And we here beg leave to remark that we shall, in all instances, draw our proofs from the enemies of the institution. We quote from Berbick’s Notes on America, page 20, and reported in vol. xvi. of the Christian Observer, published in London, May 10th, page 109: “I saw two female slaves and their children sold by auction in the street; an incident of common occurrence here, though horrifying to myself and many other strangers. I could hardly bear to see them handled and examined like cattle; and when I heard their sobs and saw the _big tears_ rolling down their cheeks at the thought of being separated, I could not refrain from weeping with them.” This may have been very cruel in the white man; but who has ever heard of a negro in Africa displaying such a strength of tenderness and feeling of sympathy as here manifested? And how are we to account for it in this instance, if not by the regenerating influence of a few generations in American and Christian slavery? However slow the action, the condition of the mental faculties was improved and the moral condition ameliorated. But in the same page, he says— “A traveller told me that he saw, a few weeks ago, one hundred and twenty sold by auction in the streets of Richmond, and that they filled the air with their lamentations.” The case of the women was not solitary, and doubtless we shall find such proof of an improved state of the affections quite common. But this good man continuously pursues the subject: “It has also been confidently alleged, that the condition of slaves in Virginia, under the mild treatment they are said to experience, is preferable to that of our English labourers. I know and lament the degrading state of dependent poverty to which the latter have been gradually reduced by the operation of laws originally designed for their comfort and protection. I know also that many slaves pass their lives in comparative ease, and seem to be unconscious of their bonds, and that the _most wretched_ of our paupers might even envy the allotment of the _happy_ negro.” We will now quote from Lieutenant Francis Hall, of the British Light Dragoons. In his Travels in Canada and the United States, published in London, 1818, pages 357 to 360, he says—