decided the memorable Somerset case, and pronounced it
unlawful to hold a slave in Great Britain. The close of that decision
reads thus:

"Immemorial usage preserves a positive law, after the occasion or
accident which gave rise to it, has been forgotten; and tracing the
subject to natural principles, the claim of slavery never can be
supported. The power claimed was never in use here, or acknowledged by
the law. Upon the whole, we can not say the cause returned is sufficient
by the law; therefore the man must be discharged."

Previous to this date, many slaves had been introduced into English
families, and, on running away, the fugitives had been delivered up to
their masters, by order of the Court of King's Bench, under Lord
Mansfield; but now the poor African, no longer hunted as a beast of
prey, in the streets of London, slept under his roof, miserable as it
might be, in perfect security.[86]

To Granville Sharp belonged the honor of this achievement. By the
decision, about 400 negroes were thrown upon their own resources. They
flocked to Mr. Sharp as their patron; but considering their numbers, and
his limited means, it was impossible for him to afford them adequate
relief. To those thus emancipated, others, discharged from the army and
navy, were afterward added, who, by their improvidence, were reduced to
extreme distress. After much reflection, Mr. Sharp determined to
colonize them in Africa; but this benevolent scheme could not be
executed at once, and the blacks--indigent, unemployed, despised,
forlorn, vicious--became such nuisances, as to make it necessary they
should be sent somewhere, and no longer suffered to infest the streets
of London.[87] Private benevolence could not be sufficiently enlisted in
their behalf, and fifteen years passed away, when Government, anxious to
remove what it regarded as injurious, at last came to the aid of Mr.
Sharp, and supplied the means of their transportation and support. In
April, 1787, these colored people, numbering over 400, were put on
shipboard for Africa, and in the following month were landed in Sierra
Leone.[88]

But to return to Canada. We have at hand a flood of information, to
enable us to present a true picture of the colored population of that
Province, and to discern the feelings entertained toward them by the
white inhabitants. On the 27th April, 1841, the Assistant Secretary to
Government, addressed MAJOR ROBERT LACHLAN, Chairman of the Quarter
Sessi