dred and fixty feet; where it was confolidated into fo rockv a fubftance, as to require the being broken through with the mattock. A borer then, of three inches diameter, and fifteen feet in length, was tried; which foon, through a foft foil, flipped from the workman's hands, and fell up to the handle. Water infantly appeared, and rofe within the first hour one hundred and fifty feet; and, after a very gradual rife, now ftands at three hundred and forty feven feet, extremely foft and well-flavoured. This fource is fuppofed to fupply the well at Battle's bridge, about fix miles further, and lower than Hanningfield, which is three hundred and thirty-fix feet in depth, and the water overflows the brim. At Bicknacre Priory, a mile and half in defcent from Hanningfield, is a well (nearly, through neglect, choaked up) only four feet in depth.

The price of labour at Hanningfield well was, on a diameter of five feet three inches, four fhillings per foot for the first forty feet, and one fhilling advance at each fucceffive forty feet. PHILUDROs.

Yours, &c.

SYLVANUS URBANUS
JOANNI MILTONO.

Terram leviorem mittit-Palinodiam fuam canit.

L ITERÆ tuæ, Miltone Maxagora, vehementer me folicitum habue. runt, quòd, inter curas meas & graves & multiplices, infcientem, (ne vineta mea feveriùs cædam,) facinus indignum admififfe arguerint. Habes utique confitentem reum, me non nifi iftis perle&tis fenfiffe immanem More five impuden tiam five ignorantiam, qui & te tam inhumanè laceraverit, & facilitate noftrâ tam petulanter abufus fuerit. Arque hoc quidem ægriùs fero, ne rabiem & lambos Yeudo-Idape criminofos jam iterum provocâffe videar, qui farragi nem libelli nottri imprudens tam fœdè adulteraverim. Libenter fanè, ut tu confulis, auctorem hujus infamiæ remit. terem ad celeberrimi Davifii exemplum fimul & flagellum, quo ne ipfi Orbilio ceffiffe perhibetur. Sed quis hominem iftum durum atque callolum vel Marfye fato fperaverit deterreri? Præfertim cum fufpicio haud levis mihi in mentem invalit, ne fceleftus aliquis cachinno gloriolæ noftræ invidus, rifumque quo jure quaque injuria captans, fucum nobis facere inftituerit, prтAQEATI iftam odiofam temerè confictam, quafi

opus ferium ac feverum docti cujufdam, fi Diis placet, Grammatici ementiendo. Facilè enim ex epiftolâ tuâ intelligo neminem effe literis Græcis vel leviffimè imbutum, qui monftrum illud in lucem edere tanquam fœtum legitimum fenò cogitaverit. Quod fi veram agat fabulam Mapos, ludoque Hertfordienfi invitâ Minervâ præficiatur, jure multo potiori quam pædagogum illud Falerienfem, dignum effe crediderim qui difcipulis fuis malè mulcetur, idque tot verberibus quot mendis fcatere iplius opus deprenfum fuerit.

Quòd autem in delicti participem tam leniter animadvertas, id vero impensè mihi gratum fecifti. Diffiteri enim nequeo priora noftra in te merita (quorum te haud immemorem effe indicio eft Lau-' deri in epiftolâ tuâ recordatio) novæ huic injuriæ iniquiorem reddere meritò effe metuendum. Hoc tamen mninò te perfuafum velim, ingenii culpâ, non studio obtre&andi, jam denuò laudes tuas deterere mihi fato quodam contigiffe. Vale! Dabam Londini, 12mo Cal. Sextilis.

I

Mr. URBAN,

June 20. NEED not aim at converting your favourable reception of fome few trifles of my own, under different fignatures, into an argument for your inferting the following letter. The importance of the fubject, and the ability with which the refpectable writer has treated it, will, I dare fay, gain it an early place in your ufeful and agreeable Mifcellany. To render it admiffible in point of fize, and to make room for a few extracts from the evidence delivered before the Legiflature fince the piece was written, I have ventured to obliterate fuch paragraphs as I thought could be spared with the leaf injury to the fente and connexion-a liberty which will account for feveral abrupt transitions obfervable in the piece, as it now ftand; but for which, it is hoped, the reasons just given will apologize.

LEO AFRICANUS.

ceroient à croire que nous ne sommes par Chrétiens-MONTESQUIEU, Efprit des Loix, liv. XV. ch. 5.

"These people are all over black, and have fuch flat nofes, that they ought not to be pitied. It is impoffible to fuppofe that thefe creatures are men; for fuch a fuppofition would lead to the belief that we are not Chriftians."

