end,
let us represent to our compatriots the abominable iniquity of the
Guinea trade. Let us put to the blush the pretended disciples of the
benign Saviour of the World, for the encouragement given to the
unhappy Africans in invading the liberty of their own brethren. Let us
rise, and rise with energy against the corruption introduced into the
principles and manners of the masters and owners of slaves, by a
conduct so contrary to humanity, reason, and religion. Let us be still
more vehement in representing its baneful influence on the principles
and manners of their wretched offspring, necessarily educated in
idleness, pride, and all the vices to which human nature is liable.

"How desirable is it that Lewis the Sixteenth, whose virtues, and good
disposition have been so nobly praised, would set an example to the
other potentates of Europe, by forbidding his subjects to be concerned
in a traffic so evil in itself, and so corrupting in its consequences;
and that he would also issue out ordinances in favour of the negroes,
who are now slaves in his dominions. Alas! should christianity, that
law of love and charity, work its proper effect on the hearts of its
pretended disciples, we should see numbers of christians traverse
Africa, and both the Indies, not to pollute themselves with slavery
and slaughter, nor to accumulate wealth, the supreme wish of the
present nominal christians, but that divine love would impel them to
visit remote regions in order to make the inhabitants acquainted with
the corruption of the human heart, and invite them to seek for the
influence of that grace proposed by the gospel, by which they may
obtain salvation. I am under the necessity of concluding hastily,
requesting thou wouldst excuse faults, which time does not allow me to
correct, and to write to me by various opportunities, the vessels
bound to those parts often missing their destination.

"I am affectionately thy friend,
"ANTHONY BENEZET."

To this energetic and impassioned epistle, the abbe made the following
answer.

"BRUXELLES, DECEMBER 26, 1781.

"All your letters have miscarried; happily I received that of the
sixteenth of July, 1781, with the pamphlets filled with light and
sensibility, which accompany it. Never was any present more agreeable
to me. My satisfaction was equal to the respect I have always had for
the society of Quakers. May it please Heaven to cau