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sex is a merchant, and every house has either a shop or a store 
for the reception of these speculative purchases. 
* What originally gave rise to, and still maintains, this 
rage for auctions, is the law of inheritance, by virtue of which, 
when the father of a family dies, his whole property is put 
up to sale, and the produce equally divided amongst bis 
children. Government levies a tax of 33 per cent. on every 
article sold in this manner, and the auctioneer has 1} for bis 
trouble in conducting the sale and collecting the money. I 
happened, some days ago, to step into one of these Venduties, 
where, among other articles, I saw three or four slayes set up 
to sale. This was altogether a new sight to me, I could 
not without pain remark the anxiety with which tbose poor 
creatures regarded the persons who were bidding for them. 
It seemed as if they wished to trace the character of their 
future master in the lineaments of his countenance, and 
showed indications of joy or fear, according to the opinion 
they had formed of his disposition. 
* Among the terrible reactions produced by the slave 
trade, none is perhaps more merited or more evident than 
the dissoluteness of morals and ferocity of disposition which 
it creates among the people who are concerned init. The 
cold-blooded calculator of profit and loss, the prime 
agent in this unhallowed traffic, feels its influence, but in 
a remote and subordinate degree. It is when we cast a 
view on those who are placed immediately within the sphere 
of its action that we perceive the full extent of its deteriorat- 
ing effects; their morals, their temper, tbeir air, and their 
very features confessing its malignant influence. The softer 
sex, more especially, are transformed by it into cruel tyrants. 
When you mix in female society, you look in yain for that 
cheerful play of features which indicates a sweet disposition ; 
in vain you listen for that harmonious tone of voice which is 
mellowed by the habit of associating with one's equals,  - 
* I was one day attracted to the window by a strange sort 
of noise that seemed to issue from a small court behind the 
house in which I lodged. On looking out, I observed my 
landlady in the act of administering correction to a slave boy, 
