324 THE APPEENTICE-SYSTEM AND SLAVERY. 



cases out of ten my auditor would waive the question 

 by starting some other subject of conversation ; but 

 by the employment of a little finesse I generally 

 managed to corner him, when, upon argument and 

 hearing explanations of our system, he would con- 

 fess that there was but a shade of difference between 

 the two. One candid specimen of the John Bull 

 character, whom I accidentally formed an acquaint- 

 ance with, (and one, too, who had made the tour of 

 our Southern States from Delaware to Texas — a man 

 of strong mind and superior intelligence, and from 

 the knowledge he possessed of the subject, also a 

 man of observation,) stated that our slaves were better 

 housed than the apprentices under the control of mag- 

 nanimous and philanthropic Britain ! Yerily, Eng- 

 land should look at home; and, if she can, apologize, 

 and legislate for her factory-system, which heretofore 

 has been the set-off advanced by Americans to her 

 abuse of our slavery-system. Here is the same sys- 

 tem, with such a close affinity to ours, that she can- 

 not apologize for or mitigate it, without rendering 

 us justice, and thereby exposing her previous hypo- 

 . crisy and selfishness. 



Strange — strange, very strange — it is, that the 

 philanthropists of the United Kingdom have never 

 taken cognizance of these facts. What a splendid 

 theater Mauritius presents for the Address drawn up 

 by the Ladies of Great Britain and sent to the Ladies 

 of the United States, (which, however, to the honor of 

 our countrywomen be it said, was contemptuously re- 

 jected,) and signed by I do not remember how many 

 thousands of the mothers, daughters, and wives of 

 Merry England and her dependencies ; which ladies, 



