a tenfold crushing power, or the captive will
break his chains. A despotic monarch can follow the impulses of humanity
without scruple. When Vidius Pollio ordered one of his slaves to be cut
to pieces and thrown into his fish-pond, the Emperor Augustus commanded
him to emancipate immediately, not only that slave, but all his slaves.
In a free State there is no such power; and there would be none needed,
if the laws were equal,--but the slave-owners are legislators, and
_make_ the laws, in which the negro has no voice--the master influences
public opinion, but the slave cannot.

Miss Martineau very wisely says; "To attempt to combine freedom and
slavery is to put new wine into old skins. Soon may the old skins burst?
for we shall never want for better wine than they have ever held."

A work has been lately published, written by Jonathan Dymond, who was
a member of the Society of Friends, in England; it is entitled "Essays
on the Principles of Morality"--and most excellent Essays they are.
Every sentence recognises the principle of sacrificing all selfish
considerations to our inward perceptions of duty; and therefore every
page shines with the mild but powerful light of true Christian
philosophy. I rejoice to hear that the book is likely to be republished
in this country. In his remarks on slavery the author says: "The
supporters of the _system_ will hereafter be regarded with the same
public feelings, as he who was an advocate of the slave _trade_ now is.
How is it that legislators and public men are so indifferent to their
fame? Who would now be willing that biography should record of
him,--_This man defended the slave trade?_ The time will come when the
record,--_This man opposed the abolition of slavery_, will occasion
a great deduction from the public estimate of weight of character."

CHAPTER VI.

INTELLECT OF NEGROES.

"We must not allow negroes to be _men_, lest we ourselves should
be suspected of not being _Christians_."

MONTESQUIEU.

In order to decide what is our duty concerning the Africans and their
descendants, we must first clearly make up our minds whether they are,
or are not, human beings--whether they have, or have not, the same
capacities for improvement as other men.

The intellectual inferiority of the negroes is a common, though most
absurd apology, for personal prejudice, and the oppressive inequality
of the laws; for this reason, I shall take some pains to prove that
the