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their countenance, is, indeed, surprising, and, charity would suppose, must, in a great measure, have arisen from this, that many persons in government, both of the Clergy and Laity, in whose power it hath been to put a stop to the Trade, have been unacquainted with the corrupt motives which gives life to it; and the groans, the dying groans, which daily ascend to God, the common Father of mankind, from the broken hearts of those his deeply oppressed creatures; otherwise the powers of the earth would not, I think I may venture to say, could not, have so long authorised a practice so inconsistent with every idea of liberty and justice, which, as the learned James Foster says, Bids that God, which is the God and Father of the Gentiles, unconverted to Christianity, most daring and bold defiance; and spurns at all the principles both of natural and revealed Religion.
Much might justly be said of the temporal evils which attend this practice, as it is destructive of every country, in proportion as it prevails. It might be also shewn, that it destroys the bonds of natural affection and interest, whereby mankind in general are united; that it introduces idleness, discourages marriage, corrupts the youth, ruins and debauches morals, excites continual apprehensions of dangers, and frequent alarms, to which the Whites are necessarily exposed from so great an encrease of a people, that, by their bondage and oppressions, become natural enemies, yet, at the fame time, are filling the places and eating the bread of those who would be the support and security of the country. But as these and many more reflections of the same kind, may occur to a considerate mind, I shall only endeavour to shew, from the nature of the
