diftinction of mafter and flave is utterly incompatible with thofe equal rights, and fraternal ties, which it includes. There is, befides, a maxim in theChriftian code, without tranfgreffing which it is impoffible that an Englishman should make or keep a flave. He cannot act by others as he defires to be acted by, if he takes from them, or withholds from them, that poffeffion of which he is fo jealoufly fond, is fo nobly tenacious. Let the minds of this degraded people be prepared for the reception of the blefling in ftore for them, by the immediate inculcation of moral and Chriftian knowledge; grant them, what they have been hitherto deprived of, a civil existence. We have a law peculiar to ourfelves, and which does honour to our humanity, which takes the very brutes under protection, and fets a fine upon their inhuman treatment. But fhall we measure the fufferings, nay the murder, of our fellow-creatures, by the fame fcale? This is an abufe that calls for inftant redrefs. Servus homo eft.Let us remember they are men, whilft it may be neceffary they should continue flaves; when they ceafe to be fuch, they will not forget our attention. In ancient Rome, the flaves found refuge from the cruelty of their masters at the feet of the ftatue of the Emperor; un der the fhield of law, and the wing of juice, let ours find protection from wanton infult, from merciless exaftion, from the wired lash of an unfeeling task. mafter. Thus rifing ftep by step, they will fuftain their height without giddinefs: thus gradually acquiring a fober fenfe and rational consciousness of the dignity of their nature, they will be properly qualified to obtain, and to enjoy, the rights which belong to it, at fuch epochs, and according to the plans, which the wifdom and humanity of the Legiflature fhall fettle and adopt. And then may native character revive! then may thofe ettimable quali ties which hiftorians and naturalifts accord, and which calamity and debafement had excluded, refume their empire in the heart! Then will the amiable affections fucceed to the dark and dan gerous paffions; to the gloom of defpair, to the fullen referve of vengeance, the fmiles of content, and the effufions of gratitude; mutual confidence will take place of mutual mistrust and apprehenfion. Then may a race of men, who form to great a majority of the inhabitants, become interested in the protection and profperity of countries, of which they are at present an object of conftant alarm. The fame courage which has often made revolt formida ble, will render afliftance precious. Thefe are no vifionary profs. During the late wai, fome of the French Islands were indebted to the Free Negroes for that protection to which their White Militia was inadequate. On the other hand, let it be remembered, that, in the preceding war, the South Carolinians we e prevented from employing their domeftic force against the furrounding ravages and encroachments of the enemy, merely through the fear of their own slaves. Thus a means of defence became the impediment to all defence, a double cause of danger and embarraffments.-Then too will appear, agreeably to reafon, and in conformity with all paft experience, the advantages It is imposible to describe accurately the fufferings and tortures endured by the Weft Indian flaves, as they depend entirely on the capricious cruelty of their owners and overfeers: but we may fafely enumerate, from the evidence, want of food, cloaths, and rest, exceffive toil, cart-whips, cow fkins, dungeons, stocks, chains, fetters, pot-books, iron boots, thumb-fcrews, picquets, hot irons, flaming fealing-wax, cutting off ears and limbs, hanging, burning alive, and murders in feveral other ways-without mentioning the horrible tortures inflicted judicially on flaves who commit capital offences against Whites—As a fpecimen of our colonial laws, we may cite the 18th clause of that which was paifed in the Babamas in 1784, which ordains, That, "if any flave thall absent him or herfelf from his or her owner for three months fucceffively, fuch flave thall be deemed an out-law; and, as an encouragement to apprehend and bring to justice fuch runaways, any perfun ør persons who hall apprehend any fuch runaways, either ALIVE or DEAD, fhall be paid, out of the Public Treasury, twenty pounds for every flave fo apprehended." Privy Council's Report, Part III. In the Barbadoes Gazette of Jan. 14, 1784, we find this advertisement : " Abfented herfelf from the fervice of the fubfcriber, a yellow-fkin Negro wench, named Sarah Deroral.” After a particular description of her perfon, and fuppofed concealment, the advertisement ends with these words: "Whoever will apprebend the faid wench, ALIVE or DEAD, pall receive two moïdores reward, from JOSEPH-CHARLES HOWARD, Roe Buck, Bridgetown, Dec. 17.” of of willing labour over that which is forced and compulfive. Then, to fum up all in one word, it will be feen how much freemen are in every fenfe, and in all refpects, more ufefu!; valuable, and worthy members of fociety, than flaves. Towards the middle of the fifteenth century this accurfed traffick began. In the interval of time, Africa has been robbed of fixty millions of inhabitants. Calculation might be loft, in purfuing it as a caufe of depopulation through the vast maze of all its baneful confequences and effects. Could we only compute the numbers which it has actually and visibly fwept from the face of the earth, the account would fartle and confound us. Have hurricanes and earthquakes, have peftilence and famine, produced fuch a bill of mortality? Were the estimate, (I fpeak only of our own, and thudder to think how principal a fhare,) were the mournful eftimate laid before the eyes of Parliament ! Juftitiam quam cognovit Afia experiatur Africa. Doubtlefs, her injuries cry at leaft as loud. Unacquainted with Eastern pomp and luxury, little curious of the gold which Nature has placed beneath their feet, her fimpler children tremble for the privation of treasures more precious than