se all nations to
adopt their principles; men would then be happy, and the globe not
stained with blood. Let us join in our supplications to the supreme
Being, that he may unite us in the bonds of a tender and unalterable
charity.

"I am, &c.
"RAYNAL."

* * * * *

TO CHARLOTTE, _Queen of Great Britain_.

"Impressed with a sense of religious duty, and encouraged by the
opinion generally entertained of thy benevolent disposition to succour
the distressed, I take the liberty, very respectfully, to offer to thy
perusal some tracts which I believe faithfully describe the suffering
condition of many hundred thousands of our fellow creatures of the
African race, great numbers of whom, rent from every tender connexion
in life, are annually taken from their native land, to endure, in the
American islands and plantations, a most rigorous and cruel slavery,
whereby many, very many of them, are brought to a melancholy and
untimely end. When it is considered, that the inhabitants of Britain,
who are themselves so eminently blessed in the enjoyment of religious
and civil liberty, have long been, and yet are, very deeply concerned
in this flagrant violation of the common rights of mankind, and that
even its national authority is exerted in support of the African slave
trade, there is much reason to apprehend that this has been, and as
long as the evil exists, will continue to be, an occasion of drawing
down the Divine displeasure on the nation and its dependencies. May
these considerations induce thee to interpose thy kind endeavours on
behalf of this greatly oppressed people, whose abject situation gives
them an additional claim to the pity and assistance of the generous
mind, inasmuch as they are altogether deprived of the means of
soliciting effectual relief for themselves. That so thou may not only
be a blessed instrument in the hand of Him '_by whom kings reign, and
princes decree justice_,' to avert the awful judgments by which the
empire has already been so remarkably shaken, but that the blessings
of thousands ready to perish may come upon thee, at a time when the
superior advantages attendant on thy situation in this world, will no
longer be of any avail to thy consolation and support. To the tracts
on the subject to which I have thus ventured to crave thy particular
attention, I have added some others, which at different times, I have