tions of them into his dominions in the western world, in the
light of a regular trade. After his death, however; a proposal was made
by Bartholomew de las Casas, the bishop of Chiapa, to Cardinal Ximenes,
who held the reigns of the government of Spain till Charles the Fifth
came to the throne, for the establishment of a regular system of
commerce in the persons of the native Africans. The object of
Bartholomew de las Casas was undoubtedly to save the American Indians,
whose cruel treatment and almost extirpation he had witnessed during his
residence among them, and in whose behalf he had undertaken a voyage to
the court of Spain. It is difficult to reconcile this proposal with the
humane and charitable spirit of the bishop of Chiapa. But it is probable
he believed that a code of laws would soon be established in favour both
of Africans and of the natives in the Spanish settlements, and that he
flattered himself that, being about to return and to live in the country
of their slavery, he could look to the execution of it. The cardinal,
however, with a foresight, a benevolence, and a justice which will
always do honour to his memory, refused the proposal, not only judging
it to be unlawful to consign innocent people to slavery at all, but to
be very inconsistent to deliver the inhabitants of one country from a
state of misery by consigning to it those of another. Ximenes,
therefore, may be considered as one of the first great friends of the
Africans after the partial beginning of the trade.

This answer of the cardinal, as it showed his virtue as an individual,
so was it peculiarly honourable to him as a public man, and ought to
operate as a lesson to other statesmen, how they admit any thing new
among political regulations and establishments, which is connected in
the smallest degree with injustice; for evil, when once sanctioned by
governments, spreads in a tenfold degree, and may, unless seasonably
checked, become so ramified as to effect the reputation of a country,
and to render its own removal scarcely possible without detriment to the
political concerns of the state. In no instance has this been verified
more than in the case of the Slave Trade. Never was our national
character more tarnished, and our prosperity more clouded by guilt.
Never was there a monster more difficult to subdue. Even they, who heard
as it were the shrieks of oppression, and wished to assist the
sufferers, were fearful of joining in their beha