosom? Ohio has already raised the barrier of exclusion as against Kentucky. The slaveholding States will not take our expelled negroes. We could not expect that; for Maryland at this moment will not take the free negroes of any other State. Our condition, then, will be one of isolation, to such a degree, at least, as to throw us wholly upon our own energies. In other words, if we emancipate we must not expect to slough off the results upon other States. We must confront them ourselves; we must meet them on our own soil, and manage them as best we may. It is probable, however, that an act of prospective emancipation would induce some slaveholders to emigrate with their slaves to the south-west; and in this way there would be some diminution of the mass of the colored population. VIII. _Colonization._ The law of 1831 which recognised COLONIZATION as a part of the public policy of Maryland was a compromise, though generally not so regarded now, between the emancipation tendency then operative and the slaveholding interest. The fanatical movement of the abolitionists checked the progress of things here; all sides, all parties, all tendencies were united to rebuke the insolent demonstrations of that fanaticism.