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GREAT COMMOTION IN NEGRODOM.-We take the following from the Philadelphia Pennsylvanian of the 16th inst.:
It appears that the colored population in all that fragrant region comprised in the quadrangle which is bounded by Lombard, Sixth, Seventh and South streets, have been thrown into great commotion and consternation by the Fugitive Slave law. The expectation of some unwelcome visitors from the South has caused the excitement.
Much of this excitement is unnecessary; for, in the first place, very few runaway slaves who have resided for any length of time in the precincts of Philadelphia are worth reclaiming. They have formed habits which would make them utterly worthless, and at best only an incumbrance to their owners. Besides, many owners of runaway negroes are totally ignorant of their whereabouts, and will not go to the trouble and expense of searching them out. Others, again, being a little singular on the subject of slaveholding, make no attempt to recover a runaway, professing an unwillingness to retain any slave who has shown an inclination for freedom. We have known slave owners to act on this principle. Some Southerners again will not be anxious to bring back a slave who has resided in a free State, to be an apostle of abolitionism among the other negroes, who are carefully kept ignorant of the anti-slavery movement.
All these things considered, we may suppose that not one runaway slave in twenty will be reclaimed by their owners. The negroes and their white anti-slavery associates, therefore, instead of talking about resistance to a law, (which would be a very troublesome and dangerous experiment,) will find it a much cheaper, safer and better plan to form societies and provide a fund for the purchase of any slave who may happen to be reclaimed. The money which is foolishly expended for abolition tracts and lectures would buy all the slaves that will ever be demanded by their owners under the Fugitive Slave law.
The present excitement in the negro districts favors the escape of every colored offender against the laws or the public peace; for, as soon as a darkey is arrested for theft or any other crime or misdemeanor, he raises an outcry, and draws all negrodom to his rescue. The decent colored inhabitants themselves will find his a very troublesome state of things; for, while it lasts, there can be no security for the life and property of any one who resides in the Ethiopian settlements.