The sad, profoundly sad, spectacle, is that of nations where crimes make no noise.  Look at Brazil.  Like the United States, it has slavery, but it is an honorable, discreet slavery, of which nothing is said.  Whatever may happen there, no one inquires about it; there are no discussions, either through the press or in the courts.  No party would dare insert such a question into its platform.  One thing, very properly, has been found to disturb it, and the public sale of slaves has just been forbidden.

Look, above all, at Spain and its island of Cuba.  There, too, is perfect silence.  Nothing, in truth, opposes the belief that Cuba is the abode of felicity, and that the atrocities of slavery are the monopoly of the United States.  But inquisitive people, who like to search to the bottom of things, discover that if the masters are very gentle at Havana, the overseers are scarcely so on their account on the plantations; I have already given the proof of it.  Out of ten slavers that are seized on the high seas, nine are always destined to Cuba.  Spain has forbidden the slave trade; she has even been compensated for it by the English; but this does not prevent her from suffering it to be carried on before her eyes with almost absolute impunity.  Her high-sounding phrases change nothing; the smallest fact is of more value.  At Cuba, the landing of slaves is continual, and the places of disembarkation are known.  Now, the American flag protects no one at the time of disembarking.  Why is no opposition made to this?  Why has the importation of negroes tripled in Cuba?  Why does no slaver, American or any other, steer towards Brazil, since Brazil has desired to put an end to the slave trade?  The answer to these questions will be given us on the day when Spain shall desire, in turn, to suppress it.  In the mean time she prefers to keep silence, unless when a word from London strikes out a concert of protestations more patriotic than convincing; save in this case, the government is silent, public opinion is silent, no colonial sheet is found ready to hazard an objection, nor even a metropolitan journal that is willing to disturb so touching an equanimity.  The court of Madrid, in which many questions are agitated, prudently stands aloof in the matter of slavery and the slave trade; among the numerous parties disputing for power, not one dares venture on a ground where it would meet nothing but unpopularity.  Ah! after this death-like silence, how the soul is refreshed by the fiery contests of the United States, the great word-combats carried on in every village of the Union, the appeals addressed to the conscience, the battle in broad daylight!  How refreshing to see by the side of these nations, who sleep so tranquilly, while regarding the inroads of slavery, a people whom, it disquiets, whom it irritates, who refuse to take part in it, and who, rather than conform to the evil, agitate, become divided, and rend themselves perchance with their own hands!