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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 his 

 children. Government levies a tax of 3J per cent, on every 

 article sold in this manner, and the auctioneer has 1^ for his 

 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 slaves set up 

 to sale. This was altogether a new sight to me. I could 

 not without pain remark the anxiety with which those 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 in it. 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, their 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 vain 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, 



