113 
lectual activity, the moral refinement, the civilization of 
Europe is legitimately attributable to the influence of external 
causes ? — can we doubt, looking at the comparative similarity 
of the conditions to which the different European nations have 
been subjected, that the very uniformity I have spoken of is a 
proof that the origin of these intellectual and moral pheno- 
mena is not to be sought for in the operation of occult psycho- 
logical principles? I admit that the Negro has been in 
contact with more civilized nations for some thousands of 
years without deriving any perceptible benefit therefrom. 
But it should be taken into consideration that the circum- 
stances under which he has been brought into relation with 
superior races have not been calculated to foster and develop 
whatever intellectual qualities he may have originally pos- 
sessed. His distinctions of rank have been disregarded ; high 
or low, he has always been treated as a slave ; he has had no 
aristocracy of intellect and refinement to look up to and 
imitate ; he could only find models amongst his masters, and 
he could scarcely be expected to sympathize with them. 
Placed under favourable circumstances, however, the Negro 
is by no means mentally deficient. 
A few years since four youths of pure negro blood were 
sent to England from Sierra Leone to be educated as surgeons 
at the expense of the Church Missionary Society. They 
passed the examination of the Loyal College of Surgeons, and 
were subsequently sent to the West coast of Africa in the 
capacity of assistant-surgeons to the British army. One of 
them, by the bye. Dr. Horton, is a man of very considerable 
intelligence. Now, although the examination of the Loyal 
College of Surgeons may not be a very high intellectual or 
educational test, it could not be passed by a sort of half- 
baboon ; yet if these gentlemen had been left to run wild in 
Sierra Leone, they would probably at the present time be 
neither better nor worse than the rest of their countrymen. 
On the other hand, if we turn to our own country, we see in 
the midst of our civilization thousands of human beings brutal 
in appearance, in language, in ideas ; with little or no sense of 
morality ; frequently only superior to the Andaman Islanders 
in as far as they are restrained by the fear of punishment. 
Yet these men are of the same blood as ourselves ; they are 
continually exposed to the ameliorating influence and example 
of those immediately above them, and their ranks are being 
constantly recruited by those who have been unfortunate in a 
higher station of life. Perceiving, therefore, this moral and 
intellectual degradation around us, recognizing the causes by 
which it is produced, knowing that these causes have been in 
VOL. III. i 
