Assembly, because the next Presidential election may depend a good deal upon the majority in Congress. The negroes are amenable to the whites in all things except elections. In election matters they have taken an independent line, and insist upon voting Republican. The preachers influence them very much, and also the negro women, who are very strong Republicans. These women used to believe that if a Democrat governor were elected they would not be allowed to wear veils, and that is a privilege of freedom which they prize greatly. My informants account, however, for their victory in the elections by saying that they managed to influence many of the blacks. They agreed among themselves that each man should bring at least one negro to the poll and as many more as possible. They suggest that many negroes, though ostensibly voting Republican in order to deceive their wives and preachers, really voted Democratic, their own inclination being that way. They say the red shirt was merely a political emblem got up in mockery of some phrase about bloody shirts' used by an Indiana senator. It never meant anything more serious. The Ku-klux was at one time bad, but not so very bad; they sometimes tarred and feathered, but seldom murdered. In short, South Carolina is altogether not so black as it has been painted, according to their account.

After the labours of the election campaign the Governor is going out hunting for two or three days, and I have not had the opportunity of seeing very much of him, but he has been very friendly, and has given me introductions to the county of Beaufort, where the negroes are thickest, and where he advises me to go if I want to see a negro county. What they call hunting in America is not hunting in our sense, but shooting; either ordinary shooting, or drives for big game. This hunting expedition turned out very disastrous for poor Governor Hampton. Riding to a place where he expected the deer to pass, he was thrown in the forest, and his leg smashed in a frightful manner. He was entirely alone, and remained on the ground for hours before he was discovered, though he managed too keep firing his gun to attract attention. He was long in a very precarious state. I much hope that he has quite recovered.

Walking out in the neighbourhood of the town, I got into conversation with a coloured man, apparently connected with the city waterworks, and I talked to him about the election.

He says the Democrats were to win in this district: that was known, but it was done by the fraudulent stuffing of the ballotboxes. The Republicans really have a majority of 2,500, and the coloured people have voted steadily on the Republican side, but they are cheated because they have not the control of the ballot-boxes. He too explained the mode of stuffing the boxes and the other dodges as I had heard them before. He says that while the Republicans were in power they allowed a fair representation of the other side, but now that the Democrats have got into power they control all the returning officers, and take everything, leaving nothing for the other side. He seemed a very sensible, intelligent man, and his story appears at least as good as that told on the other side.

This place suffered terribly when it was taken by Sherman's army, and it is a hotly-disputed question whether the firing and destruction were done by Sherman's troops or by the Confederates themselves to prevent the cotton, &c., falling into Sherman's hands. My black friend attributes the injury to Columbia to the Confederates, but does not put it in an unreasonably wicked light. The town seems now to have very much recovered from the destruction. It has been much rebuilt, and looks very well. Many of the best houses were built by the carpet-bag officials. The Capitol seems a fine building; all the public offices are in it, as is usually the case. There are wide grassy streets lined with good trees, many of them magnolias and other southern plants. The houses have pretty grounds about them, and I notice some particularly thriving deodars. The situation of the town is pretty, upon a considerable river. The country about is very well wooded, and the woods are now beautifully coloured, the autumnal tints being at their best. I notice several varieties of fir trees. Cows graze freely about on the grassy avenues. There are several iron works here, where they make small engines and do other such work. It is remarkable how the iron trade seems to be developing throughout the States. I understand that in all these works except one, they employ exclusively white labour. There are no mills on the fine river here, but there is a small canal which it is proposed to enlarge as a State work in the hope of establishing mills. Apparently, there is not in this State the prohibition against undertaking public works which has recently been put into the Constitution of a good many States.

I looked into the Penitentiary: the system seems rather loose, and intramural labour does not pay. There were from ten to twelve black men to one white, but they all work together.

Lotteries are prohibited in most of the States, including this; but I saw that the Louisiana State Lottery, drawn monthly, is everywhere largely advertised.

Mr. T, Superintendent of Education, kindly took me out for a drive. The place seems altogether very nice, and the climate very good. The carpet-baggers have now almost entirely disappeared, and the best of the houses are for sale cheap. A good many have been bought by Northern people, who come to reside here for the sake of the climate.

Mr. T gives a tolerable account of the education in this State, but besides the difficulty of obtaining efficient superintendence and efficient schoolmasters, there is a very great difficulty about money. The schoolmasters are paid by certificates of indebtedness, and thus are heavily in arrears. While Southerners can hardly be got to teach blacks, good Northerners will not come on these terms, especially as they are only employed for a few months in the year. Such as they are, the schools are open for three, four, or five months.

