Louisiana

This State in 1840 had a white population of 153,983, while the slaves amounted to 165,219. The vices and crimes originating in slaveholding have her'e their full sweep in high life. Violence and blooodshed are rife with the highest classes of community. The white population of the State but little exceeds tliat of Rhode Island, yet the amount of crime is a hundred times greater. It is reaHy appalingto read the accounts of violence, cruelty, outrage, lust and murder which abound in the New Orleans papers. Wefeuujum iwo or mree paragraphs ilJustratingthe general disregard of human life. The New Orleans Bee, of May, 23. 1838, says: Contempt of Human Life. - In view of the crimes wliich are daily committed, we are led to inquire whether it is owing to the inefficiency of our laws, or to the manner n which those laws are administered, that this J "righlj ul dclugc ofhumun Uoodjlows through our slreeis, and our places of puhlic resort." The Picayune of July 30, 1837, says: "It is with the most painful feelings that we daily hear of sorne fatal duel." The correspondent of the N. Y. Express writes from N. Orleans, July 30. 1837: "Thirteen duels have been fought in and near the city during the week: five morcioere lo take place this morning." The N. O. Bee of Oct. 25, 1837, says: "We remark with regret the frightful list of homicides that are daily committed in New Orleans."The same paper of Nov. 8 represents Judge Canonge as saying at the opening of the criminal court, "Without some certain and powerful remedy, our strcctswill become butcheries overfowing loüh the blood of our citizens." The same paper says, November 4, 1837: "Perhaps by an equitable but strict application of that law, (the law which forbids the wearing of deadly weapons concealed) the eiFusion of human blood might be stopped, tchich noic defiles ourstrcets and cofee houses as if they were shamhhsl Recftless disregard of the lilfe of man is rapidly gaining ground among us, and the habit ofseeing a man wliom it was faken for granted was armed, raurdered merely for a gesture, may influence the opinión of a jury of citizens, Whom OBLONG IMPUNITY TO HOMICIDES op every kinDcQ has persuaded that the right of defence extends even to the I taking of life for gestures, more or Iess threatening. So many daily instances of outbreaking passion, which have thrown whole families into the deepest affliction, tqach usa terrible lesson." We have introduced theso extracts for the purpose of exhibiting somethii.g ofthe ferocity and barbarism of thismg región, vv e nave quoted chieíly from the Bee. The same paper is now out in fnvor of the recent movementfor the suppression of Duclling. In nn article on that subject, we find the followingdescription of the manner of doing up things in j New Orleans, according to the most approved rules oí honor. As our readers ! are little versed in the niceties of this department of business, they will doubtlessbe intercsted in learning the science. "A prominenf cause oí' the f Vequency of duels i-. L'uiísinna is the custom reJative to (he choice ofweapons- a custom which places the insulted party literally at the mercy of the bully and the bravo. In j ! Europe and especial ly in France, where duelling stil] prevails, though to an ex-J tent far more limitod than among us; the individual who reccives the insult has invariably the choicejof weapons. He has somóthing more, fof iffirearms are selected, the aggried party has the first fire, and the challeged party must stand the risk of beingkild before" he is allowed to aim at his antagonist These two excellent provisionsn the code of honor i as observed in Franse, tend directly toI .v,uuu uucia uiui k uiiirequent, ana lessapt to spring from light a'ud trivial causes- Novv let us see how the matter stands in Louisiana. TVo individuáis have an altercation- one of a chnracttr which under a proper system, could not legitimately jead to any thiug serious. íaoh of the disputants fearing thát the quaire will be pushed to extremities. and anxiouso anticipate his adversary in the privilesof the challenged party, eagerly seen opportunity to offer a personal insiit: [ vhen these things are sought for. they ak not difficult to find, and accordingly befor many minutes, one ofthe partiesreeeives a slap in the face. Now wftaf is liis recourse? He must challenge the man who struck him, and the individual who perpetra! cd the insult, avails hirnself of the wrong he has committed and selects hisweapon- one wrth which, peradventure, hlS antagonist is wholly unncqiminted.- Yel must the latter meet his foe with all this fatal inequality betvveen them, and firet degmded by a blow, js in all probabiUty to be furfber satisfied by six inches of stee] in the ribs, ór a bullefin his bodv. lt reqmre? no argument to provo th'vt whèn the challenged party ís aJJowed such extraordinary ftdvantages, insults wijl be more commonly provoked, and dues must necessarily be more frequent." Wellj how isthishorrid state of things to be reme'died? As association is to be formed for theregulaiion not the supprcssion, of duelling. One object of it is thus stated in the Bee. "One of the objects of the a.ssociation to which we have referred, will be to engrai't on the code ofhonor here the palpably just and rcasonable practice of France. Wliere an insult has been otfered, the aggrieved partyshall have thechoice of arms - where the insult has been pushed to the extremity of a blow, the further privitege of the first shot is accorded to the insulted individual, in the event of the selection of fire arms. These two innovations wpon the present unjust, one-sided custom, will be as much as in the existing slate of public f teling on the sulject af duelling, can be rationally looJcedfor. Their effect mustbe to diminish dudling. Let us hope tliat they may prove preludes to the total eradication of as false a system as ever sent mortality to its final account with all its imperfections on its head." Thus it seems the main object of the proposed association is to alter thelawsof honor in New Orleans, and, of course, ünder the Revised Code, duelling will be more in voguc than ever. For it is obvious, that ff the Association does not go ngainst all duelling, its countenance and implied approbation will be given to all encounters which conform to its rules. What should we think of the reformatory powers of a Temperance Society based on such a principie? The fact that the Bee proposes such a remedy, a mere regulation, as the only one the state of society will bear, displays the corruption of public moráis more clearly than any actual develópements of the ent. Thereai remedy must be sought for elsewhere. The gentlemen who have nothing to do but gamble, run horses, drink, quarrel and consume the earnings of their slavés, must follow some useful calling. Their slaves must be set free, and all classes educated. Slavery is but anothr name for War. It is a contest of wrong against riglit, to be decided by violencc, and, if need be, by deadly weapons. While this contest continúes all the vices of War will flourish in rank luxuriance. Let slavery be abolished, and white gentlemen wou ld no more stab and shoot-each each other in New Orleans than they do in Boston. But God is no respecter of persons; and if men will cherish and nurture their most hateful passions by practising oppression, cruelty. andlence on their fellow men, he will make their own malignant and infernal propensities the means of ajust and terrible retribution.Fifty printers have recently jpined the Temperance Society at New Orleans,