ct of
their affection, or, sad alternative, drag them together to the horrors
of a mutual servitude! We keep them in the profoundest ignorance. We
gall them in a tenfold chain, with an unrelenting spirit of barbarity,
inconceivable to all but the spectators of it, unexampled among former
and other nations, and unrecorded even in the bloody registers of
heathen persecution. Such is the conduct of us enlightened Englishmen,
reformed Christians! Thus have we profited by our superior advantages,
by the favour of God, by the doctrines and example of a meek and lowly
Savior. Will not the blessings which we have abused loudly testify
against us? Will not the blood which we have shed cry from the ground
for vengeance upon our sins?"

In the same year, James Ramsay, vicar of Teston in Kent, became also an
able, zealous, and indefatigable patron of the African cause. This
gentleman had resided nineteen years in the island of St. Christopher,
where he had observed the treatment of the slaves, and had studied the
laws relating to them. On his return to England, yielding to his own
feelings of duty and the solicitations of some amiable friends, he
published a work, which he called _An Essay on the Treatment and
Conversion of the African Slaves in the British Sugar Colonies_. After
having given an account of the relative situation of master and slave in
various parts of the world, he explained the low and degrading situation
which the Africans held in society in our own islands. He showed that
their importance would be increased; and the temporal interest of their
masters promoted, by giving them freedom, and by granting them other
privileges. He showed the great difficulty of instructing them in the
state in which they then were, and such as he himself had experienced,
both in his private and public attempts, and such as others had
experienced also. He stated the way in which private attempts of this
nature might probably be successful. He then answered all objections
against their capacities, as drawn from philosophy, form, anatomy, and
observation; and vindicated these from his own experience. And lastly,
he threw out ideas for the improvement of their condition, by an
establishment of a greater number of spiritual pastors among them; by
giving them more privileges than they then possessed; and by extending
towards them the benefits of a proper police. Mr. Ramsay had no other
motive for giving this work to the public, than that of