tion, must sometime draw down upon us the heaviest judgment of
Almighty God, who made of one blood all the sons of men, and who
gave to all equally a natural right to liberty; and who, ruling
all the kingdoms of the earth with equal providential justice,
cannot suffer such deliberate, such monstrous iniquity, to pass
long unpunished."

But Dr. Peckard did not consider this delivery of his testimony, though
it was given before a learned and religious body, as a sufficient
discharge of his duty, while any opportunity remained of renewing it
with effect. And, as such an one offered in the year 1785, when he was
vice-chancellor of the University, he embraced it. In consequence of his
office, it devolved upon him to give out two subjects for Latin
dissertations, one to the middle bachelors, and the other to the senior
bachelors of arts. They who produced the best were to obtain the prizes.
To the latter he proposed the following: _Anne liceat Invitos in
Servitutem dare?_ or, _Is it right to make slaves of others against
their will?_

This circumstance of giving out subjects for the prizes, though only an
ordinary measure, became the occasion of my own labours, or of the real
honour which I feel in being able to consider myself as the next
coadjutor of this class in the cause of the injured Africans. For it
happened in this year that, being of the order of senior bachelors, I
became qualified to write. I had gained a prize for the best Latin
dissertation in the former year, and, therefore, it was expected that I
should obtain one in the present, or I should be considered as having
lost my reputation both in the eyes of the University and of my own
College. It had happened also, that I had been honoured with the first
of the prizes[A], in that year, and therefore it was expected again,
that I should obtain the first on this occasion. The acquisition of the
second, however honourable, would have been considered as a falling off,
or as a loss of former fame. I felt myself, therefore, particularly
called upon to maintain my post. And, with feelings of this kind, I
began to prepare myself for the question.

[Footnote A: There are two prizes on each subject, one for the best and
the other for the second-best essays.]

In studying the thesis, I conceived it to point directly to the African
Slave Trade, and more particularly as I knew that Dr. Peckard, in the
sermon which I have mentioned, had pronounced so