In one breath, colonization orators tell us that the free blacks are pests in the community; that they are an intemperate, ignorant, lazy, thievish class; that their condition is worse than that of the slaves; and that no efforts to improve them in this country can be successful, owing to the prejudices of society. In the next breath we are told what mighty works these miserable outcasts are to achieve--that they are the missionaries of salvation,[Z] who are to illumine all Africa--that they will build up a second American republic--and that our conceptions cannot grasp the result of their labors. Now I, for one, have no faith in this instantaneous metamorphosis.[AA] I believe that neither a sea voyage nor an African climate has any miraculous influence upon the brain. I believe that ignorant and depraved black men, who are transported across the ocean, will be ignorant and depraved black men on reaching the coast of Africa. I believe, also, that they who are capable of doing well, surrounded by barbarians, may do better among a civilized and christian people. It is stated in a Circular put forth by the Society last year, that 'from the _actual experience_ of the Society, it has been found that $20, _or less_, will defray the whole expense of transporting an individual to the Colony.' This is a very deceptive statement. The receipts of the Society from 1820 to 1830, amounted to $112,841 89; the expenses during the same period were $106,457 72; balance on hand, $6,384 17. Nineteen expeditions had been fitted out, and 1,857 emigrants,[AB] _including re-captured Africans_, landing on the shores of Africa--averaging annually, for the ten years, about 186 persons, or since the organization of the Society, about 124 persons. 'The emigrants,' the Board of Managers inform us, in a recent address to Auxiliary Societies, 'for the last three years, average about 227, while the expenses, _exclusive of transportation, and temporary subsistence of the new colonists_, exceed TEN THOUSAND DOLLARS'!! In the very last number of the African Repository, (for April, 1832,) the Vice-Agent at Liberia, A. D. Williams, writes to the Rev. R. R. Gurley as follows:--'I think the price, say $35, fixed by the Board for the transportation of each emigrant, _is entirely too low_: it should be at least $40, if not $45.' Why, then, does the Society attempt to impose upon public credulity, by stating that only $20 are requisite for every individual transportation, when the actual cost has been more than thrice, and is likely to be more than double that amount?[AC]