IMPENDING DISUNION. 29 



perityof America; the people are drunk with liberty 

 already, to the destruction of the best of all blessings 

 the ample and remunerative employment of the indus 

 trial poor. In the States two interests have clashed, and 

 are clashing, fomented, I deeply regret to say, by clever 

 and popular writers from England, one of whom was 

 made to believe, during his visit to America, that slave 

 owners marked their slaves in the United States by 

 " knocking out a front tooth;" and in the other an au 

 thoress assured us that slave-owners might always be 

 recognised by the size of their right hand, the muscular 

 proportions and weight of which "were increased from 

 their constant habit of knocking down their negroes. 7 ' 

 The slave question, which has already led to so much 

 bloodshed, as well as to the pilot balloon sent forth to 

 test how the wind blew, in the shape of " Old Brown," 

 is the bete noir on the horizon of the United States. With 

 that looming on them at this very moment, and the in 

 toxicated state, in regard to liberty, of the masses, the 

 numerical insufficiency of the standing army, though 

 splendidly officered by soldiers and gentlemen, sons of 

 America, the fact that that army is a strange or foreign 

 force, comprised of foreigners and not of American citi 

 zens, and the contempt in which many of the laws of 

 Congress are held, punishment uncertain, and immu 

 nity even for murder purchasable by money, any man 

 with a head on his shoulders who has travelled in Ame 

 rica cannot but fear that the mere weight of a feather 

 thrown into the scale may bring about a collision that 

 will lead to the most terrible results. Many friends of 

 mine in America, among them a widely experienced and 

 most gallant and able soldier, assure me that they do 

 not dread disunion, for all the confusion at hustings, 



