A STRANGE CONTEST. (From the Evening Mail, November 19.)

Otago Witness, Issue 587, 28 February 1863, Page 7

A STRAN GE CONTEST. (From the Evening Mail, November 19.)

The " irrepressible Negro 1 ' has just cropped up in a manner exceedingly cntertiininjr in New York society. While the whole city was in the thick of the electioneering contest, two geitlemen, whose names are not unknown to the English public, made arrangements for an oratorical due!, to come off in the large hall of the Coopar Institute. Mr Cassiua M. Clay and Mr George F. Train, though coinciding in their estimates of Euglaud and the English, have the mWoituneto differ on a fundamental point respecting the institution of their own country. Clay is an Abolitionist, while Train is all for slavery ; and as both gentlemen hold their opinions wirh very little qualification, a pair of champions was provided on tiie spot. Accordingly, it was settled that th-y shoull have an " assault at arms," — in fact, a " benefit "in the regular pugilistic fashion. They were to speak against each other on the Negro Question for three hours, divided into six round* of thirty minutes each. The first half-hour wa* assigned to Train, the •second to Clay, and so on till the fight wns over. Dr. M'trowan, the " distinguished Japanese traveller," waa appointed timekeeper, and the New York public readily paid a quarter of a dollar each for admission to the ring. The large hall, indeed, wab crowded to evce^s, the great political parties being represented in about equal numbers.

At eight o'clock on the night of November 1, the chief combatants " stepped upon the platform, and were greeted with cheers " from their respective adherents. Clay, we are told, looked solemn and serious, but composed ; while Train was standing benignant aud self-confident. The champions were exceedingly friendly, and said many pretty things of each other, until time was called, and Train's first " half-hour " was duly taken down by the reporters in attendance. Exposing his full front to his antagonist, and boasting that he meant to do so, he said that, " iv order to give Mr Clay fair play and a wide field, he should take the extreme view, and proceed to say that slavery was a Divine institution." As soon as the uproar caused by this proposition had hubsided, Mr Train entered upon his argument. lie maintained that the Negro had always and in all ages been either a slave or something wor^e ; a slave in all foreign countries, and something worse in hia own. In Africa the Negro had never acquired even the rudiments of civilization. He had never risen to the knowledge of tra'le, agriculture, or commerce. He had never done himself any i*ood, or anybody else any good. He had never advanced a single step from baibarism, except when transplanted to some new home as a slave. Whatever the Negro might be in the Southern States, he was something 1 far better there, at any rate, than he could have been at home. As to the separation of families, the very idea implied that in the States Neprroes did, at any rate, marry, whereas in Africa there was no marriage at all, nothing but brutal savagery, constant war, kidnapping, and cannibalism. By way of clinching the argument the orator put a special case. The King of Damohey, he said, had recently designed to sacrifice 7000 of his people, according to the ritual of his State religion. J3ut considerations of finance intervened, for the people were moneys worth, and the King was poor. So, instead of butchering the entire batch, His Majesty killed 2000 only, and turned the other 5000 into cash by bam-iin with the dealers. The lot of the first was that of frea and independent Africans ; that of the latter was the lot of slaves— which was the better ) Was it best to have these 2000 creatures butchered on a pile, or tauaht to grow corn and cotton '{ The question ihus put seems rather to have puzzled the audience, for, after challenging and counting a show of hands on tho point, Mr Train continued, " Well, as far as I can see, you are about half Christians and halt murderers." Here, however, time was called, and Mr Clay came up to the scratch in his turn.

The practice of this gentleman was by no means contemptible. He made very good sparring. He fcjok tbe famous Declaration of Independence, read the article asserting that " all men are born free, aud entitled to life, liberty, nnd pursuit of happiness," and askeJ his opponent whether that proposition was true rr false. If true there was an end of slavery; if false, there was an end of the Republic. If the doctrine on which the declaration was founded could not be sustained, neither could the Republic be sabtained, which was based on the Declaration. As to the eternity of Negro slavery, if what actually existed ought always to exist, tb^cn the thirteen States having been once colonies of Ureat Britain, ou^ht to be colonies of Great Britain at the present day. If slavery iias bepn perpetual in Africa, and has never produced anything but orutality, crime, and bloodshed, tiiat was a better reason for abolishing it than for keeping it going. Such were Mr Clay's hits, but, either irom intciior vivacity or some other defect, he seems to have been less popular with the audience than his adversary. At an early pei iod of his performance he was called upon to "dry up," and the third round, which brought Train to the scratch again, was evidently welcome. Now, however, the fight, though still conducted with great good humour, became rather serious, and there was some bard practical hitting. The real question of fhe hour was introduced, and Mr Train pushed his antagonist into a corner. All slaveholders rerurnpd as " loyal " on the Ist of Jauuary next are to keep their slaves, and be protected in their property of that description Supposing the South to put off its disloyalty and claim its slave', according to these terms what would Mr Clay, and Mr Stunner, and Mr Qreeley then do 1 The dilemma thus propounded was remarkably difficult. If Mr Clay accepted the issue as framed by the President, he gave up Abolition ;if he refused it, he gave up the Union. He could not take the Union withont the South, nor the South without its slavts. The hir, in short, could not b 3 parried Mr Clay was c nnpelled to evade the question, and to declare his unalterable attachment to tho Union, while reserving a right ot free opinion on the subject ot slavery, Tiiis was an awkward predicament for an uncompromising champion, but it fortunately happened that one-half of the audience was in precisely the same perplexity as the speaker. Most of the Republicans present would have been just as much puzzled with the alternative as Mr Clay himself, and so they all cheered him on, and covered him him against his antagonist. By this time, however, the argument, if not the combatants, had become pretty well exhausted, nnd when the timekeeper informed Mr Train that he had still five minutes left, that gentleman frankly replied that, ♦' as he had no-

thing more to say, he would waive tho'e minutes in favour of his opponent.' 1 Ultimately tbe di cussion we»r off into poetic recitations, and Mr Train, nfter some characteristic remarks »pon certain British statusuu.u, '• concluded by repeating some spirited lines on the eternity ot Union.,"

I'his .-•oiriewhat farcical display has its serious aspect. The alternative to whi?h Mr Clay was driven i-s the alternative which perplexes many an American mind at this moment. Apart from t!;e more fanatical zealots, there are many men who sincerely dcire to sea slavery abolished, and sincerely wish the Union to be preserved. Some, like the President himself in his early days or office, put the Union first, aud declare themselves for that, without slavery if pos&ibV, but with slavery if necessary. Others can hardly settle tho precedence of their tenets, and those, indeed, who put Abolition before Union, are compelled to c!o<e with a po icy of " extermination " rather than give v,) the Union even in woidj. On this side of the Atlantic wo dL&ern an easier escape from the difficulty. We do not look for the restoration of the Union ou any terms whatever. We do not expect that the South will bargain with the North for anythiug but absolute separation ; so tbat Mr Clay and Mr Train will be under no ueces-ity either of harmonising their respect ivo principles or of determining for them«tlve<j which shall be sacrificed.