trong
character. Was the uniformity of this right of possession sufficient
to overrule another right--that which every man, black or white, had
to the freedom of his own person, unless there was special law to
restrain it? The counsel for the negro not only pleaded strongly on
this his personal right, but on the consequence to the moral condition
of the British Empire, if the inhabitants of slave countries could
bring their slaves hither. From the strictness of the laws, and the
uniformity of the course of justice, if slaves were permitted in
England, it was the very place where property in them would be most
secure. Thus the country might become a resort of slaveholders, and
its boasted purity and freedom would be sadly contaminated. 'If that
right,' said Mr Hargrave, 'is here recognised, domestic slavery, with
its horrid train of evils, may be lawfully imported into this country,
at the discretion of every individual, foreign and native. It will
come not only from our own colonies, and those of other European
nations, but from Poland, Russia, Spain, and Turkey--from the coast of
Barbary, from the western and eastern coasts of Africa--from every
part of the world where it still continues to torment and dishonour
the human species.'

The counsel on the other side was the celebrated Mr Dunning,
afterwards Lord Ashburton, a friend of freedom, who seems to have
undertaken the cause on notions of professional duty, and without any
great inclination for it. His first words were: 'It is incumbent on me
to justify Captain Knowles's detainer of the negro.' He was careful to
shew, that he did not in the meantime maintain that there was an
absolute property in Somerset--it was sufficient to shew, that there
was a sufficient presumption of property to authorise the shipmaster
in detaining him until the absolute question of right was solemnly
settled. He proceeded to say: 'It is my misfortune to address an
audience, the greater part of which I fear are prejudiced the other
way. But wishes, I am well convinced, will never be allowed by your
lordships to enter into the determination of the point. This cause
must be what in fact and law it is. Its fate, I trust, therefore,
depends on fixed and variable rules, resulting by law from the nature
of the case. For myself, I would not be understood to intimate a wish
in favour of slavery by any means; nor, on the other side, to be
supposed the maintainer of an opinion contrary to my own jud