SIR,

YOUR excellent Effay, for which accept my beft thanks, has afforded me all the fatisfaction that the able fupport of a virtuous caufe is capable of afford. ing; you have made forcible use of thofe facred arms it fo particularly became you to employ may their victory be compleat! The object of your Soci. ety has not a more ardent well-wisher than myfeif; nor can any body held in deeper deteftation a traffick, which has fo long been the fcourge of Africa, and the difgrace of Europe.

The fpeech of Mr. Necker is full of benevolence; and in it very honourable mention is made of our proceedings-"The time may come," fays

he,

when, affociating in your Councils the Deputies from the Colonies, you will caft an eye of ferious and hu mane regard upon an unhappy people, who have too long remained the unnoticed victims of an inhuman commerce; upon beings endowed like ourselves with the gift of thought, and who, above all, refemble us in the melancholy faculty of feeling misfortune; upon men whom, with deaf ears and callous hearts, we prefs and heap upon one another in the foul holds of our veffels, and fend with fwelling fails towards the chains which await them. Already has a diftinguished nation unfurled the banner of a fage and enlightened compassfion; the cause of humanity has found its advocates in commercial intereft and political calculation: a cause so sublime and imperious cannot fail of command. ing general attention, and muft, ere long, appear at the bar of public juftice .in every Chriftian country."

The practice is unjuft, cruel, and difhonourable, and the pns and the fame of

England would not be wasted away, though he should have the whole world for her accomplice.

If I do not venture to examine the political and commercial tendencies of my fubject, that is an emiflion which, between ourselves, will not require apology; for, though firmly of opinion that neither one nor the other is against me, we are well agreed, that "no worldly policy, no confideration of commerce, no influx of wealth, to indi viduals or to the nation," are here ar guments of any avail t

It is a melancholy and painful reRexion, that the wants and defines of men, which neceffarily multiply with their civilization and improvement, fhould kindle and develope in the human bofom a pallion which may rival in its effects all the exceffes which the ferocity of favage nature can exhibit; that pallion is the thirft of wealth. Urged by this impulfe, has the favoured European fo ignobly ufed his fuperior refources, and fo finfully perverted the bounties of Providence, as to have made himfelf the fcourge and the peft of those very people, for whom Heaven had ordained him to be the Meffenger of Truth, and the Minifter of comfort. This enlightened quarter of the globe has become a ftar of malignant influ ence for thofe obfcurer regions, upon which it might have reflected the kindhet rays! Hence African oppreffionhence Peruvian maffacre-hence Colo nial fetters-hence the rife and the progrefs of that infamous traffick in quef tion, which may be regarded as compleating the chain of iniquity, as forming the fupplemental page to that great hiftory of European injuftice, traced in bloody and indelible characters, upon the newly-dycovered foil of the Western bemisphere.

The pretext of converfion, so impioufly, and, alas! fuccelsfully, made ufe of at the outfet, certainly will not be amongst those which the modern tradeis, or their apologifts, employ. The obstructions and oppofition which the progrefs of religion meets with in the

The

Colonies

Colonies are too well known; and hence we have obtained the farcaftic compliment, that our confciences are too delicately framed to permit us to enflave a Chriftian brother! Wretched fubterfuge Unpardonable conduct, if the reproach be founded! I confefs, I have read few of the publications that have appeared, and grieve to think any fhould, in defence of the Slave Trade; it is only diffreffing to fee human wit ftruggling with the innate fentiment of right and wrong, implanted in every man's bofom, and which, if he examine deep enough, will never elude his fearch: it is only diftreffing to fee, that habit, or intereft, or their combined in fluence, fhould be capable, net alone of fpoiling the heart, but of misleading the judgement. Is there any one of thefe apologifts who, if he read of piracy having been both legal and honourable in antient Greece, does not feel both his reafon and fentiment revolt against fuch a monstrous inftitution? Yet Greece, if a civilized, was ftill a Pagan, country. Is there any of them that will undertake to vindicate the modern depredations of Algiers and Tunis? It is to be prefumed not: nevertheless, every found and impartial mind, every eye unobfcured by the vapours of prejudice, or undaz zled by the glare of glittering objects, will fee a family resemblance, ftrongly pronounced, between thete crying enormities and thofe we are quietly perpetrating under the milder denomination of trade. If it should difcern certain features of difparity, they are fuch as will scarcely tell in our favour; it may remark, that the Moorish robber, in attacking the liberties of others, expofes, at the fame time, his own to rifk. In contrafting the injuftice of a barbarous Mahometan with thofe of a polished, and, we must add, a Chriftian people, it may difcover in the latter a more ingenious and refined, a more filent and fecure mode, nor a lefs mijchievous or effectual one, of infringing the rights of mankind. If the European merchant be not always the oftenfible robber, he inftigates and encourages the theft; he plunders by proxy at leaft; and "is the

