as soon as I receive my fair copy; and also some other proceedings, if agreeable to you, on similar cases, which I had caused to be taken in short-hand from the mouths of the pleaders.

"Dear Sir, with great esteem," &c. &c.

Mr. Hargrave's conduct had demonstrated that he was likely to prove too able an assistant not to be engaged with his utmost force in the cause, and his name was soon added to the list of the counsel. -The modest zeal of a professional man is expressed in the following reply.

"Dear Sir,

January 31, 1772.

"This morning I received a retainer in the case of Somerset, the Negro; and you may be assured, that no application shall be wanting on my part to conduce to that great end which you have in view. I have long formed my opinion upon the subject, and am thoroughly convinced that the state of slavery in which a Negro may be before his arrival in England gives no title whatever to service here, either on the ground of property or on presumption of a contract. This opinion I shall be zealous to support; but, never having yet argued any thing publicly, I distrust my abilities to acquit myself as such a cause requires. On that account, my situation will be painful; though I hope, that the expectation of that indulgence of the Court usually given to persons under my circumstances, and the assurance that others who shall hear me will make the due allowance, will so far operate on my mind as to give me the opportunity of urging all the arguments which shall occur to me.

“Granville Sharp, Esq.”

"I am, Sir," &c. &c.

"FRANCIS HARGRAVE."

As the day for the hearing of the cause drew near, Mr. Sharp's vigilance and anxiety increased.

"Dear Sir,

G. S. to Mr. Hargrave.

"Old Jewry, Feb. 6, 1772.

I was exceedingly disappointed, when I was informed last night, that Mr. Priddle had not yet sent you a brief, nor to any of the other gentlemen. His clerk promised that copies of the affidavits and writ of Habeas Corpus should be sent to all the counsel punctually on Monday morning last. I saw Priddle himself on Tuesday, when he promised that briefs should be sent without fail the next morning. To what his behaviour is to be attributed I don't know, but I make no doubt but that you and the other gentlemen will be sufficiently aware to prevent his negligence (whether wilful or otherwise) from injuring the poor man's cause.

"With great esteem," &c. &c.

On the 7th of February the case was again. brought before Lord Mansfield, assisted by the three Justices, Ashton, Willes, and Ashurst.

The cause of liberty was now no longer to be tried on the ground of a mere special indictment, but on the broad principle of the essential and constitutional right of every man in England to the liberty of his person, unless forfeited by the laws of England. It was opened by Mr. Serjeant Davy, with a vast mass of information on the subject of slavery, prefaced by a declaration of his intention to maintain before the Court the following proposition;

"That no man at this day is, or can be, a Slave in England *."

The first part of this proposition he established by the most substantial documents drawn from the history of our country, in which he examined the progressive state and extinction of villenage; and on the second, he took the ground of Mr. Sharp's argument, contending, "that all the people who come into this country immediately become subject to the laws of this country, are governed by the laws, regulated entirely in their whole conduct by the laws, and are entitled to the protection of the laws of this country, and become the King's subjects."

He then proceeded to notice the particular object before the Court; viz. the pretensions of Stewart to a property in his Slave, according to the laws of Virginia. His reasoning on this point was unanswerable: "Either this man (Somerset) remains, upon his arrival in England, in the condition he was in abroad, in Virginia, or not. If he does so remain, the master's power remains as before. If the laws, having attached upon him abroad, are

* Some few passages only are here selected from the speeches delivered by the different Counsel, and, in particular, those points which appear, from the sequel, to have most influenced the minds of the Judges. The whole Minutes of the Trial, in MS., are preserved in the African Institution.-N. B. Whatever extracts are here given, are printed verbatim from the copy of the short-hand writer.

at all to affect him here, it brings them all: either all the laws of Virginia are to attach upon him here, or none,―for where will they draw the line?"

This distinction between England and its colonies he pressed with great force :-" With regard to the laws of Virginia, do they bind here? Have the laws of Virginia any more influence, power, or authority in this country, than the laws of Japan? The King makes laws for Virginia alone, if he pleases. If he has thought proper to introduce a particular form of making laws in that country, or the Assembly makes them under the power of the Crown-as he might have granted such a charter, or any other that refers to Virginia alone. He cannot make laws here without the consent and authority of the two Houses of Parliament. Suppose, instead of this man's coming from Africa, he had come from Turkey-Now, suppose a Christian slave brought from Turkey here-or suppose a bashaw come into this country with half a score Circassian women slaves for his amusement-suppose they should, in this case, think proper to say to this bashaw, Sir, we will no longer be the subjects of your lust; I believe he would make but a miserable figure at the bar of the Old Bailey, on an indictment for a rape."

He then discussed the argument of inconvenience, arising from either side of the question; and concluded by stating the authorities of various cases, in

which it had been decided that no man could here be the property of another *.

Mr. Serjeant Glynn followed on the same side, and enforced very powerfully the arguments proposed by the leading Counsel, particularly in the point respecting the importation of laws of other countries into our own:

"Let me put," he said, "the case seriously. What is the point in which you are to draw the line? If you admit a right acquired in prejudice of liberty, (the claim a man derives from common nature); if you permit them to raise up and bring here the laws of one country, I don't know but we must go round the globe, to find all their laws. Suppose galley-slaves were brought here,- would the master be allowed to exercise that power over them? Should they, when they set their foot on English ground, be allowed that authority, which in other countries, where servitude is in its full extent,

* The following expressions also occurred in the course of his pleadings:-"This was in the case of Cartwright, who brought a slave from Russia, and would scourge him; for this he was questioned, and it was resolved, That England was too pure an air for Slaves to breathe in. (See Rushworth's Collections, p. 468.) That was in the 11th of Queen Elizabeth. I hope, my Lord, the air does not blow worse since. But, unless there is a change of air, I hope they will never breathe here; for that is my assertion,-the moment they put their foot on English ground, that moment they become free. They are subject to the laws, and they are entitled to the protection of the laws of this country, and so are their masters, thank God!"