degradation." If there be some who so feel, they are indeed very
much to be pitied; but their sentiments are not entitled to the
serious importance with which our critic has invested them. But is
it at all conceivable that a people whose sanity has never in any way
been questioned would strain every nerve to secure for their
offspring a [37] distinction the consequence of which to themselves
would be a feeling of their own abasement? The poor Irish peasant who
toils and starves to secure for his eldest son admission into the
Catholic priesthood, has a far other feeling than one of humiliation
when contemplating that son eventually as the spiritual director of a
congregation and parish. Similarly, the laudable ambition which, in
the case of a humble Scotch matron, is expressed in the wish and
exertion to see her Jamie or Geordie "wag his pow in the pou'pit,"
produces, when realized, salutary effects in the whole family
connection. These effects, which Mr. Froude would doubtless allow
and commend in their case, he finds it creditable to ignore the very
possibility of in the experience of people whose cuticle is not
white. It is, however, but bare justice to say that, as Negroes are
by no means deficient in self-love and the tenderness of natural
affection, such gratifying fulfilment of a family's hopes exerts an
elevating and, in many cases, an ennobling influence on every one
connected with the fortunate household. Nor, from the eminently
sympathetic nature of the African race, are the near friends of a
family [38] unbenefited in a similar way. This is true, and
distinctively human; but, naturally, no apologist of Negro
depreciation would admit the reasonableness of applying to the
affairs of Negroes the principles of common equity, or even of common
sense. To sum up practically our argument on this head, we shall
suppose West Indians to be called upon to imagine that the less
distinguished relations respectively of, say, the late Solicitor-