It is said, first, of military punishments, that they are more severe than those which the Africans undergo.  But this is a bare assertion without a proof.  It is not shewn even by those, who assert it, how the fact can be made out.  We are left therefore to draw the comparison ourselves, and to fill up those important considerations, which we have just said that the receivers had omitted.

That military punishments are severe we confess, but we deny that they are severer than those with which they are compared.  Where is the military man, whose ears have been slit, whose limbs have been mutilated, or whose eyes have been beaten out?  But let us even allow, that their punishments are equal in the degree of their severity:  still they must lose by comparison.  The soldier is never punished but after a fair and equitable trial, and the decision of a military court; the unhappy African, at the discretion of his Lord.  The one knows what particular conduct will constitute an offence[097]; the other has no such information, as he is wholly at the disposal of passion and caprice, which may impose upon any action, however laudable, the appellation of a crime.  The former has it of course in his power to avoid a punishment; the latter is never safe.  The former is punished for a real, the latter, often, for an imaginary fault.

Now will any person assert, on comparing the whole of those circumstances together, which relate to their respective punishments, that there can be any doubt, which of the two are in the worst situation, as to their penal systems?

With respect to the declaration, that the life of an African in the colonies is happier than that of an English peasant, it is equally false.  Indeed we can scarcely withhold our indignation, when we consider, how shamefully the situation of this latter class of men has been misrepresented, to elevate the former to a state of fictitious happiness.  If the representations of the receivers be true, it is evident that those of the most approved writers, who have placed a considerable share of happiness in the cottage, have been mistaken in their opinion; and that those of the rich, who have been heard to sigh, and envy the felicity of the peasant, have been treacherous to their own sensations.

But which are we to believe on the occasion?  Those, who endeavour to dress vice in the habit of virtue, or those, who derive their opinion from their own feelings?  The latter are surely to be believed; and we may conclude therefore, that the horrid picture which is given of the life of the peasant, has not so just a foundation as the receivers would, lead us to suppose.  For has he no pleasure in the thought, that he lives in his own country, and among his relations and friends?  That he is actually free, and that his children will be the same?  That he can never be sold as a beast?  That he can speak his mind without the fear of the lash?  That he cannot even be struck with impunity?  And that he partakes, equally with his superiours, of the protection of the law?—­Now, there is no one of these advantages which the African possesses, and no one, which the defenders of slavery take into their account.