receiver of the ftolen goods"-(and what goods !)—If he be not himself the pirate, he is the caufe of piratical outrage. If he appear not at the head of thofe buccaneering expeditions; if he does not command in perfon thofe gallant fleets, which cruize in the African rivers for the purpofe of infefting and fcouring the coafts, fairly may they be regarded as fitted out in his fervice, and as kept in his pay.

Or could we fuppofe (what would to Heaven were reality!), that England had never dipped her hands in these tranfactions, let their defenders candidly and ingenuously declare, what fentence would have been paired upon the Por tuguefe, or the Spaniards, or any other people concerned in them*.

Where then is the man, whofe heart is pure, and whose reason is free, who has drank at no poisonous fource, nor tafted of any infane root, the liberal, humane, and generous Briton, who does not deprecate with anguish and indignation the day that firft faw his degenerate countrymen yield to fordid temptation, and bear their part in this cruel perfecution of their fpecies-that faw them approach the peaceful fhores of Africa, filled with the bafe and dire intent of kidnapping and carrying off the unfufpecting native-that faw them dividing friends, and difmembering fa milies, fetting tire to villages, and feizing upon the fugitive inhabitants-that faw them defcend, whilft yet we had no plantations of our own, to become the agents and the go-betweens of Slavery and oppreffion? Monftrous and unnatural occupation for the fons of Freedom! Can the man, whofe bofom glows with the honell pride of a Briton, ever read of an afiento contract, and not bluth to fee his countrymen ftipulating the monopoly of forging chains for men? To commerce we owe our glory, let us refpect and honour the name; but a traffick in human blood profanes that name; it is a libel upon the character of Commerce, and a blot in that of every nation by which it is exercised.

It is afferted, that the perfons whom the traders purchase are chiefly convicts,

or

er prifoners made in battle, who, with out remorfe or distinction, would have fallen a prey to the revenge of the conqueror, or, perhaps, have been immolated at the fhrine of Superftition; and thus the redemption of thefe devoted lives is reprefented as an act of huma

nity.

A practice fo unprecedented, as that of a general and indifcriminate maffacre of captives, is certainly difficult to cre dit. This, however, is a point we will not here difcufs: neither is it my wish to pry into the "fecrets of the prifonhoufe," and inveftigate the lodging humanity has prepared for them, to defcend amidst the vapours of the floating dungeon, and enquire how many perith there by feverer deaths than might have come from the victor's arm, or the knife of facrifice.

But it is impoffible not to ask thefe generous and merciful deliverers of the devoted captive, upon what ground they impole his chains after his ranfom? Was it neceffary to his protection and his welfare that he should be tranfported into a diftant clime, there to lote the rights of a man and citizen? Wherefore is he bought from death merely to be fold into flavery? If Humanity had any part in the purchase, what is her fhare in the fale ? has the meditated up on future events, and is the content with her refearch? Or how is it juft, how is it rational, that a lucklefs, though perhaps gallant, combatant in defence of life and liberty, fhould be confounded in the fame crowd, and configned over to one common and ignominious deftiny, with the malefa&tor, whom the like charitable motives have made his companion?

What ought to be the fize and complex on of that offence, whofe commuted and mitigated punishment is perpetual exile, inceffant toil, unlimited fervitude, involving the family and pofte. rity of the delinquent? Far be it from me to determine-it is the task of those who inflict it but, if it be ferioufly propofed to qualify any part of this trafck, upon the ground of its affecting perfons whofe liberties are juftly forfeited by their crimes, it is natural to afk, and will not their own bofom put the

question, whether they who, in fact, are charging themselves with the punishment, are well affured of the existence of the guilt? Is their deftiny confiftent with any principle or rule of juftice? Is it not utterly vague and undetermined? abandoned to chance, caprice, and paffion Much alfo do I fear, that this ftoic fyftem of legiflation which the European merchant has introduced in Africa; this fyftem which, in fixing one common doom for all, or at least one common fentence, has equalized every fpecies of guilt: much do I fear, and fhrewdly do I fufpe&t, that it has greatly fwelled the catalogue of fins, and multiplied, in a fenfe eafy to divine, the number of offenders; for, indeed, it would be thinking moft darkly of our fpecies, to conceive a foil fo fertile in iniquity, and to put faith in fuch a rich and unfailing fund of guilt, as is neceffarily implied in the pretext we are examining.

