be impossible; for, on the contrary, he is as fully and clearly entitled to the protection of those laws, as every one who now hears me." After a learned investigation of the laws of other countries, he concluded by expressing his conviction that the alteration which had been attempted in the laws of England, by the introduction of a new species of slavery, was so prodigious and important, and would require so many and various regulations, that it would be far beyond the extent of any power that could legally exercise it, except the legislature itself. "But I hope," he added, "such a kind of slavery will never find its way into England; and I apprehend, that, by your Lordship's decision, this man will receive his liberty."

At the end of Mr. Mansfield's speech, it appears that the cause was further adjourned to the 14th of May.

Mr. Hargrave then followed, and stated, that the claim of Stewart, agreeably to his return to the Habeas Corpus, was founded on the condition of slavery in which Somerset stood before he was brought into England: "and if that right," he said, "is here recognised, domestic slavery, with its horrid train of evils, may be lawfully imported into this country, at the discretion of every individual, foreigner or native. It will come, not only from our own colonies, but from those of the other European nations; from Poland, Russia, Spain, and Turkey; from the Coast of Barbary, from the Western and

Eastern Coasts of Africa, from every part of the world where it still continues to torment and dishonour the human species."-He then entered into an investigation-1st, of the right claimed by Stewart in the person of the Negro; and, 2dly, of the authority by which he assumed a power of exercising that right. In this examination he took a view of the history, the condition, and the consequences of slavery; asserting, that, "in whatever light we view it, it may be deemed a most pernicious institution, immediately to the person who suffers it; finally to the master who triumphs in it, and to the state which allows it."- Having traced its origin and its decline in Europe, he continued: "Such was the expiring state of domestic slavery in Europe at the commencement of the sixteenth century, when the discovery of America, and of the Western and Eastern Coasts of Africa, gave occasion to the introduction of a new species of slavery. It took its rise from the Portuguese, who, in order to supply the Spaniards with persons able to sustain the fatigue of cultivating their new possessions in America, particularly the islands, opened a trade between Africa and America for the sale of Negro slaves, This disgraceful commerce in the human species is said to have begun in the year 1508, when the first importation of Negro slaves was made into Hispaniola, from the Portuguese settlements on the Western Coast of Africa. In 1540, the Emperor,

Charles the Fifth, endeavoured to stop the progress of the Negro slavery, by an order that all slaves in the American isles should be made free; and they were accordingly manumitted by Legasca, the governor of the country, on condition of continuing to labour for their masters. But this attempt proved unsuccessful; and on Legasca's return to Spain, domestic slavery revived and flourished as before. The expedient of having slaves for labour in America, was not long peculiar to the Spaniards, being afterwards adopted by the other Europeans, in proportion as they acquired possessions on that continent. In consequence of this general practice, Negroes are become a very considerable article in the commerce between Africa and America; and domestic slavery has taken so deep a root in all the American colonies as to afford little probability of its total suppression." He then proceeded to examine the attempt to obtrude this new species of slavery into England, and to demonstrate that the Legislature of England had not been so short-sighted as not to have set up a sufficient guard against its introduction. He here examined the ancient laws of villenage in England, the only form in which any state approaching to slavery had ever existed there; and demonstrated, that, villenage having gradually expired in England, the introduction of a new slavery, under the name of villenage, or any other description whatever, is sufficiently provided against." [The

remainder of this speech is wanting in the short-hand cupy *]

Mr. Alleyne closed the proceedings on the same side. He examined the necessary distinction between natural rights and municipal rights; the one of which attaches to men in whatsoever countrythe other ceases as soon as men leave the country where they were bound to observe them. The right of slavery, not being from nature, could not, of course, be brought from another country. "Natural relations are inherent in the state of things, and no human power can restrain it. It necessarily arises from the relation a man bears to mankind in general, and his moral duty is inferred from it. He cannot therefore change his natural relations; they are universal. Municipal relations are such as are formed from his being a member of this or that particular country, where they attach. It appears, that by the laws of Virginia this man is a slave; but I submit that the laws of Virginia extend to Virginia alone. In this country, how does this man stand as a slave, where the meanest have a title to enjoy the rights of freedom? This man is here: he owes submission to the laws of England, and be claims the protection of those laws; and as he ceases to be a citizen of Virginia, and stands in no such relation now to Mr. Stewart, so he is certainly not bound to him ;

* The reader may supply the deficiency by referring to Mr. Hargrave's speech on this occasion, as printed at length in his Collection of the State Trials, vol. xi.

and therefore he stands, like any other man in this kingdom, entitled to his freedom."- He concluded by submitting, from the conviction of his mind after an elaborate research, that a claim of slavery cannot be supported in England; " and when," he added, "the judgment of this Court is given, Stewart, as well as the rest of the slave-holders, will know, that when they introduce a slave into this country, as a slave, this air is too free for him to breathe in."

The pleadings for the Negro were here closed. Mr. Wallace appeared on the side of Stewart, whose claims he defended with great ability, demonstrating his quiet and legal right to the slave by the laws of Virginia, and arguing forcibly the inconvenience, absurdity, and injustice of divesting a man of his rightful property, only because he sailed, in pursuit of his lawful business, from one country to

another.

Mr, Dunning was the other counsel on the same side. The choice made of this gentleman appeared singular to those who remembered the energy, with which, in a former cause, he had professed himself ready to assert, in any Court of England, that no property could here exist in a slave. He was about to begin, when Lord Mansfield observed, that it was now late in the day; and, the Court wishing to rise, he proposed to Mr. D. a farther adjournment to that day se'ennight. He at the same time stated his opinion of the point on which the question hinged, in the following manner.—