Some may believe that the effect of such commingling will be to introduce amalgamation between the races; others, that such amalgamation is the natural and proper solution of the problem. We believe neither the one nor the other.

In the first place, such evidence in this matter as the Commission have obtained goes to show that, at least in a Northern climate, the mixed race is inferior in physical power and in health to the pure race, black or white. A member of our Commission carefully investigated the condition of the refugees of mixed blood in Canada, and took evidence as to their health, physical stamina, and power of increase. He found them mostly of sympathin temperament with marks of scrofulous or strumous disposition, as shown in the pulpy appearance of portions of the face and neck, in the spongy gums, and glistening teeth. There is a general prevalence of phthisical diseases. a

Doctor Mack of Saint Catherine's, testified:

The mixed race are the most unhealthy, and the pure blacks the least so. The disease suffer most from is pulmonary. Where there is not real tubercular affection of the lungs, there are bronchitis and pulmonary affections. I have the idea that they die out when mixed, and that this climate will completely efface them. I think the pure blacks will live. b

General Tullock, of the British Army, one of the authors of four volumes of military statistic, writes to one of the members of our Commission:

The mulatto race are seldom employed in our army, chiefly owing to the want of that physical stamina which renders the pure negro better fitted for the duties of a soldier or a laborer. c

Doctor Fisher, or Malden, Canada, thinks, that the mulattoes of Canada cannot maintain their numbers without assistance from emigration.d

This is in accordance with the census returns of the free colored population in some of the Northern States, where most of them are of mixed blood. A member of the Commission gives in his supplemental r the births, marriages, and deaths among the colored population of Boston for eight years, namely, from 1855 to 1862, both inclusive. It shows 304 births, 316 marriages, and 500 deaths. In every one of these years the deaths exceeded the births, and in 1855, 1858, and 1860 the births were less than the marriages. This is the more remarkable when we take into account what the registrar of the city, in furnishing the above table, states, namely, that the number of marriages among the colored people was 50 per cent. more in proportion to population than among the whites, being among the former 1 in 58, and among the latter only 1 in 87.54. e

The United States census for 1860 shows in several of the other States similar results. In Providence the deaths among the free colored are over 4 per cent. a year. In Philadelphia, during the six months preceding the census, there were among these people 148 births to 306 deaths, the deaths being more than double the births. f The same census shows that the total free colored population of the Union has increased about 1 per cent. a year during the last decade: and this includes slaves liberated and slaves escaped from their masters during that period. The actual rate of natural increase is certainly less than half that of the slaves, which, from 1850 to 1860, was 23.38 per cent. - say 2 1/3 per cent. annually.

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a Supplemental Report A, p. 21.

b Ibid., p. 23.

c Supplemental Report A, p. 26.

d Ibid. p. 26.

e Supplemental Report A, pp. 23, 24.

f Preliminary Report on the Eighth Census, 1860, p.6.

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