propriety, be resembled to nothing fo well as to the account of poor Gulliver, when he was carried out of his little cabinet to the top of the house, by the Brobdignag monkey.

The writers on the laws of nature and nations are agreed, that the protection, fecurity, and other advantages a man receives from living in society, gives every community a right to abridge the individual of fuch portion of his natural liberty, as may be conducive to the general welfare of the whole but furely none can have a right to make fuch laws, but the members of the community who are to be governed by them. Is it more just or reasonable for the Universities of Oxford or Cambridge, the Magiftrates of London, Edinburgh, or Dublin, to interfere in the making laws for the government of the flaves or fervants of the planters in the Weft Indies, than it would be for the Council and Asfembly of Jamaica, or any other of thefe colonies, to in

terfere

What can be a stronger proof of the truth of what is faid above, of the reluctance of negroes to return from the Weft Indies to their own country, than that a young woman, who had been from it fo short a time, and had fo favourable an opportunity of returning to it under the protection of a brother, who fhewed fuch an affection fo her, should not only fhew a reluctance to return home, and enjoy her liberty, but should exprefs fo ftrong a defire to leave Africa again, and return to Jamaica, and to slavery?

erfere in framing or altering the ftatutes for directing the conduct of the members of the two Universities, or making the laws for the government of the freemen, or any other perfons who are not confidered as freemen of London, or any other corporation in Great Britain or Ireland; which the planters have as much a right to call their Univerfities and their Corporation, as the Dean of Middleham, the fociety in the Old Jewry, or any other equally refpectable perfonages, have to call these colonies, their islands?

It may, perhaps, be a queftion not easily answered, whether any society, or community, can, with juftice, make laws in restraint of personal liberty, which do not prefs equally on all its members? And it therefore may not be unworthy the confideration of thofe who are making the prefent attack upon the fortunes and honour of the West Indians-how far the peace of the fociety may be hazarded, and what anarchy, confufion, and bloodshed may follow too nice and critical an enquiry into the exact portion of each man's particular liberty, the fociety of which he is a member may have a right to deprive him of? What would the people of England think of men, who, under a fimilar pretext of zeal for the rights of humanity, fhould erect themselves into a fociety, and endeavour, by preaching, writing, and publishing, to ftir up the foldier, the failor, the artisan,

and

and the peasant, to affert their rights to an equal portion of liberty with those who now lord it over them? Could any religious man amongst the present petitioners object to, or decline promoting an agrarian law, in favour of the diftreffed poor of Great Britain?

As the following Obfervations were written without the author's having feen any of the tracts lately published upon the fubject he treats of, except the Dean of Middleham's Letter, they cannot be confidered as intended to be an Answer to any other. His principal view was to give an exact account of the common and usual treatment of flaves in the Weft Indies. To a general charge of cruel treatment, unfupported by proofs, a general denial ought furely to be esteemed fufficient. Specific charges may demand particular answers from the accufed individuals; and if any are found who deferve cenfure or punishment, it is to be wished they may meet with it. If there are too many people already in these islands capable of treating their flaves, their fellow creatures, with cruelty, the planters may be allowed humbly to hope their numbers may not be augmented by Great Britain unloading her gibbets, or emptying her gaols into them, in order to furnish the planters with induftrious labourers, in the ftead of the negroes meant to be emancipated; or to fupply the place of those which they confider themselves as entitled to expect from

2

from Africa, to affift them in the cultivation of their eftates, under the affurances of the Acts of Parliament which have paffed for the establishment, encouragement, and protection of that commerce.

It must be matter of triumph to the gentlemen in these islands to find, that although the humane perfons who have bufied themfelves in procuring anecdotes of the cruelties exercised by the proprietors over their poor oppressed slaves, have extended their enquiries over al the islands, from Barbadoes to the Bahamas, they have not been able to collect as many ftories of that kind as there are different colonies; and, what is ftill more extraordinary, most of those they pretend to adduce, few of which are better authenticated than Mr. Clarkfon's fable of the iron coffin of Jamaica, are faid to have happened many years ago. Surely people of candour will confider this circumftance, not only as a complete refutation of the calumnies propagated against the Weft Indians, but as the highest eulogium upon them and their conduct.

It is not impoffible, but the greatest part of the following Obfervations may have already been made by others. It was from that apprehenfion the author has, for fome time, been unwilling to publish them; but fome friends, whofe judgment he efteems, having con

ceived

ceived they may be useful at this juncture, and it being hoped the candid reader will reflect, that even if the fame remarks fhould have already been made by others, that when different perfons, unknown and unconnected with each other, agree in their teftimony to the fame fact, it is a proof of the veracity of both. The author, however, still submits his thoughts to the public with reluctance and diffidence; as he has been lefs attentive to express himself with critical accuracy, than folicitous to give the public faithful information, on a fubject of fo much confequence to commerce and navigation, the fources of the prefent national wealth and profperity.