in the last chapter,) who, on hearing
the high character of the writer of it from Benjamin West, received it with
marks of peculiar condescension and attention. The following is a copy of
it.

"_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 connection 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 Great 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 in behalf of this greatly injured
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 mayest 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 this subject to which I have thus ventured to
crave thy particular attention, I have added some which at
different times I have believed it my d