RECAPITULATION AND CONCLUSION. 71 



those races who have degraded themselves should be placed 

 under the yrotecUon of others, to borrow an ingenious eu- 

 phemism from the language of the defenders of slavery. 1 But 

 if the Ethiopian is king of Soudan by the same right as the 

 Caucasian is king of Europe, what right has he to impose laws 

 upon the former, unless by the right of might ? In the first 

 case, slavery presents itself with a certain appearance of legi- 

 timacy which might render it excusable in the eyes of certain 

 theoricians ; in the second case, it is a fact of pure violence, 

 protested against by all who derive no benefit from it. 



From another point of view, it might be said that the poly- 

 genist doctrine assigns to the inferior races of humanity a more 

 honourable place than in the opposite doctrine. To be inferior 

 to another man either in intelligence, vigour, or beauty, is not 

 a humiliating condition. On the contrary, one might be 

 ashamed to have undergone a physical or moral degradation, 

 to have descended the scale of beings, and to have lost rank in 

 creation. 



[' See, for many valuable hints on this subject, Savage Africa, by W. Win- 

 wood Eeade, 8vo, London, 1864. Editor.] 



Ill 10 END. 



