SLAVES and SLAVERY. Pure and proper slaves do not. nay cannot, subsist in England ; such, that is, whereby an ab solute and unlimited power is given to the master over the life and fortune of the slave, and indeed it is repugnant to reason, that such a state should subsist any where; and the law of England abhors, and will not endure, the existence of sla very within this nation so that when an attempt was made to introduce it by sta.
tote 1 Edward VI. cap. 3, which ordain ed, that all idle vagabonds should be made slaves, and fed upon bread and water, on small drink, and refuse meat, should wear a ring of iron round their necks, arms, or legs, and should be com pelled, by beating, chaining, or otherwise, to perform the work assigned them, were it never so vile ;• the spirit of the nation could not brook this condition, even in the most abandoned rogues; and there fore this statute was repealed in two years afterwards, by statute 3 aad 4 Edward VI. cap. 16. And now it is laid down, that a slave or negro, the instant he lands in England, becomes a free man, that is, the law will protect him in the enjoyment of his person and his property. Yet, with re gard to any right which the master may have lawfully acquired to the perpetual service of John, or Thomas, this, says Blackstone, will remain exactly in the same state as before : [what that right is not, we shall presently see] : hence too it follows, that the infamous and unchristian practice of withholding baptism from ne gro servants, lest they should thereby gain their liberty, is totally without foun dation, as well as without excuse. The law of England acts upon general and ex tensive principles : it gives liberty, right ly understood, that is, protection to a Jew, a Turk, or a Heathen, as well as to those who profess the true religion of Christ; and it will not dissolve a civil obli gation between master and servant, on account of the alteration of faith in either of the parties ; but the slave is entitled to the same protection in England before, as after, baptism ; and whatever service the Heathen negro owed of right to his Ame rican master, by general not by local law,, the same (whatever it be) is he bound to render, when brought to England and made a Christian.
In the celebrated case of James Somer sett, it was decided, that a Heathen ne gro, when brought to England, owes no service to an American, or any other mu ter. James Somersett had been made a slave in Africa, and was sold there ; from thence he was carried to Virginia, where he was bought, and brought by his master to England.
Here he ran away from his master, who seized him and carried him on board a ship, where he was confined, in order to be sent to Jamaica to be sold as a slave.
Whilst he was thus confined, a habeas corpus was granted. ordering the captain of the ship " to bring up the body of James Somersett, with the cause of his detainer :" the above mentioned circum stances being stated on the return to the writ, after much discussion in the Court of King's Bench, the court were unani mously of opinion, that the return was in sufficient, and that Somersett ought to be discharged.
In consequence of this decision, if a ship laden with slaves was obliged to put into an English harbour, all the slaves on board might (and Mr. Christain says ought to) be set at liberty. Though there are acts of parliament which recognise and regulate the slavery of negroes, yet it exists not in the contemplation of the common law: and the reason they are not declared free before they reach an English harbour is, only because their complaints cannot soon er be heard and redressed by the process of an English court of justice.
Libcrty,by the English Iaw,depends not on the complexion ; and what was said even in the time of Queen Elizabeth is now substantially true, that the air ut England is too pure for a slave to breathe in.
By stature 30 George III. c. 33, (con tinued and amended by statute 31 George III. c. 54, 32 George III c. 52, and sub sequent acts; and explaining and amend ing a former statute of 20 George III. c. 66.) several humane provisions were made to restrain the cruelties practised in the African slave trade, bounties were given to the masters and surgeons of ships de livering the slaves well at their destined port, &c. This, perhaps, was a happy pre lude to the abolition of that detestable commerce, which has been so gloriously accomplished. See also statute 35 George III. c. 90 : and the Journals of the House a Commons.
An African company was also esta blished by statute 31 George Ill. c. 55, for carrying on a trade between Great Britain and the coasts and countries of Africa; and a colony was for that purpose esta blished on the peninsula of Sierra Leone. This company was intended to supersede, in time, the necessity of the African slave trade, by raising sugars there by native Africans ; it being one of the conditions of the act, that the company shall not deal in nor employ slaves. The company is to last for thirty-one years from July 1st, 1791. At length, as a last act of the ad ministration to which Mr. Fox had belong ed, the abolition of the slave trade, as re spects the subjects of Great Britain, and her colonies, was effected by act of par Nrrnent in tie year 1807. May this bril liant example of justice be followed by other nations