is any thing
of Slavery remaining, I have always observed great gentleness and
goodness in the owners towards their slaves, whom they treat with great
kindness and care, and whom they feed and clothe exceedingly well. But,
while I have always heard them lamenting the existence of Slavery in
their Country, I cannot be so unjust, I cannot act so unnatural a part,
as to conclude that _our own West India Planters_ must be cruel and
brutal; seeing that Slavery exists to so great an extent in America,
notwithstanding the very prevalent and strong disposition to do it away.
How great must be the difficulty to accomplish this, let the reader
judge; and how foolish, then, must the Government of this Country be, if
it think to accomplish any thing similar to it, merely, because the
thing is called for by a set of visionaries, or, what is worse, by a set
of hypocrites, who, by an appeal to the best feelings of the popular
heart, knowing all the while that they are misleading the understanding,
endeavour to gratify their own selfish ambition!

WM. COBBETT.

_Kensington, 18 Sept. 1821._

AMERICAN SLAVE-TRADE.

11. Many schemes have been proposed for alleviating the miseries and
evils produced by the enslavement of the African race in the United
States. Possessors of slaves, as well as others, have investigated the
subject with great industry and anxiety; and all agree that something
ought to be done. The suggestion of an infallible remedy is useless, if
it be impossible to attain or apply it. Exportation to Africa, (the
country to which the wisdom of their Creator has adapted their colour
and faculties;) separate colonization on the public lands; employment on
national canals, roads, &c. have been recommended. These projects are
most certainly impracticable, except partially:--because their
completion would require the _voluntary_ estrangement by its legal
holders, of an immense quantity and value of what is generally though
erroneously termed _property_--human liberty.[1] And in the present
moral and intellectual condition of the slaves, the result would be
perhaps of doubtful benefit.

12. In examining this subject, I shall endeavour to be temperate, and to
avoid indulging in the use of reprehensive acrimonious modes of
expression.

13. Without the most distant inclination to aggravate the feelings of
any individual, but because "we ought not to shrink from the