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Show 228 ON THE SLAVERY AND CoMMERCE their country to a region of conviviality and mirth; and that like thofe, who leave their ufual places of refidence for a fummer's amufement, they are conveyed to the colonies- to bathe,-to dance,--to keep ho!y-day,-to be joviai.-But there is fomething fo truly ridiculous in the attempt to impofe thefe fcenes of felicity on the publick, as fcenes which fall to the lot of /laves, that the reaivers mnfi have been driven to great extremities, to hazard them to the eye of cenfure. The lalt point that remains to be confidered, is the {hameful aflertion, that the Africans are much happier in the colonies, than in their own country. But in what does this fuperiour happinefs confifi? In thofe real fcenes, it mufi be replied, which have been jull: mentioned; for thefe, by the confeflion of the receivers, conll:itute the happinefs they enjoy.-But it has been {hewn that thefe have been unfairly reprefented; and, were they realized in the moll: extenfive latitude, they would not confirm the faCt. For if, upon a recapitulation, it confifis in the .· oF THE HuMAN SPECIES. 229 the pleafure of manumijjion, they furely mufi have palfed their lives in a much more comfortable manner, who, like the Africans at home have had no occafion for fuch a benefit a; all. But the receivers, we prefume, reafon upon this principle, that we never know the value of a bleffing but by its lofs. This is generally true: but would any one of them make himfelf a jlave for years, that he might run the chance of the pleafures of manumi/Jzrm? Or that he might tafl:e the charms of liberty with a greater relijh? Nor is the alfertion lefs falfe in every other confideration. For if their happinels confifis in the few holy-days, which in the colonies th~y are permitted to enjoy, what mull: be the1r fituation in their own country, where the whole year is but one continued.holy-day, ~r cclfation from difcipline and fatigue ?-If 111 the polfeffion if a mean and contraeled jpot, what mull: be their fituation, where a whole region is their own, producing almoll: f~~:ntaneou! ly the comforts of life, and reqUJr~ng for its cultivation none of thofe hours, which {hould be appropriated to jleep ?-If in the p 3. pleafures |