ted without being affected as we
ought to be. He intreated their lordships, however, to endeavour to
conceive the hard case of the unhappy victims of it; and as he had led them
to the last stage of their miserable existence, which was in the colonies,
to contemplate it there. They were there under the arbitrary will of a
cruel task-master from morning till night. When they went to rest, would
not their dreams be frightful? When they awoke, would they not awake,

----"only to discover sights of woe,
Regions of sorrow, doleful shades, where peace
And rest can never dwell, hope never comes
That comes to all; but torture without end
Still urges?"----

They knew no change, except in the humour of their masters, to whom their
whole destiny was entrusted. We might perhaps flatter ourselves with
saying, that they were subject to the will of Englishmen. But Englishmen
were not better than others, when in possession of arbitrary power. The
very fairest exercise of it was a never-failing corrupter of the heart. But
suppose it were allowed, that self-interest might operate some little
against cruelty; yet where was the interest of the overseer or the driver?
But he knew it would be said, that the evils complained of in the colonies
had been mitigated. There might be instances of this; but they could never
be cured, while slavery existed. Slavery took away more than half of the
human character. Hence the practice, where it existed, of rejecting the
testimony of the slave: but, if his testimony was rejected, where could be
his redress against his oppressor?

Having shown the inhumanity, he would proceed to the second point in the
resolution, or the injustice, of the trade. We had two ideas of justice,
first, as it belonged to society by virtue of a social compact; and,
secondly, as it belonged to men, not as citizens of a community, but as
beings of one common nature. In a state of nature, man had a right to the
fruit of his own labour absolutely to himself; and one of the main
purposes, for which he entered into society, was, that he might be better
protected in the possession of his rights. In both cases therefore it was
manifestly unjust, that a man should be made to labour during the whole of
his life, and yet have no benefit from his labour. Hence the Slave-trade
and the Colonial slavery were a violation of the very principle, upon which
all law for the protection of property was founded. Whatever benefit was