s by God's appointment, and, abstractedly considered, is neither a subject
for pride, nor an object of contempt."

After Dr. Primatt, we come to baron Montesquieu. "Slavery," says he, "is
not good in itself. It is neither useful to the master nor to the slave.
Not to the slave, because he can do nothing from virtuous motives. Not to
the master, because he contracts among his slaves all sorts of bad habits,
and accustoms himself to the neglect of all the moral virtues. He becomes
haughty, passionate, obdurate, vindictive, voluptuous, and cruel." And with
respect to this particular species of slavery he proceeds to say, "it is
impossible to allow the Negros are men, because, if we allow them to be
men, it will begin to be believed that we ourselves are not Christians."

Hutcheson, in his System of Moral Philosophy, endeavours to show that he,
who detains another by force in slavery, can make no good title to him, and
adds, "Strange that in any nation where a sense of liberty prevails, and
where the Christian religion is professed, custom and high prospect of gain
can so stupefy the consciences of men and all sense of natural justice,
that they can hear such computations made about the value of their
fellow-men and their liberty without abhorrence and indignation!"

Foster, in his Discourses on Natural Religion and Social Virtue, calls the
slavery under our consideration "a criminal and outrageous violation of the
natural rights of mankind." I am sorry that I have not room to say all that
he says on this subject. Perhaps the following beautiful extracts may
suffice:

"But notwithstanding this, we ourselves, who profess to be
Christians, and boast of the peculiar advantages we enjoy by means
of an express revelation of our duty from heaven, are in effect
these very untaught and rude heathen countries. With all our
superior light we instil into those, whom we call savage and
barbarous, the most despicable opinion of human nature. We, to the
utmost of our power, weaken and dissolve the universal tie, that
binds and unites mankind. We practise what we should exclaim
against as the utmost excess of cruelty and tyranny, if nations of
the world, differing in colour and form of government from
ourselves, were so possessed of empire, as to be able to reduce us
to a state of unmerited and brutish servitude. Of consequence we
sacrifice our reason, our humanity, our christianity, t