ve, and that I am entitled to his services; and he
in like manner, when he grows too old to work, will become a pensioner,
as his father was before him."

"I perceive the drift of your argument; you do not defend slavery
generally."

"No; I consider a man born free and made a slave, is justified in
resorting to any means to deliver himself; but a slave that I have
reared is lawfully a slave, and bound to remain so, unless he can repay
me the expense I have incurred. But dinner is ready, captain; if you
wish to argue the matter further, it must be over a bottle of claret."

The dinner was well dressed, and the Madeira and claret (the only wines
produced), of the best quality. Their host did the honours of his table
with true West Indian hospitality, circulating the bottle after dinner
with a rapidity which would soon have produced an effect upon less
prudent visitors; and when Mr Berecroft refused to take any more wine,
he ordered the ingredients for arrack punch.

"Now, Mr Forster, you must take a tumbler of this, and I think that
you'll pronounce it excellent."

"Indeed--!" replied Newton.

"Nay, I will take no denial; don't be afraid; you may do any thing you
please in this climate, only be temperate, and don't check the
perspiration."

"Well, but," observed Newton, who placed the tumbler of punch before
him, "you promised to renew your argument after dinner; and I should
like to hear what you have to urge in defence of a system which I never
have heard defended before."

"Well," replied his host, upon whom the wine and punch had begun to take
effect, "just let me fill my tumbler again to keep my lips moist, and
then I'll prove to you that slavery has existed from the earliest times,
and is not at variance with the religion we profess. That it has
existed from the earliest times, you need only refer to the book of
Genesis; and that it is not at variance with our religion, I must refer
to the fourth commandment. How can that part of the commandment be
construed, `and the stranger that is within thy gates?' To whom can
this possibly apply but to the slave? After directing, that the labour
of all the household, `man-servant and maid-servant,' should cease, it
then proceeds to the ox and the ass, and the stranger that is within thy
gates. Now, gentlemen, this cannot be applied to the stranger in the
literal sense of the word, the hospitality of the age forbidding that
labour should be required of him. At