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commonly called the Spanish part of the island. And this brings us to the present phase of affairs,-which is to us more. interesting than any that has gone before. Both sections of the island have a republican form of government: but St. Domingo has a bad President, and Hayti a good one. The question is whether the bad passions of some European potentates will so work with the bad President as to overwhelm the happier republic which is blessed with a faithful and devoted ruler.

In 1855, Spain recognised the independence of St. Domingo: and if the popular candidate for the Presidentship, Baez, had been a match for the traitor Santana, all would now have been well: but Baez is in exile, and Santana has sold the republic of St. Domingo to Spain, in payment of certain pressing debts of his own. The ships and troops of Spain have put down the popular of independence: and it was found necessary, a few weeks since, to put down Hayti as well.

resistance to this loss

Hayti is governed by General Geffrard, as President of the Republic. He is a man of enlightenment, spirit, and devotedness. Through several years he has been encouraging his people to a more strenuous and varied industry; and the result is seen in the trade returns for 1860, which show a recent increase in the revenue of one-third, and an income far exceeding any obtained before, within this century. The coffee shipped last year exceeds the largest former amount by ten million and a half pounds: but the extension of cottongrowing is yet more striking. It is done chiefly by encouraging the immigration of American negroes, to whom land is assigned, and aid till they can sell their first crop. These settlers had last year dug a considerable portion of a canal;

but, to save time, the President has awarded to them a grant of 60,000 dollars. He has caused schools to be opened in every village; and the people are growing up intelligent and animated, as every educated community is.

In the midst of all this promise, while American negroes, skilled in agriculture, are finding a home among their own race in Hayti, without forfeiting the privileges of civilization which they had learned to value in America: while an opening was offering for the settlement of some of the multitudes who must shortly cease to be slaves in the American States: while Hayti was preparing to supply the new demand for cotton from England and France, a deadly fear arose to paralyze the Republic and its President together.

It was but too like Toussaint's watch from Cape Samana and his dismay at the endless procession of the French fleet, when his successor, President Geffrard, a few weeks since saw, from the hill behind Port-au-Prince, the arrival of six Spanish ships of war in the harbour. A demand was brought to him that his forts should salute the Spanish ships as representatives of the sovereignty of St. Domingo; a recognition which it was hard to make when the people of St. Domingo were resenting the intrusion of Spain, and dreading, as the Haytians do, the renewal of the domination of the white race. A further demand was made of a sum of money of monstrous amount, on pretence of damage done to property in St. Domingo by a patriot force collected within the Haytian frontier. But for the British Consul, Mr. Byron, who interposed with kindly zeal, the Spaniards might have fulfilled their threat of bombarding Port-au-Prince. As it was, General Geffrard, a dignified and gallant soldier, could not restrain his tears in giving the order for the inevitable salute.

The other matter was postponed, and has been compromised for the moment.

Between the rational fear of the encroachments of Spain on the independence of the negro republic, and the yet deeper dread of France following the example of Spain, and contriving to recover Hayti as a possession, President Geffrard might well quail, but for his trust in England and the United States. President Lincoln has found leisure, in the midst of his own engrossing business, to remonstrate with Spain on its menaces to Hayti, and its audacious annexation of St. Domingo. Lord Palmerston announces that he has obtained from the Spanish Government an express pledge that no attempt shall ever be made to restore slavery. For the rest, the Haytians look to England. They believe and trust that the British Sovereign, parliament and people will watch over the rising and spreading civilization of the first free negro State, already Christian and enlightened, and anxious to lead the African races and their offspring everywhere out of barbarism, and into the liberty of which the Haytians have shown themselves worthy.

When the wife and daughters of the Haytian King Christophe were in England, great surprise was expressed at the propriety and refinement of their manners. The same impression has been made on every visitor to Hayti,—in the same way that the personal beauty and dignity of the Kroomen and their wives, and of the African tribes have impressed Europeans who had before known no negroes but slaves and their immediate descendants. We must keep our minds open to the capacity of the Haytians for political liberty and social progress, and justify their hope that we will protect their onward career.

A civilized community has arisen suddenly out of the chaos of tyranny and slavery: and we must hold our attention and sympathy ready, in the certainty that, at this crisis, such attention and sympathy will render the redemption of Hayti secure and Hayti stands for the whole negro race.

"Is there any reason for doubt?" it may be asked. "If Spain is bound to exclude slavery from that island, what evil can happen?"

The answer is that France,-or Frenchmen at the Emperor's service, have recently been reviving those associations with Hayti as a French colony which are agreeable to none but Frenchmen. It is believed that there is a treaty in the way of re-annexation. There is, at all events, an obstacle in the reliance of Hayti on England; a trust which England will justify.

Sept. 17, 1861.

Qui na liberté

marion

Br V,

Seasons.

AUTHOR OF "IX. POEMS," "PAUL FERROLL," ETC.

[graphic]

PRING comes and goes with sun-lit showers,

Brown tints, and Buds enclosing Flowers, Birds who for love contrive the Nest, And Broods who love the sheltering breast, Trees which have felt their sap-stirred roots Unfolding Leaves, preparing FruitsFor Life in its mysterious phase Pervades the ever-lengthening days, Enkindling Nature far and wide, A scene where nothing yet has died.

Next, Summer reigns, with wealth of leaves
A robe of unstained green it weaves,
Clear Brooks reveal their stony bed
Which lift o'er broken waves, the head;

Warm breezes flatter as they pass
Scent-loaded from the new-mown grass,
And Upland, Wood, and breezy Plain,
A Summer-parlour make for Men.

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