ake the common law of England at this day: here, within the last
three or four weeks, the Queen's Bench, in England, has declared as
the common law, that if a slave murders his master, or murders the
agent of his master, in the attempt to recapture him, he is justified.
That is the common law to which we are to be remitted for the rights
resulting from the relations of master and slave. Sir, I have looked
back a little to see what the common law was in England in this famous
Somerset case, I find this in the argument of the counsel there,
expounding the common law, which was afterwards sustained by Lord
MANSFIELD in his decision:

"But it has been said by great authorities, though slavery,
in its full extent, be incompatible with the natural rights
of mankind, and the principles of good government, yet a
moderate servitude may be tolerated, nay, sometimes must be
maintained."

And again:

"There is now, at last, an attempt, and the first yet known,
to introduce it [slavery] into England. Long and
uninterrupted usage, from the origin of the common law,
stands to oppose its revival."

And again:

"A new species has never arisen till now; for had it,
remedies and powers there, would have been at law;
therefore, the most violent presumption against it, is the
silence of the laws, were there nothing more. It is very
doubtful whether the laws of England will permit a man to
bind himself by contract to serve for life; certainly will
not suffer him to invest another man with despotism, nor
prevent his own right to dispose of property."

And again:

"There are very few instances, few, indeed, of decisions as
to slaves in this country. Two in Charles II., where it was
adjudged trover would lie. Chamberlayne and Perrin, William
III., trover brought for taking a negro slave; adjudged it
would not lie. 4th Ann., action of trover; judgment by
default. On arrest of judgment, resolved that trover would
not lie. Such the determinations in all but two cases; and
those the earliest, and disallowed by the subsequent
decisions. Lord HOLT: 'As soon as a slave enters England he
becomes free.'"

In the opinion of the court, of Lord MANSFIELD, as to these principles
of common law, that very distinguished and able judge, who made the
law, as I understand, for the occasion, but certainly ruled it as t