through the centre can with difficulty be kept open, and yet the stream is not broken for a single moment. You wonder where such a swarm of human beings found stowage room—the bulk seems greater than that of the steamer—and wonder still more when told that the vessel with all these on board had still room for a cargo of thousands of tons; her freight-capacity being some six thousand tons, and her custom house registry measurement between four and five thousand. This steamer actually brought one thousand two hundred and seventy-two Chinamen; last week one thousand two hundred came by sailing vessels, and behind them are yet four hundred millions of the most patient, ready, apt, and industrious toilers on the face of the earth.
The writer shares none of the prejudice against this people which is manifested so strongly by the lower order of the European-born residents of California, and leads to so many disgraceful acts of violence and outrage; but such a sight as this awakens curious thoughts, and suggests doubts of the future in the mind of every one who has made political economy and free institutions a study to any extent. The Chinese-labor question is destined within the next ten years—five years, perhaps—to become what the slavery question was a few years since, to break down, revolutionize, and reorganize parties, completely change the industrial system of many of our States and Territories, and modify the destiny of our country for generations to come. Educated, thinking men do not, as a rule, fear the result, nor see in
