Government undertook, for
the term of thirty years then next to come, to transport annually
4800 slaves to the Spanish American colonies, at a fixed price. Almost
immediately after this new contract, a question arose in the English
Council as to what was the true legal character of the slaves thus to be
exported to the Spanish American colonies; and, according to the forms
of the British constitution, the question was submitted by the Crown in
council to the twelve judges of England. I have their answer here; it is
in these words:

"In pursuance of His Majesty's order in council, hereunto annexed, we do
humbly certify our opinion to be that negroes are merchandise."

Signed by Lord Chief-Justice Holt, Judge Pollexfen, and eight other
judges of England.

Mr. Mason. What is the date of that?

Mr. Benjamin. It was immediately after the treaty of Utrecht, in 1713.
Very soon afterwards the nascent spirit of fanaticism began to obtain
a foothold in England; and although large numbers of negro slaves were
owned in Great Britain, and, as I said before, were daily sold on the
public exchange in Lon-don, questions arose as to the right of the
owners to retain property in their slaves; and the merchants of London,
alarmed, submitted the question to Sir Philip Yorke, who afterwards
became Lord Hardwicke, and to Lord Talbot, who were then the solicitor
and attorney-general of the kingdom. The question was propounded to
them, "What are the rights of a British owner of a slave in England?"
and this is the answer of those two legal functionaries. They certified
that "a slave coming from the West Indies to England with or without his
master, doth not become free; and his master's property in him is not
thereby determined nor varied, and the master may legally compel him to
return to the plantations."

And, in 1749, the same question again came up before Sir Philip Yorke,
then Lord Chancellor of England, under the title of Lord Hardwicke, and,
by a decree in chancery in the case before him, he affirmed the doctrine
which he had uttered when he was attorney-general of Great Britain.

Things thus stood in England until the year 1771, when the spirit
of fanaticism, to which I have adverted, acquiring strength, finally
operated upon Lord Mansfield, who, by a judgment rendered in a case
known as the celebrated Sommersett case, subverted the common law of
England by judicial legislation, as I shall prove in an instant. I say
it not on