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Show 200 DESI'OTTS!\t What sympathy for the mere laborers could b~ felt by one who, engrossed by hi!:! aristocra tic conner.t.wns, had become coldly indiflCrcnt even to the middle cla~SC'f;, from whence he gprang 1 . But in spite of the "losses of Lord Hanlw1cke, and the increasing numbe~ of slaves in England, there were still those who felt and those who held that Lord Holt's version of the common law was the true one. An attempt having been made in 1762, in the case of Shanley v. Hervey, (3 Eden's Reports, 126,) before Lord Hardwicke's successor a:; chancellor, Lord Northington, characterized by Lord Eldon as "a great .lawyer, and very firm in deli vering his opinions," to appropriate to the use of a pretended master a gift or legacy to a negro, he indignantly dismissed the bill with the exclamation-" As soon as a man puts foot on English ground he is free. A negro may maintain an action against his master for ill usage, and may have a habeas corpus if restra ined of his liberty." The famous Granville Sharpe embraced this opinion with so much enthusiasm as in fact. to devote his life to its vindication. IVIany cases, through his agency, were brought before the courts ; and though often foiled, he succeeded at last in obtaining for this great question a solemn rehearing and a final decision. J ames Somerset, an African by birth, carried to Virginia as a slave, and purchased there by James Stewart, had been brought from Virginia to England, where he refused to serve any longer, in consequence of which Stewart seized him, and put him on board a ship to be sent to Jamaica. Being tal<en before Lord Mansfield (1771) on a writ of habeas corpus, and the::w facts appearing on the return, the question '~'aS referred to the full Court of King's Bench, before whwh it was a rgued at diflCrent. times by five lawye~s re· tained by Sharpe, while two of the most em1nent counsel of t he day (Wallace and Dunning) appeared on t he other side. l\1ansfleld was endowed with a warmth of senti- TN ,,i\II•:R rCA. 201 m ~~t, as~m p~th y_'':ith humanity, and a phiiOlsophical spmt, which, m g iving a vitality to his k•O'al lcarnin(J' and abilities, has elevated hiffi high ov~r the head~ of so many other "_consummate lawyers." Yet he was Hot cel~bratcd C L~her ~or intrepidity of spirit, or for any spec1al enthmuasm 1n behalf of personal liberty. Here was an opportunity for the establishment of a great principle; but an opportunity which he did not court, an.d fro~ which indeed he strove to escape. lie was not msens1ble to the wealth and social standing of the parties in terested as slave-holders and he attempted to get rid of this case, as he had 'done of several similar ones, by urging the settlement of it by an agreement between t he parties. The decision seems indeed to have been once or twice postponed, to give Stewart an opportunity to act upon the hint, that if he would manumit Somerset t he case might be ended in that way, without any formal decision, which Mansfield openly expressed his anxiety to avoid. If the decision went against the master, jt would overturn the established practice and prevailing ideas of the last fifty years, backed by the legal opiJ1ion of "two of the greatest men "-such were the terms in which Lord Mansfield referred to Yorke and 'I'a lbot-" of this or any other time." • But on t he other hand was the extre(ne difficulty of adopting the relation of slavery as it existed in the colonies, without adopting it in all its conseq uences, many of which were" absoR lutely contrary to the municipal law of EnO']and." "The setting fourteen or fi fteen thousand me1~"-for that had been stated by the counsel for the claimant as the estimated number of negro slaves in England ~'at once Joosc by a solemn opinion" was "very d1sagreeable in the enects H threatened." "Fifty pounds "-the estimate of Stewar t's counsel-" may . •Yet in the course of tho argument, he had spoken of their opin- 1?"! ab?ve ~ofcned to with no g:reut respect, ll'l u case " upon a petition 111 I.mcol~1's Inn llnll, after dinner, therefore probably might not be taken w1th rottch uccurncy, as he believed wall not unusual a.t that hour." Seo Loff's Reports. |
