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Mr. Alexander M'Arthdr. — I am afraid my remarks will be of that 
rambling character which our Chairman deprecates ; but the fact is that I 
did not intend to speak at all upon this occasion. I am sure we must all 
cordially agree with the vote of thanks which has been passed to Mr. Titcomb 
for his paper. I think, so far as' the Negro race is concerned, that we are all 
likely to agree with Mr. Titcomb’s view, and from what he says, as well as 
from what we get from other sources of information, we may repudiate the 
idea of the Neoro race having been originally inferior to the white race, 
either intellectually or physically. That they are inferior at present cannot 
be doubted, but T think that inferiority may fairly be attributed to adventi- 
tious and accidental circumstances— the length of time they have been sub- 
jected to bondage, oppression, and slavery, their long exposure to the sun, 
and other causes. But, on the other hand, we have the fact as stated in this 
paper, that we have a Negro bishop who is discharging his functions very 
satisfactorily, and 1 have myself in America seen and spoken with Negroes 
who in point of intellectual ability were on an average with a very large class 
of Europeans, and far superior to many of the labouring and lower classes, 
either of this country or of Ireland. We know also that in the West India 
Islands and in other parts of our dominions there are Negroes who have 
successfully competed with Europeans, and who are now occupying very 
important and distinguished positions at the bar, in the civil service, and 
as ministers of religion ; and in all those stations of life displaying very 
considerable talent and ability. I am not so sure, however that we have 
gained much or advanced very far in coming to a solution of this problem as 
to the origin of the Negro. I think a good many of the quotations and 
inferences in Mr. Titcomb’s paper will bear a double interpretation, and cut 
two ways. For my own part I cannot see any reason why from the accident 
of a boy or girl being bom black, or a family being bom black, you should 
perpetuate a race, and why those other peculiar cases which have been 
referred to should not perpetuate a race. I think it would have been quite 
as natural that you should have had a race of persons with six fingers 
and six toes, or that you should have had a race with that peculiar porcupine 
skin spoken of by Mr. Titcomb, as that you should have had a Negro race. 
I should like to ask, in the event of asingle Negro family being born, whether 
that would be more likely to perpetuate and establish a race than the case 
referred to in the paper where sixteen sons and five daughters all possessed 
one peculiar characteristic. I think the same result would be quite as natural 
in the one case as in the other. Then as to the other peculiarities of the 
Nevro — his woolly hair and black skin-those pecularities are not confined to 
the°Negro. While some of the Kaffirs in Africa are comparatively light, others 
are quite as black as any Negro, and they almost all have woolly hair 
The Chairman. — Almost all ? . . , 
Mr M‘ARTHTJR.-Almost all, I believe. With regard to the thickness of 
skull which has been referred to, if you go to India you will find that 
the natives of that country have skulls which are quite as thick as that of the 
Negro 