A very sad thing here is the beautiful university buildings and college-close, like one of the best of English colleges, but now quite given up. It seems that before the war this University was exceedingly good and had a high reputation, but the funds were lost or stolen, and of late years it has been a question with the Legislature whether to provide for the payment of debts, or to spend money on education. The former policy prevailed, and education has been neglected. There is still kept up the beautiful college library, and the fine old ex-president of the college gets a small living as librarian. He says that the difficulty about setting up the college again arises from this that the people of the different churches have set up sectarian colleges of their own, and are against this general college.

For want of funds the Agricultural and Survey Departments, for which the Constitution provides, have not yet been started in this State. Mr. T- says that the school poll-tax is not half collected, and the property tax is very irregularly collected—and what is paid is generally paid in debt-certificates or notes of a bankrupt State Bank. By this

constitution non-payment of taxes does not deprive of the right of voting. The negroes are zealous to learn and are getting on a good deal, but, like others he says they are decidedly inferior to white men beyond a certain point. The carpet-baggers at first tried mixed schools, but even they did not continue that long; it was found necessary to separate them. Some of the mulattos and free blacks were better off before the war than they are now. They suffered in their property like everyone else during the war. The enfranchised slaves do not care for them, and none of them now are leading men. One great difficulty about schools is that the local school managers are continually changed at every election— even without change of party, people often change their local officers.

I visited Dr. C, the Northern President of the Bencdict Institute for blacks. He seems a very fair and moderate man. Talking of the elections, he says that the blacks saw that the tide was going against them-they had no leaders and no organisation, and had no funds for election purposesit is characteristic of them under such circumstances to show no energy. They have caved in and allowed themselves to be beaten by fair means or foul.

He, too, thinks that the intellect of the blacks is inferior to that of whites, but among the blacks there are some who are very superior, and the mulattos are better than the ordinary blacks. He understands that in slave times the slaveholders used to distinguish between different races of blacks, some being intellectually as well as physically superior to others; but they are now so mixed up that the races can hardly be distinguished. I walked out with him, and saw a large negro location. In most cases houses and small patches of land were owned by the people themselves, and they seemed tolerably well-to-do. Dr. C- however, says that they do not save much; they are certainly wanting in thrift and prudence, spend money as they get it, and live from hand to mouth. We came upon a row of very nice regular houses, and on inquiry I found that after emancipation these houses were given to the negroes by their late master. This master was a General P, whose acquaintance I afterwards made. He is about the most charming old gentleman I have yet seen in America-English of the best kind in speech and manner. He has been intimate with many of our inost distinguished

men.

He claims that, if they had been left alone emancipation would have been brought about in a beneficial way in course of time. As it is, there have been frightful upheavals and great injustice in achieving that object; but he now hopes for the best. The negroes hereabouts have, he says, sometimes difficulty in finding work. They cannot get on without the white man's guidance-with that they do very

well.

I had also an opportunity of conversing with a coloured preacher, a clever and influential man. He seems, however, very extreme in his views. Ile says that during the election there was gross intimidation, and much unfair influence, but in spite of it all the blacks voted Republican as solid as ever. Nevertheless, the boxes were stuffed and the majority stolen. The election commissioners are all on one side, and so are the newspapers, and they openly published violent threats. The negroes will never get justice; there is nothing for them but to go to Liberia. There is an extreme party here opposed to Mr. Wade Hampton, of which General Geary is the leader. He openly says that the blacks were made by God to till the soil, and may do that, but they cannot be allowed to vote and hold land, else they would be masters, and the whites slaves. Wages are, he says, low here. In some country parts labourers do not get more than six dollars a month, besides rations, and that is not paid. He does not think much of Wade Hampton. He is only a politician, and is moderate for the sake of place. He does not deny that, politics apart, white and black people get on together well enough; but the latter will never have their proper share of power. He says juries are not fairly constituted-nine-tenths of them are always whites. Even under the Carpet-baggers all the Judges were white. Throughout the United States all elections and all administrations are corrupt, and not likely to be better-all is

bad.

I have been inquiring about the tenure of land. Here, as elsewhere, large farms seldom succeed. Most of the whites have land, more or less. Some are good, but others are a poor lot, uneducated and unthrifty, especially a class, of whom there are many in the district near this, called Sand-hillers.' They are said to be the descendants of assigned convicts of former days. They have poor farms and poor soil; what little work they do they do themselves; they have no servants. They