OCR Text |
Show 2j2 ON THE SLAVERY AND COMMERCE Now if to thofe, who thus perifh on the .African continent, by war and travelling, we fubjoin * thofe, who afterwards perifh on the voyage, and in the feafoning together, it will appear that, in every yearly attempt to fupply the colonies, an hundred thoujand mufl: perifh, even before one ufeful individual can be obtained. Gracious God! how wicked, how beyond all example impious, mufl: be that fervitude, which cannot be carried on without the continual murder of fo many and innocent perfons! What punifitment is not to be expet: l:ed for fuch monfirous and unparalleled barbarities ! For if the blood of one man, unjufl:ly fhed, cries with fo loud a voice for the divine vengeance, how fhall the cries and groans of an hundred tho!ffont/ men, annually murd~red, afcend the celefl:ial mai~fions, and bring down that punifhment, which fuch enormities deferve ! But do we mention punifhment? Do we allude to that punifhment, which fhall be infiit:l:ed on men as individuals, in a future life ? Do we • The lowcft computation is 40,ooo, fee p. r 4.o. allud~ OF THE HuMAN SPECIES. 253 allude to that awful day, which fi1all furely come, when the mafl:er !hall behold his murdered negroe face to face ? When a train of mutilated naves fhall be brought againfl: him? When he fi1all fl:and confounded and abafhed? Or, do we allude to that punifhment, which may be infiit:l:ed on them here, as members of a wicked community? For as a body politick, if its members are ever fo numerous, may be coniidered as an whole, at:l:ing of itfelf, and by itfelf, in all affairs in which it is concerned, fo it is accountable, as fuch, for its condut:l:; and as thcfe kinds of polities have only their exi!l:ence here, fo it is only in this world, that, as fuch, they can be punifhcd. "Now, whether we coniidcr the crime, " with refpet:l: to the individuals imme" diately concerned in this mofl: barbarous and cruel traffick, or whether we coniider it as * p~tronized and encouraged by the laws of the land, it prefents to our view • The lcgiflature has fquandcred away more money in the proCecution of the flave trade, within twenty years, than in any other trade whatever, having granted from the:: year J])O, to the year 1770• the fum of JOO,ooo pounds. Han |