СНА Р. II. CHARITY. THE TREATMENT OF OUR DOMESTICS PARTY of friends fetting out together upon A a journey, foon find it to be the best for all fides, that while they are upon the road, one of the company should wait upon the reft; another ride forward to feek out lodging and entertainment; a third carry the portmanteau; a fourth take charge of the horses; a fifth bear the purfe, conduct and direct the route: not forgetting however, that as they were equal and independent when they fet out, fo they are all to return to a level again at their journey's end. The fame regard and refpect; the fame forbearance, lenity, and referve in ufing their fervice; the fame mildness in delivering commands; the fame ftudy to make their journey comfortable and pleasant, which he, whose lot it was to direct the reft, would in common decency think himself bound to observe towards them; ought we to fhew to thofe, who, in the cafting of the parts of human fociety, happen to be placed within our power, or to depend upon us. Another reflection of a like tendency with the former is, that our obligation to them is much greater than theirs to us. It is a mistake to fuppofe, that the rich man maintains his fervants, tradesmen, tenants, and labourers: the truth is, they maintain him. It is their industry which fupplies his table, furnishes his wardrobe, builds his houfes, adorns his equipage, provides his amusements. It is not his eftate, eftate, but the labour employed upon it, that pays his rent. All that he does, is to diftribute what others produce; which is the leaft part of the bufinefs. Nor do I perceive any foundation for an opinion, which is often handed round in genteel company, that good ufage is thrown away upon low and ordinary minds; that they are infenfible of kindness, and incapable of gratitude. If by "low and ordinary minds" are meant the minds of men in low and ordinary ftations, they seem to be affected by benefits in the fame way that all others are; and to be no lefs ready to requite them and it would be a very unaccountable law of nature, if it were otherwise. Whatever uneafinefs we occafion to our domeftics, which neither promotes our fervice, nor anfwers the juft ends of punishment, is manifeftly wrong; were it only upon the general principle of diminishing the fum of human happiness. By which rule we are forbidden, 1. To enjoin unneceffary labour or confinement, from the mere love and wantonnefs of domination. 2. To infult our fervants by harsh, fcornful, or opprobrious language. 3. To refufe them any harmlefs pleafures. And by the fame principle are alfo forbidden caufelefs or immoderate anger, habitual peevifhiefs, and groundlefs fufpicion. СНАР. CHA P. III. TH SLAVERY. HE prohibitions of the last chapter extend to the treatment of flaves, being founded upon a principle independent of the contract between masters and fervants. I define flavery to be "an obligation to labour for "the benefit of the master, without the contract or "confent of the fervant." This obligation may arife, confiftently with the law of nature, from three caufes. 1. From crimes. 2. From captivity. 3. From debt. In the first cafe, the continuance of the flavery, as of any other punishment, ought to be proportioned to the crime; in the fecond and third cafes, it ought to cease, as foon as the demand of the injured nation or private creditor is fatisfied. The flave-trade upon the coast of Africa is not excused by these principles. When flaves in that country are brought to market, no questions, I believe, are asked about the origin or justice of the vendor's title. It may be prefumed therefore, that this title is not always, if it be ever, founded in any of the causes above affigned. But defect of right in the first purchase is the least crime, with which this traffic is chargeable. The natives are excited to war and depredation, for the fake of fupplying their contracts, or furnishing the market with flaves. With this the wickedness begins. The flaves, torn away from parents, wives, children, from their friends and companions, their fields I fields and flocks, their home and country, transported to the European fettlements in America, with no other accommodation on fhipboard, than what is provided for brutes. This is the fecond ftage of cruelty: from which the miferable exiles. are delivered, only to be placed, and that for life, in fubjection to a dominion and fyftem of laws, the moft merciless and tyrannical that ever were tolerated upon the face of the earth and from all that can be learned by the accounts of people upon the fpot, the inordinate authority, which the plantation laws confer upon the flave-holder, is exercifed, by the English flave-holder especially, with rigour and brutality. But neceffity is pretended; the name under which every enormity is attempted to be juftified. And after all, what is the neceffity? It has never been proved that the land could not be cultivated there, as it is here, by hired fervants. It is faid that it could not be cultivated with quite the fame conveniency and cheapnefs, as by the labour of flaves: by which means a pound of fugar which the planter now fells for fixpence, could not be afforded under fixpence halfpenny-and this is the neceffity. The great revolution which has taken place in the Western world may probably conduce (and who knows but that it was defigned?) to accelerate the fall of this abominable tyranny: and now that this conteft, and the paffions which attend it are no more, there may fucceed perhaps a feafon for reflecting, whether a legislature, which had fo long lent its affiftance to the fupport of an inftitution replete with human mifery, was fit to be trusted with an empire, the most extenfive that ever obtained in any age or quarter of the world. Slavery was a part of the civil conftitution of moft countries, when Chriftianity appeared; yet no paffage is to be found in the Chriftian fcriptures, by which it is condemned or prohibited. This is true; true; for Christianity, foliciting admiffion into all nations of the world, abftained, as behoved it, from intermeddling with the civil inftitutions of any. But does it follow from the filence of fcripture concerning them, that all the civil inftitutions which then prevailed, were right? or that the bad fhould not be changed for better? Befide this, the discharging of flaves from all obligation to obey their mafters, which is the confequence of pronouncing flavery unlawful, would have had no better effect, than to let loofe one half of mankind upon the other. Slaves would have been tempted to embrace a religion, which afferted their right to freedom. Mafters would hardly have been perfuaded to confent to claims founded upon fuch authority. The moft, calamitous of all contests, a bellum fervile, might probably have enfued, to the reproach, if not the extinction of the Chrif tian name. The truth is, the emancipation of flaves fhould be gradual; and be carried on by provifions of law, and under the protection of civil government. Christianity can only operate as an alterative. By the mild diffufion of its light and influence, the minds of men are infenfibly prepared to perceive, and correct the enormities, which every folly, or wickedness, or accident, have introduced into their public establishments. In this way the Greek and Roman flavery, and fince thefe, the feudal tyranny, has declined before it. And we truft that, as the knowledge and authority of the fame religion advance in the world, they will banish what remains of this odious inftitution. |