begin to doubt whether slaves are property or not; and so much has its value become impaired, in the possession of those who reside contiguous to the non-slaveholding States, that the question has been raised, whether they are, in fact, worth keeping.  Either discipline must be so much relaxed, as that the labor of the slave will scarcely pay for his support; or, if forced to labor no more than is even necessary to health and contentment, they abscond, and passing over the lines into a non-slaveholding State, are there concealed and protected.  The number and the success of elopements leave no doubt of the establishment of a regular chain of posts, accessary to, and of systematic plans, deliberately organized, for their seduction and concealment.  In these escapes, the free negroes are, for the most part, undoubtedly instrumental, as they are to most of the robberies committed by slaves.  While at Easton, two weeks since, the slaves of two gentlemen made their escape, being each, if not recovered, a loss of one thousand dollars; and the firm persuasion was, that, in both cases, the runaways were furnished with passes by a free negro barber.  Even if apprehended, these gentlemen will have been put to an expense of not less than three hundred dollars, and this without the slightest pretext of ill usage or unkindness.

“’The usual process is, when the owner is supposed to have despaired of his recovery, for some abolition or free negro lawyer to open a correspondence with the owner, representing the runaway to be in Canada, or otherwise beyond apprehension—­coolly adding, with a highwayman’s impudence, “take that or nothing;” and the owner has to put up with a total loss, or compromise for a third of the value of his property—­the result in either case, proving an incentive to others to be off in like manner"’

* * * * *

“’There is not an interest that is not impaired, by the proximity of the free States, and the protection there afforded to slaves, and by the presence and intercommunion of the free with the slave negro.  Even the value of land is diminished by it.  Maryland suffers the disadvantages, without the advantages of a slave State.  The disadvantage consists in the reputation, (the odium, north of the Delaware,) of being a slave State. The capitalists of the North refuse, on that account, to invest in Maryland lands, though they could buy land in Maryland for twenty dollars an acre, which is intrinsically worth more than theirs, which they could sell for an hundred. Our condition is, in fact, that of neither the one or the other; and, unless something can be done to counteract the progress of fanaticism on this subject, and that abuse of strength and heedless injustice which always follows irresponsible power, slavery in Maryland must cease, either by sale, while that right remains to the slave-holder, or ere long, by forced emancipation.