al Philosophy was adopted early by some of the
colleges in our universities into the system of their education. It soon
found its way also into most of the private libraries of the kingdom; and
it was, besides, generally read and approved. Dr. Paley, therefore, must be
considered as having been a considerable coadjutor in interesting the mind
of the public in favour of the oppressed Africans.

In the year 1783, we find Mr. Sharp coming again into notice. We find him
at this time taking a part in a cause, the knowledge of which, in
proportion as it was disseminated, produced an earnest desire among all
disinterested persons for the abolition of the Slave-trade.

In this year, certain underwriters desired to be heard against Gregson and
others of Liverpool, in the case of the ship Zong, captain Collingwood,
alleging that the captain and officers of the said vessel threw overboard
one hundred and thirty-two slaves alive into the sea, in order to defraud
them, by claiming the value of the said slaves, as if they had been lost in
a natural way. In the course of the trial, which afterwards came on, it
appeared, that the slaves on board the Zong were very sickly; that sixty of
them had already died; and several were ill and likely to die, when the
captain proposed to James Kelsall, the mate, and others, to throw several
of them overboard, stating "that if they died a natural death, the loss
would fall upon the owners of the ship, but that, if they were thrown into
the sea, it would fall upon the underwriters." He selected accordingly one
hundred and thirty-two of the most sickly of the slaves. Fifty-four of
these were immediately thrown overboard, and forty-two were made to be
partakers of their fate on the succeeding day. In the course of three days
afterwards the remaining twenty-six were brought upon deck to complete the
number of victims. The first sixteen submitted to be thrown into the sea;
but the rest with a noble resolution would not suffer the officers to touch
them, but leaped after their companions and shared their fate.

The plea, which was set up in behalf of this atrocious and unparalleled act
of wickedness, was, that the captain discovered, when he made the proposal,
that he had only two hundred gallons of water on board, and that he had
missed his port; It was proved, however, in answer to this, that no one had
been put upon short allowance; and that, as if Providence had determined to
afford an unequivocal pr