The Negro riots at Austin, in the, State of Mississippi,
are only worthy of remark so far as they tend to show the electric condition of the South generally. It is quite certain that the feeling of the Southern whites against the government of the States by emanci- pated slaves and " carpet-baggers " is increasing in intensity, and the temper on both sides manifested in the little war in Arkansas that was brought to a close only the other day by the intervention of the Federal Government, is evidently smouldering in the whole of the Mississippi Valley. The disturbance at Austin appears to be an affair of some importance, for though the town is a small one, it occupies the north-western corner of the State, and the seizure of the place by the negroes, who threw up barricades and defended them with fire-arms, has frightened the white people of the neighbouring State of Tennessee. In Memphis, where there is a large negro population, an outbreak has been seriously feared, and preparations have been made for its repression, but as yet nothing more important than the riots at Austin has occurred. The gravest danger is that the whites, who in Louisiana and else- where have been dpenly forming leagues to resist the " Africanisa- tion " of the country, may resort to violence, and precipitate a collision between the races, which the Central Government might find a difficulty in getting under without a vigorous use of military force.
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