this colony by Col. James
Vaughan, of Barbadoes, be remitted to the said James
Vaughan."[467]

It was not below the dignity of the Legislature of the colony of Rhode
Island to pass a bill of relief for Col. Vaughan, and refund to him
the six pounds he had paid to land his two sucking Negro baby slaves!
In June, 1731, the naval officer, James Cranston, called the attention
of the Assembly to the case of one Mr. Royall,--who had imported
forty-five Negroes into the colony, and after a short time sold
sixteen of them into the Province of Massachusetts Bay, where there
was also an impost-tax,--and asked directions. The Assembly replied as
follows:--

"Upon consideration whereof, it is voted and ordered, that
the duty to this colony of the said sixteen negroes
transported into the Massachusetts Bay, as aforesaid, be
taken off and remitted; but that he collect the duty of the
other twenty-nine."[468]

But the zeal of the colony in seeking the enforcement of the
impost-law created a strong influence against it from without; and by
order of the king the entire law was repealed in May, 1732.[469]

The cruel practice of manumitting aged and helpless slaves became so
general in this plantation, that the General Assembly passed a law
regulating it, in February, 1728. It was borrowed very largely from a
similar law in Massachusetts, and reads as follows:--

"An Act relating to freeing mulatto and negro slaves.

"Forasmuch, as great charge, trouble and inconveniences have
arisen to the inhabitants of divers towns in this colony, by
the manumitting and setting free mulatto and negro slaves;
for remedying whereof, for the future,--

"Be it enacted by the General Assembly of this colony, and
by the authority of the same it is enacted, that no mulatto
or negro slave, shall be hereafter manumitted, discharged or
set free, or at liberty, until sufficient security be given
to the town treasurer of the town or place where such person
dwells, in a valuable sum of not less than L100, to secure
and indemnify the town or place from all charge for, or
about such mulatto or negro, to be manumitted and set at
liberty, in case he or she by sickness, lameness or
otherwise, be rendered incapable to support him or herself.

"And no mulatto or negro hereafter manumitted, shall be
deemed or accounted free, for whom securit