There is, it is true, a fpecies of guilt of grained dye, of unequivocal and univerfal defcription, from which it is impotüible to abfolve or wash the Negro: the guilt fo well defined by the feverely-ironical Montefquieu, of a flat nofe and a black complexion: veneficia mea, bac fumt. Had it, however, been the mode to judge of men by their internal qualities rather than exterior appear ance, the Negroes might have been entitled to more refpect, and have met with better treatment. Various authors bear teftimony to their native gentleness of manners, and benignity of difpofition; to their good-nature and hofpitality-hofpitality fo cruelly requited! If my memory does not fail me, one of the moft profound and accurate oblervers of nature which this or any age has produced, in fpeaking of the inhabitants of Guinea, expreffes himself to the following effect :

"If they discover no extraordinary quicknefs of parts, they exhibit at least a fund of love their families, friends, and countrymen: fenfibility; tender and affectionate; they charitable and humane, they relieve indigence unfolicited, and diftrefs is fure to obtam their fuccour; in a word, their hearts are excellent, and contain the feeds of all the virtues *."

I will not add a fyllable to this culogy. Let me only obferve, that M. Buffon lavishly accords thofe qualities, for whofe defect, neither brilliant talents nor tranfcendant genius can compenfate; and he lifts thefe injured and infulted beings to a fublime height above the level of irrational creation, to which ignorance and audacity have in vain attempted to reduce them.

But, if the above be faithful pictures of the genuine character and manners of the Negroes; if, at the æra when this trade firft commenced, they were wholly a paftoral and pacific people, paffing their golden hours in carelefs cafe, and focial comfort, under the fhade of their palm-groves; if difcord and war were unknown amongst them; whence their inteftine broils, whence their age of iron? Too obvious the reply-They owe them to its own baneful influence, to the feditious manoeuvres of its incendiary emiffaries: " hoc fonte derivata clades." This is the fource of evil; this is the devouring monster, more fierce and infidious than thofe which howl and hifs in their own defarts; that has depopulated the coafts, and is gone for prey into the heart of the country; a monfter, which "makes the meat it feeds on," and fattens upon the mischief it has created: for how is it poffible to conceive that a trade, against the fuccefs of which its miferable objects must be fo deeply interested (and till it fhall be proved that the victim hugs his chain, and quits his native fhore without tears and lamentation, and every exterior mark of heartfelt terror and defpair, I am warranted fo to argue), how, I fay, is it poffible that fuch a trade should exift but upon its own diabolical inventions? How thould it profper but in wiles and violence; in corrupting virtue, and kindling paffion; in exciting and fomenting difcord, inftigating and imputing guilt; in ftrata. gems, ambush, and furprize; in the induftrious exercise of every infernal art,

in the daring adoption of every plan of iniquity *?

And could we diveft it of all its acceffary and concomitant horrors, it would still remain an object of deformity and averfion. There is no poffible point of view in which the purchase and fale of a fellow creature can be either licit or rational; a traffick, in which man is both the merchant and merchandize, does not more wound and disgust the feelings of humanity, than it is re pugnant to the dictates of commonfenfe.

Impreffed with thefe fentiments, and harbouring fuch opinions, I cannot but have feen with infinite fatisfaction that the Society rejects all palliative meafures, and will only content itfelf with abfolute Abolition. Remedial acts are feldom good ones; in the prefent inftance, how fmall a part of the evil could they embrace!

The mind of man, like the foil he inhabits, has need of culture. Various caufes may concur to accelerate or to retard improvement; and thofe arrived at the fummit have no right to look down with contempt upon those beneath; it is glorious to ftretch the arm of affiftance, and help them up the afcent: but to fink the low ftill lower, and thence infer their incapacity to rife, that, indeed, is adding infult to injury, and is no lefs unreafonable than unjuft. Deftined to brutal degradation and groveling obedience, thall we debar our modern Helots from every fpecies of inftruction which might elevate their fentiments, or enlighten their underftandings, and then attribute to the fault of their heads and hearts what is alone imputable to our own ungenerous po licy?

To the light of revelation we are indebted for a verity, never proclawned by the voice of oracles, nor taught under the portico, nor in the academic grove. That verity is the equid origin of all mankind; and the heterogeneous

Minutes of Evi

diftinction