In the beginning of the next paragraph he speaks thus:  “He, who supports the system of slavery, is the enemy of the whole human race.  He divides it into two societies of legal assassins; the oppressors, and the oppressed.  It is the same thing as proclaiming to the world, If you would preserve your life, instantly take away mine, for I want to have yours.”

Going on two pages further, we find these words:  “But the Negros, they say, are a race born for slavery; their dispositions are narrow, treacherous, and wicked; they themselves allow the superiority of our understandings, and almost acknowledge the justice of our authority.—­Yes—­The minds of the Negros are contracted, because slavery destroys all the springs of the soul.  They are wicked, but not equally so with you.  They are treacherous, because they are under no obligation to speak truth to their tyrants.  They acknowledge the superiority of our understanding, because we have abused their ignorance.  They allow the justice of our authority, because we have abused their weakness.”

“But these Negros, it is further urged, were born slaves.  Barbarians! will you persuade me, that a man can be the property of a sovereign, a son the property of a father, a wife the property of a husband, a domestic the property of a master, a Negro the property of a planter?”

But I have no time to follow this animated author, even by short extracts, through the varied strains of eloquence which he displays upon this occasion.  I can only say, that his labours entitle him to a high station among the benefactors to the African race.

The third was Dr. Paley, whose genius, talents, and learning have been so eminently displayed in his writings in the cause of natural and revealed religion.  Dr. Paley did not write any essay expressly in favour of the Africans.  But in his Moral Philosophy, where he treated on slavery, he took an opportunity of condemning, in very severe terms, the continuance of it.  In this work he defined what slavery was, and how it might arise consistently with the law of nature; but he made an exception against that which arose from the African trade.

“The Slave-trade,” says he, “upon the coast of Africa, is not excused by these principles.  When slaves in that country are brought to market, no questions, I believe, are asked about the origin or justice of the vendor’s title.  It may be presumed, therefore, that this title is not always, if it be ever, founded in any of the causes above assigned.”

“But defect of right in the first purchase is the least crime with which this traffic is chargeable.  The natives are excited to war and mutual depredation, for the sake of supplying their contracts, or furnishing the markets with slaves.  With this the wickedness begins.  The slaves, torn away from their parents, wives and children, from their friends and companions, from their fields and flocks, from their home and country,