folution poffible to me was, that there might be two decifions intentionally con tained under one judgment: that is to say, that the opinion of Sir Philip York and Mr. Talbot, was the law upon the general merits of the question; and that this judgment of the Court was the law upon this particular state of it. Thus for inftance: if the return made to the writ of Habeas Corpus in this Cafe had denied the lawfulness of the writ itself, and Mr. Steuart had claimed Somerset upon the ground only of being his commercial property; then the opinion of Sir Philip York and Mr. Talbot had operated as law and authority: but as the return had admitted the right of flavery, and Mr. Steuart had claimed

Somerset as his slave, there being no laws of flavery now in ufe in this country, either for Negroes, or for any other species of the human being, the judgment of the court was, from the infufficiency of the Caufe returned, the law of this Cafe.

But

But no fooner had this reconciliation taken place in my mind, than another perplexity arofe in its ftead. In the recital of the opinion recognized by Lord Hardwicke fitting as Chancellour, it is made to conclude thus: "that though the Statute of Charles II. had abolished Tenure fo far that no man could be a Villein regardant, yet if he would acknowledge himself a Villein ingroffed in any Court of Record, he knew of no way by which he could be entitled to his freedom without the confent of his master."

Now, by connecting this latter with the former part of the opinion, in the manner that it is done, it appears, as if Lord Hardwicke meant to declare, that the ftate or fituation of Negroes towards their masters or owners arofe out of, and was, founded upon, the remains of the antient laws of villenage in this country. That Lord Hardwicke might have said what is here stated, in order to fhew (by way of illuftration of the Cafe upon which he was

then

then arguing) that even an Englishman might ftill become a flave in this country, if he pleafed, I cannot deny: but with any intention to prove that the condition of Negroes proceeded from, and was the fame with, the condition of villeins, is, I muft affert, either the mistake of the person from whofe notes this fpeech was taken, or the intention of him to puzzle and perplex the Cafe: for it is manifeftly impoffible that the Court could have put fo much felfcontradiction and ignorance of the law in the mouth of fo wife and fo great a lawyer. His Lordship fays, "that Trover will lie for a Negroe flave. Now can any thing be more expreffive of the law and condition of Negroes than this is? What the nature of an action of Trover is, and what kind of property is required in a plaintiff to maintain fuch an action, every Tyro of the law muft he acquainted with. Would his Lordship have faid that Trover would lie for a villein? Every Tyro of the law knows that it would not.

But

But if a Negroe and a villein were governed by the fame laws, Trover would lie for a villein. His Lordship's own words therefore, and not this combination of them, are the best comment upon his meaning; and he in me, non tali auxilio eget, &c. It is enough that I have given the clew; the reader will unravel it himself.

I have now only a fhort word or two more to add, in address to the Reader; relying, from my own consciousness, upon his candour, that whatever errors of the head he may discover, he will impute nothing that is wrong to the dictates of my heart. It is not the want of humanity, it is not the want of feeling, but the poffeffion of both, with the love of truth, that has given birth to these Confiderations. My motives have been, to fhew that America does not afford that scene of barbarity, which mifreprefentation would have painted upon it: that cruelties and diftrefs are to be found in much excess even in this elyfium of greater liberty that whatever is the state and condition of Negroes, it is Great Britain and

not

not America that is refponfible for it: that this therefore is a British, and not an American queftion; as well it might be, fince, if I may be allowed to reafon chymically upon this occafion, whatever property America may have in its drugs, it is Great Britain that receives the effential oyl extracted from them. Thefe have been my views. I neither meant to condemn or approve the state and condition of Negroes. I have appealed to the law: if the traffic made of them be as agreeable to right reafon as it is according to law, I am glad of it; if it be not, let ftate neceffities justify ftate tricks. But I meant an apology for, and not a panegyrick upon, myself.