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citizens are not overburthened with; as it is not un common to find inftances of farmers, who when the poor labourer, with a large family of helpless children, falls fick, abandon him to penury and diftrefs; nay, probably the farmer, before he would hire him, took care to demand a certificate from the parish he belonged to, to prevent his being chargeable, in case of sickness, to that district his labour, while in health, contributed to enrich; or, perhaps, the prudent farmer, when he hired him, took care to make his contract for a lefs term than would entitle the labourer to a fettlement,* and the poor victim of oppreffion, languishing (I can fcarce fay) on the bed of ficknefs, may perhaps be carried from place to place in a cart, through vile roads. and inclement weather, accompanied with a diftreffed and weeping wife and helpless children, to feek fupport from the officers of his own parifh, perhaps as little inclined to afford it him as thofe by whom he was fent.

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Ye humane fubfcribers to the abolition of the Slave Trade, are none of you of the fpirit of fuch a farmer? Do none amongst you treat your hounds and your pointers, your pigs, your oxen, and your horfes, with more humanity than you do your fellow creatures?

It will not be doubted by you, gentlemen, that a regard to his intereft makes the farmer take care of his horfes, even if poffeffed of little or no humanity; and is it to be fuppofed that a planter, a man of education, (for fuch the West India planters generally are) and of common fenfe, who knows, that without the affiftance

* Vide the Cafe of Ranton and Haughton. Str. 83.

of his negroes, the work of his plantations cannot go on; who alfo knows, that an able working negro out of the ship will coft him forty to forty-five pounds fterling, and that fuch negro, when seasoned, as it is called, to his estate, and used to that kind of labour neceffary in the colonies, will be worth near double the money, fhall have fo little regard to his own intereft, as to ftarve, abuse, ill-treat, and mutilate these people, and thus ruin himself and his family.

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It is well known, that from 70l. to 80l. fterling is the common value of an able, feasoned, field negrą; that is, a negro able and willing to work with his hoe, without understanding any trade, or having any other qualification: but amongst the negroes of a plantation, an expert driver, boiler, diftiller, wheel-wright, carpenter, mafon, blacksmith, or other tradefman, may be worth from 100l. to 500l. fterling: in fhort, fome of them may be invaluable.

After this account of the importance of negroes to a planter, is it probable, nay, is it credible, that their proprietors should treat them with the feverity and cruelty imputed to them?

It is not my intention or defire to induce people to believe, that folly, paffion, and vices, are not to be found amongst the inhabitants of the fugar colonies. There are perfons of a cruel difpofition, whofe flaves are less happy than thofe of others. It may appear, that in the madnefs of paffion, a negro has been ftruck down with a blow, and even killed. Lefs attention may be paid, by fome people, to the food, clothing, or lodging, of the negroes, than prudence and good fenfe

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would dictate; but, when fuch a line of conduct is purfued, it is looked upon with general disapprobation: fuch a perfon is confidered as on the high way to ruin. Do not fuch things happen in England?-Are there not people who neglect their wives and children, and treat them, and their apprentices, with cruelty?-But becaufe, fometimes, there are fuch monfters as a Brownrigg, a M'Daniel, Egan, or Berry, would not a man deserve to be hooted, who would set seriously about abolishing the custom of putting poor children out apprentices, or giving rewards for taking highwaymen ?

It is faid, the best way of learning the general manners of the people of any country, is to confult the laws of that country. Among the Romans, it was long before any law was made to punish a parricide. It is thence argued, fuch a crime was not known amongst them: 'till it was committed, it was fcarcely thought credible that any man should be fo extremely wicked. It is obferved, that it is but very lately murdering a negro, in fome of the islands, has been made capital. It surely is but fair to infer from thence, that fuch offence was rare! But it is more remarkable, that in all the islands, laws have been long ago made to indemnify the mafter, at the public expence, who should furrender a negro guilty of a capital crime to juftice. What inferences are to be drawn from thence?-Is it not, that the planters interest prevails more with them than the love of justice, that they are not to be trufted with the punishment of their flaves who have been guilty of the moft flagrant crimes?-Not as the gentlemen in the Old Jewry, and the petitioners may fuppofe, left they should cause them to be punished too feverely; but, left they should skreen them from punishment, for fear

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they fhould lose them, if juftice took place and the intereft of the mafter will fuffer lefs from his negro being put to death, than from his being mutilated, and rendered incapable of work; for, in that cafe, he would ftill be obliged to feed and clothe him, at no inconfiderable expence. And fo, fay fome of the petitioners, you would perfuade us, that negroes are never ufed ill, or cruelly treated, in the West-Indies? Indeed, gentlemen, I do not attempt it. Befides having fome people born amongst us of bad difpofitionis, we have too many vicious and bad people fent us from Europe; which, from the scarcity of better white people, or from compaffion to their fituation, we are obliged, or induced, to employ upon our eftates as bookkeepers, or in inferior capacities; who, having feen how the poor áre used at home, and the punishments inflicted upon foldiers and failors for flight offences, and not having, themselves, any particular intereft in the welfare of their mafter's negroes, may, when they can without the knowledge of their fuperior, or of the proprietor himfelf, or his reprefentative, beat, abufe, or otherwise ill treat, the poorer and more indifferent negroes; thofe of confequence and character know their own importance-would dare to complain, and would certainly find redress.

It fometimes alfo happens, that when a negro is worn out with age, or with difeafe, a bad and unfeeling mafter will neglect him, and neither feed nor clothe him; but the legislatures of the feveral iflands have endeavoured to prevent fuch misbehaviour, by obliging all people to feed and clothe all their negroes, under fevere penalties. In the fmaller islands, no negroes fcarcely can be deferted, but their proprietors are known.

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In this ifland, the proof of the ownership of fuch a negro is not fo eafily established: to the honour, therefore, of the gentlemen of the town of Kingston, it ought to be known, they have established an Asylum, to which any of thofe poor people, whofe owners have deferted them, are fent, and carefully provided for, without any money being spent in contefting the place of their legal fettlement. And, as the negroes tell the names of their mafters, though their affertion is not a legal proof, the names, both of the negro and such mafter, are published in the newspapers; that if the negro has, without the knowledge of his mafter, ftrayed from his eftate, he may be demanded back; or, if otherwife, the unfeeling mafter may be expofed to the contempt of his fellow citizens, and to punishment, if difcovered.

To prevent alfo negroes being deferted by their owners, under the fpecious pretence of giving them their liberty, when old and infirm, laws have been paffed, in almost every ifland, to prevent any perfon from manumitting his flave, unless at the fame time a competent provifion is made by him for the maintenance of fuch flave, by fettling a penfion upon him fufficient for his fupport; it being the opinion of the Weft-Indians, that liberty, without the means of fubfiftence, is fcarcely worth having.

If gentlemen will give themfelves the trouble to look into the colonial laws, they will find the inhabitants of the Weft-India iflands may be trufted to themselves, and that they have goodness of heart fufficient to fecure kind treatment, even to their useless flaves, without the interference of the petitioners, or the Dean of Middleham :

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