“ It would degrade the sanctity of Scripture; it would reverse all our ideas of God’s paternal attributes, and all arguments for the Divine origin of the Christian religion drawn from its precepts of universal charity and benevolence.” “That any custom so repugnant to the natural rights of mankind as the slave trade, or slavery the source and support of the slave trade, should be thought to be consonant to the principles of natural and revealed religion, is a paradox which it is difficult to reconcile with the reverence due to the records of our holy religion.” ”

“ Warn, therefore, the nobles and Senators of these Kingdoms, that they incur not a double load of guilt; as the burden, not only of the much injured African strangers, but also of our country’s ruin, must rest on the heads of those who withhold their testimony against the crying sin of tolerated slavery! ”

“ Reciprocity is inconsistent with every degree of real slavery.” “Slavery cannot be called one of the species of civil subordination. A slave is a non-entity in civil society.” “Law and slavery are contradictory terms.”
The Bishop’s treatise is one among many proofs that the Abolitionists from the first contemplated the ultimate extinction of slavery as the end of their labours.
“Such oppression,” says the Bishop, (meaning the state of slavery) , “and such traffic” (meaning the slave trade) , “must be swept away at one blow. Such horrid offences against God and nature can admit of no medium. ”

“ The Bishop goes on to point out that “the inconsistency between slavery and the slave trade, and the general principles of our law and constitution; between the permission of such usages and our high pretensions to civil liberty; appears to furnish arguments for the abolition of slavery, not less powerful on the one hand, than the injunctions of Scripture and the rights of nature on the other.” “If slavery, however modified, is suffered to exist, British law cannot be in force. ”

“ In some places they have a table in the open street, on which the paper is laid, and the labouring classes, in returning from work, are solicited to affix their names, with so much suavity of manner—such bland persuasiveness, that there is no resisting, and many of the creatures, who are thus entrapped, do not even know the object of the paper they are signing. I heard of one fellow, who, in haranguing a mob collected round one of their tables, actually expatiated on the enormity of continuing the slave trade,” (and is not a slave trade carried on in Jamaica?) ”

“ Where the poor slaves are considered mere brutes of burden, it is no wonder that their happiness should be measured by the regular supply of mere animal subsistence. But the miseries of cold and want are light when compared with the miseries of a mind weighed down by irresistible oppression. ”

“ If these arguments of the Bishop be well founded, it follows, first, that the great mark at which every friend of humanity ought to aim, by all lawful expedients, is complete and irrevocable emancipation; secondly, that in the interim, as laws, when committed to the guardianship of the slave-holder, are merely waste paper, the Government and Legislature of this country should take the matter into their own hands, and shape their course to an ultimate extinction of an evil from which they cannot extract all the venom but by slaying the hydra itself ”

“ The Address itself certainly partakes more of the peculiarity of colonial logic, and sympathizes more with the feelings and prejudices of slave-holders than suits our taste or judgment. At the same time, we must leave men to do good in their own way, only taking care that, in aiding or countenancing their benevolence, we do not compromise our own principles, or give a sanction to theirs, whereinsoever they fall short of the standard of right. ”

“ But Great Britain, though staggering under a much heavier load of the same kind of guilt has not prooduced, out of her numerous Peerage, one single chief to stand up ‘for the land,’ and remove her burden! ”

“ Why not rather, by one generous effort of public virtue, cut off all occasion of inhumanity and oppression, with all 437the pernicious effects of slavery on the slave, the master, and the state?” “Even if the experience of two centuries did not forbid us to suppose that the abuses, as they are called, of slavery and the slave trade, could be effectually checked and prevented by legal authority, yet the very nature of the offence complained of resists the supposition. ”

“ It is not a question, he contends, to be argued merely by statesmen and publicists, but the “natural and scriptural illegality” of slavery may be judged of “on grounds infinitely superior to all commercial considerations (as much superior as the soul is to the body, as the interests of eternity are to the concerns of a day,) by every one that can feel for his fellow creatures, and can be determined by every one that can read the Scriptures.” ”

“ Those who were doomed to the hammer and to be scattered over the colony, as well as those who remained, were equally loud and vociferous in their wailing, so that even the whites, who were present, felt the infection of their grief. ”

