with every one prefent, its great abundance of merit and commendation; and I had followed the learned gentlemen, with the highest pleasure, in their travels and purfuits abroad in fearch of matter of illuftration, if the case had been brought home with them at laft, and refted on its own native ground and foundation. But herein, my Lord, I found myself unsatisfied and difappointed: for how the question remained with your Lordship as a point of law for the judgment of the Court, I own, I was unable to comprehend, or to learn. It is therefore, my Lord, that I now take the liberty to offer the following Confiderations to your Lordship's notice and obfervance; trusting to the importance of the subject, and to your wonted candour, for my apology and pardon in the attempt.

I have read, my Lord, to diftinguish, and have been ever taught to know, that the Lord Chief Juftice of the Court of King's Bench is the great and first expoun

der

der of the laws of this Realm; great and first in dignity and in office; in your Lordship's perfon, great and first profes fedly in capacity alfo. Of thefe laws then, my Lord, I have apprehended that there are but two kinds, however fub-divided into forts or fpecies: the unwritten, or common law, of which judicial decisions are the evidence or the written or statute law, otherwise called acts of parliament. Now, my Lord, fo far as the cafe is referrible to either of thefe eftablishments, fo far it lies before the Court, and falls under the cognizance of your Lordship. This is the fource of enquiry leading to your judgment and determination; and all without the circle of this, I conceive to be inappofite and eccentric. The first question then, that would seem to arife on this position, is, What is the common law of the land refpecting the cafe in iffue, confidered as a cafe of flavery? It was faid, I remember, by one of the counsel, that the prefent state of flavery among Negroes was totally different

from

from the ancient condition of villenage; that it was a new fpecies of flavery utterly unknown to the common law of England [b].

In this opinion I readily coincide, and agree with the learned gentleman. The next question is, What do acts of parliament fay on this head? I believe it must be said for them, that they are, enactively, if I may be allowed the expreffion, filent. If this be fo, then, the conclufion will operate

in

[b] It is faid in Mr. Hargrave's argument, p. 23. "fuch was the expiring ftate of domestic slavery in Europe at the commencement of the 16th century, when the discovery of America and of the Western and Eastern coafts of Africa, gave occafion to the introduction of a new fpecies of flavery." If the arguer had faid a new species of traffic, instead of a new species of flavery, he had expreffed the real matter of fact; feeing that the law by which this concern is regulated, confiders it in no other light or view whatever. For this reason too, it cannot be enumerated ainong the several species of flavery that he has mentioned, and taken notice of; each distinct species having its diftinct laws, appropriated thereto distinctly, as the laws of lavery. Among the Portuguese and Spaniards, I have been given to understand, that Negroes are, and have ever been confidered, as with the English, matter of Property, and articles of commerce

in the nature of a plea to the jurifdiction of your Lordship's Court. If the cafe be unknown to the common law, and acts of parliament are filent thereupon, what basis muft your Lordship's judgment take? Where there is no law, there can be no remedy. If the common law be defective, it is the business of acts of parliament to supply the defects: but until those defects are fupplied; fub judice lis eft, and the matter

in the common courfe of traffic; and were fo estimated by the French, untill the refined age of Lewis XIV. gave rife to a new inftitution of law, under the title of the Code noir, for the particular government of Negroes in their American colonies. It were to be wished that a fit and proper digest of this fort could take place with us: but, I fear, the difficulty (which arifes not so much from the fubject, as from the means of introduction) will prevent the execution of any fuch plan. From the unlimited power of the Crown of France, when laws are made, it is easy to enforce an obedience to them: from the limited power of our monarchy, fuch obedience is not to be exacted. Each English colony has a legislature of its own; and although they all agree in the framing of laws not repugnant to the laws of England, yet they all widely differ among themselves in the mode and practice of those laws.

muft

muft remain undetermined.

Your Lord

hip may however tell me, that, where pofitive law is wanting, whereupon to ground the decifions of a Court, recourse may to be had to the maxims and principles of law, to the fpirit of the constitution. The result of this, my Lord, at best, is but matter of opinion; befides, cafes founded on the self-fame principles will often have very different determinations, according to the difference of circumstances, and the alteration or change of times, Thus, if it had even been an orignal maxim of the common law, that flavery was incompatible with the frame and conftitution of this country, yet it does not therefore follow, that occafions have not fince arifen to combat with this principle, and to justify particular conclufions differing from these general premises. For inftance, my Lord, the impreffing of feamen, is an idea as heterogeneous to the nature and effence of this government, as flavery painted on the blackest ground can be. It is flavery itself,