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dwelleth by him wax poor, and fell himself unto the ftranger or fojourner by thee, or to the ftock of the ftranger's family; after that he is fold, he may be redeemed again; one of his brethren may redeem him; either his uncle, or his uncle's fon, may redeem him, or any that is nigh of kin, unto him, of his family, may redeem him; or, if he be able, he may redeem himfelf; and he shall reckon with him that bought him, from the year that he was fold to him, unto the year of the Jubilee; and the price of his fale fhall be according to the number of years; according to the time of a hired fervant, fhall it be with him." -Verse 47, et feq.""And if he be not redeemed in thefe years, then he shall go out in the year of the Jubilee; both he and his children with him." v. 54. And indeed until the year of the Jubilee, one of the Ifraelites might be fold to another. "And if the brother that dwelleth by thee, be waxen poor, and he be fold unto thee, thou shalt not compel him to ferve as a bond fervant, but as an hired fervant, and as a fojourner he fhall be with thee, and fhall ferve thee unto the year of the Jubilee." verse 39. What difference there was in the nature of the fervice of the hired fervant and the bond fervant, I know not; but it was declared in verfe 42, as well as verfe 46," that they fhould not rule one over another with rigour. This precept I hope the gentlemen in England will confider as binding upon them! And I beg leave to recommend it to the confideration of the Prefident, and the reft of Humane Society met in the Old Jewry, before they indulge their humanity and compaffion, by relieving the poor negroes from oppreffion, whofe fufferings diftress them fo feverely, notwithstanding their distance from the place where they are taught to believe fo much cruelty is ufed, to examine whether they do not at this moment fuffer others to exercife, or exercife themfelves "' over

"over their brethren, over one another," a rigour and a cruelty, the half of which, if exercised by a tyrant planter over his flaves, would make him juftly odious to his neighbours and fellow citizens, and occafion thofe very flaves to revolt.

Amongst the number of people whose imaginations have been heated by harangues from the pulpit, and by advertisements in the newspapers, calling on the good and virtuous, in the name of humanity and religion, to unite their efforts to procure the abolition of the Slave Trade, whofe paffions have been stimulated by those means, and by medals, with the impreffion of a naked human figure on his knees, bound in chains, and lifting up his hands to Heaven, as deprecating the wrath of his tyrant, with a legend fuited to the views and intentions of those who had them ftruck, many may be found who act from the best motives; but the perfons who first raised the prefent clamour, and fome whe now join in the cry, are affuredly men of a different defcription: Several of them have lived in the Weft Indies; have received the most hofpitable and kind treatment from those whom they now traduce; and knew, of a certainty, the falfity of the shocking accounts they have propagated of the ill-treatment negroes receive from their mafters. Who are they who thus prefume to emancipate these unfortunate victims of human luxury and avarice? Are they not men who keep their brethren and fellow citizens in a bondage infinitely more ftrict and fevere !

What is the fituation of a British foldier! If flavery is unlawful, can any one have a right to make himfelf the flave of another? But, if he has, in fome partí

cular

cular cafe, can it be faid, that he who, in a state of intoxication, (reduced to that ftate by the arts and perfuafions of a recruiting ferjeant) or from folly, paffion, or misfortune, may have enlifted for a foldier, fhall not, when he is become fober, on cooler reflection or on a change of circumstances, be intitled to repent of his engagements, and be liberated from them? Is the poor unfortunate peasant in a state of freedom, who dares not purfue the dictates of religion and nature, by uniting himself to the woman he loves, because the unfeeling defpot of the village shall threaten, that if he marries, he will not employ him longer in his fervice, and he fees no means of fupporting the family which may be the confequence of the tender attachment it is his wish to form? Can that man be faid to be free, who like the Serf of old, is chained, as it were, to the glebe whereon he was born? Who is not permitted to change his abode, to obtain the means of bettering his condition; for fuch, in reality, is the operation of the poor laws in England‡. -13 and 14. C. II. c. 12. fect. I.

Shall

+ A Lad ferves his apprenticeship to a Wheelwright or Blacksmith in the parish of A. That parish has no employment for more than one fuch Tradefman. The young man wishes to marry a young woman of the parish of A. and to go with her and refide in the next parish of B. where there is no fuch artificer, and where he could fupport himself and his wife, and provide for his family, if he fhould be bleffed with one. But the parish of B. will refuse to receive him, unless he produces a certificate from the parish of A. that in cafe of any misfortune, he, nor his family, fhall become burthenfome to the parish of B. The parish of A. where he cannot find employment, refufes him fuch certificate; the confequence is, the poor industrious and well difpofed young man, is deprived of gaining

Shall men be our accufers and our judges, who can, without remorse, be witneffes of the tyranny exercifed on the induftrious mariner; who, after an absence from a tender wife, and helpless family, for a confider`able length of time, when he is juft returned to enjoy and participate with them the fruits of his induftry and his perils; fhall be torn away to fresh danger and fresh perils; during whofe abfence, that very wife and family, from whofe embraces he is torn, are left to pine in want and mifery? Are fuch men to be the patrons of liberty, and protectors of the negroes? Are the proprietors of flaves to be branded with the names of tyrants and oppreffors, by thofe, by whom the foldier and the preffed failor are enflaved? For is it not flavery to be forced to submit to the arbitrary will of another; to be fubjected to cruel fcourgings, and other moft ignominious punishments, and to death itself, for being fubject to human infirmity, for a weakness of nerve, which will make a man tremblingly refuse to march up to the mouth of a cannon, or steer a ship into inevitable danger, against a hoftile enemy? Are people thus treated free, and are negroes flaves? Shall people, I fay, boast of humanity, who, perhaps, daily fee the victims of their ambition and cruel policy,

"Beg bitter bread thro' realms their valour fav'd,"

gaining his bread'; he is prevented from marrying; the paffions of the young people get the better of their prudence; the girl proves with child; the poor young fellow runs away and enlists for a foldier; the girl lofes her reputation, (or perhaps, to preferve it, procures an abortion--or, horrible to relate, murders her infant !) or is fent to the House of Correction, and fhortly after, perhaps is abandoned to mifery and diftrefs. Yet are thefe people free! and speak with pity of the fituation of flaves in the West Indies !

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And do they fatisfy themselves, that while they neglect, or, perhaps, affift, in the commiffion of these enormities, without a struggle to prevent them, they make amends, by endeavouring to redrefs the grievances, real or pretended, of the negroes upon the coast of Africa. Are these people to complain of the purchase of flaves, who, patiently fuffer their fellow fubjects, their fellow citizens, their brethren, to be thus bought and fold, and tranfported, not to climates congenial to those which gave them birth, but to the burning regions of the torrid zone, or to countries almoft covered with perpetual fnows; to be employed, not in the cultivation of the ground, in agriculture, and in the arts of peace; but, in ravaging, destroying, and depopulating the fi neft countries of Afia, or invading the peaceful retirement of the American favages, whofe territories they ufurp, whose hunting grounds they render useless, whofe health they destroy, and whofe morals they corrupt?

How ftrange and inconfiftent is the conduct of mankind! It is not to be doubted, but amongst these petitioners for abolishing the Slave Trade, may be found men who have commanded troops against those who never injured them; nay, who may even now be foliciting their friends, or expending their money in procuring means or licence, for themselves, their fons or relations, to be impowered to lead a battalion of Seapoys, or a company of Europeans, (enflaved, for that purpose) against the fage and religious inhabitants of Benares, who, actuated by real humanity, reject, with horror, the idea of fhedding blood, even the blood of animals.