“ The Bishop proceeds to observe, that “All the laws hitherto made, have produced little or no benefit to the slaves. But there are many reasons why it is very improbable that such provisions should produce any effectual benefit. The power which is exercised over the slaves, and the severe coercion necessary to keep an immense superiority of numbers in absolute obedience to a few, and restrain them from insurrection, are incompatible with justice or humanity, and are obnoxious to abuses which no legal regulations can counteract. ”

“ The power which a West Indian master has over his slave, it is impossible for the generality of masters or managers not to abuse. It is too great to be intrusted in the hands of men subject to human passions and infirmities. The best principles and most generous natures are perverted by the influence of passion and habit.” [1] ”

“ If no other fault could be alleged, the involuntary submission of so many thousands to a few individuals implies, beyond a doubt, the employment of means the most tyrannical and oppressive to secure such subjection.” “The condition of West India slaves,” he continues, “some of the apologists for slavery have endeavoured to recommend, by asserting that the slaves are happier than the poor of our own country. ”

“ There remains one living Prelate whom it would be unpardonable for us to omit; we mean the present Bishop of Salisbury, Dr. Burgess. In the year 1789, this learned and excellent person published a pamphlet, which we fear has been long out of print, and is only now to be found in such libraries as that of the British Museum, entitled, “Considerations on the abolition of Slavery, and the Slave Trade, upon grounds of natural, religious, and political duty.” ”

“ The pretence to it, in the face of such facts, is an insult to common sense; and the improvement, we fear, is to be found mainly, if not solely, in the increased obtuseness and callousness of feeling, which those must acquire who are the hourly spectators and actors in this grand theatre of crime. ”

“ And an occurrence, which has taken place there so recently as November last, will plainly shew how little amendment in the state of the slaves in that colony has been derived from the Order in Council.
A colonist, of the name of Gallez, who is himself of mixed blood, was the proprietor of a large body of slaves. He had prevailed on these slaves to agree, though most reluctantly, to accompany him to a wood-cutting establishment, called Catherinasburgh, which he formed in the interior about sixty or seventy miles up the Canye river, and far removed, therefore, from other plantations. ”

“ Is there any consideration which can induce them to protect themselves and their congregations against insult and injury, and intolerance, and persecution, in this country, which does not render it still more imperiously their duty to put forth their whole energies in shielding their helpless and unprotected brethren, in the Colonies, from the arm of the persecutor? ”

“ In the year 1788, Granville Sharpe published a work entitled, “The Law of Retribution, or a Serious Warning to Great Britain and her Colonies, founded on unquestionable examples of God’s temporal vengeance against tyrants, slave-holders, and oppressors.” He commences his warning with the following passage of Scripture:—
“The people of the land have used oppression, and exercised robbery, and have vexed the poor and needy ”

“ That in order to further this object, and to gain an ascendancy over the negro mind, they inculcate the doctrines of equality and the rights of man—they preach and teach sedition, even from the pulpit, and by misrepresentation and falsehood endeavour to cast odium upon all the public authorities of this island, not even excepting the representative of majesty itself. ”

“ The rancour of our enemies continues, and will continue, unabated, but their influence is considerably 442modified. No doubt, they will still trump up annual petitions against slavery, but these are no longer considered the criterion of public opinion, and have consequently no influence with Government. ”

“ Your committee therefore feel themselves bound to report—That the interference of the missionaries between the master and slave is dangerous, and incompatible with the political state of society in this island, and recommend to the house to adopt the most positive and exemplary enactments to restrain them. ”

“ Fresh Atrocities in Berbice. Berbice has been one of the colonies which has boasted the most of its humanity, but which, to say the least, has been not less distinguished for its cruelties than the other colonies. Its Memorial to the Privy Council, in 1827, was loud in professions of tenderness for the feelings of the slaves, notwithstanding the recency of those reports of its Fiscal which filled this country with horror. (See Reporters, Nos. 5 and 16.) Later reports from this colony continue, as may be seen in the Anti-Slavery Reporter, No. ”

“ And here we do them the justice to believe, that they had too much good sense to expect, that the statements thus prepared would be received in this country as evidence in proof of their charges against the missionaries. It was quite enough that they served to give a colour to the contumacious re-enactment of the rejected clauses. Accordingly a Committee of the House of Assembly was appointed “to inquire into the establishment and proceedings of the Sectaries in the Island, and to report thereon to the House.” ”