gold, or the gems of Delhi,liberty, home, family, and friends. Thefe are the property whofe violation they complain of; fuch is the wealth, and fuch are the jaghires, of which they claim the undilurbed poffeffion; and thefe what multitudes have already exchanged for toil and fatigue, for ftripes and chains; for a lacerated body, and a bleeding mind; for all that fevere complication of phyfical and moral fuffering, which has brought them to a deplorable and untimely end, often accelerated, horrid to relate, by the hand of fuicide! Could, alas! the perfons concerned be roufed to a fenfe of ferious reflexion! could they open their eyes upon the infamy of their profellion, and fhut their ears upon the fophifins of an artificial confcience could they eradicate from their minds every illiberal prejudice and fordid principle, and be fenfible How much 't would 'vail them, in their place, To graft the love of human race! the labours of your Society might be abridged, and the interpofition of the Legislature be unneceffary. GENT. MAG. Auguft, 1791. There is a divine law, unwritten upon parchments, but graven deep in the heart of man by the hand that framed him, which, prior and paramount to every act of royal and fenatorial authority, no human difpenfations can fufpend or affect: Huic lege non abrogari jus eft, neque in hac aliquid derogari totest-nec per Senatum aut per Populum bac lege folvi poffumus. If the faith of Parliament were really committed upon this occasion, we will venture to affert, that it would be infinitely more honoured in the breach than the obfervance." Prior rights are in queftion; fuperior claims interfere; they demand, they command, the abolition of a traffick in which all right is annihilated, and the most facred claims are defpifed; a traffick, which directly militates against the fpirit of our Conftituton; against every moral, and every Chriftian virtue, against every amiable affection, and generous fentiment, which can adorn or dignify the human mind.. Mr. URBAN, London, Aug. 14. THE accession of fortune, the rife of families, and the decline of them, are fubjects worthy the pen of a wellinformed Hiftorian. By fuch ftudies, and fuch contemplative biography, liberally conducted, we may instruct youth, and delight advanced age; and, while we urge on the cautious and the indolent, by a laudable zeal, for acts of ambition and virtue, we check the warm and the impetuous from wild chimerical projects of romance. That men of fcience, of fortune, and of genius, fhould fo often end their lives in mifery, and wear out their vital thread in the precincts of a prifon, is a fad, but too common, cafe; for, fays a celebrated author, in his admired Life of Savage, "Volumes have been written only to enumerate the miseries of the Learned, and relate their unhappy lives, and untimely deaths." The Lovers of Antiquity will not be forry to know, that, by accidentally meeting with an auctioneer's hand-bill, on the fourth and laft day's fale of a tradefman's effects in the Strand, where the late Francis Brerewood, Efq. had lodged near fifteen years ago, and, from narrow circumftances, had left his property behind him, many writings, of thi, and of the last century, were preferved from deftruction. His cheft had been three days fold, and delivered to a broker, the purchafer of it, as wafte-paper, from whom whom they were redeemed. Among this collection are many articles, fome of which, probably, may be deemed worthy of the public eye, as well as the originals of others that have received the public admiration in Mr. Urban's Mifcellany more than fifty years ago. Such as in vol. VII. p. 760, Verfes to Charles Lord Baltimore, written in Gunpowder Foreft in Maryland; vol. XIV. p 46, Winter; vol. XVI. p. 157, Spring; ib. p. 265. Summer: by Thomas Brerewood, Efq. elder and only brother of the above, who died in 1748. Thomas, the father of these two brothers, the younger of whom, Francis, died ten years ago, at the age of eightytwo, was the grandfon, by a second marriage, of Sir Robert Brerewood, Knight, who was chofen Recorder of his native city, Chester, 15 Car. I. 1639; and in 1643 was created one of the Judges of the Common Pleas. The ancestors of this family were citizens of Chefter, and for fome time had held large poffeflions there. They had repeatedly filled the offices of Mayor, Aldermen, and Sheriffs of this city; wherein Robert Brerewood, the grandfather of Sir Robert, died in the year 1600, in his third Mayoralty. He is denominated Wet-glover. The following very excellent character is given of him by William Webb, in Daniel King's Vale-Royal of England, or County Palatine of Chefter, folio, 1656, Part II. P. 43: "Upon the South fide of the chancel of this church (the Abbie of St. Werburgh's in Chefter) ftandeth a fair chappel. At the upper end of this chappell lyeth the body of a late famous citizen, Robert Brerewood, Alderman, and thrice Maior of this city; of whom I find no other monument there, fave onely his coat, creft, and streamer, advanced over him, the words whereof are, Labore, Prudentia, Equitate, which were well fitted to him, in whom thofe virtues were all eminent. And I fuppofe that I can here lay a foundation for as lafting a monument of him as can be made of mettall or stone to make it more knowen, that he was the happy father of a well-known fon, that learned Edward Brerewood of Oxford, whofe furpaffing progreffe in the ftudies of all manner of learning, the University doth yet, and for ever will, ring loud of; and Gresham Colledge in London, where he was Mathematisal Reader, will to the world's end bewail Some Antiquities touching Chester, by Sir Peter Leicester, Bart. London, 1672, p. 187. the want of: whom, by an untimely death, it pleafed God to deprive the world of, before he had finished, or at least before he had taken order for prefervation of, fuch learned labours of his, as, if they were publifhed abroad, fhould make the world beholding to Chester, the nurse of such a father which begot fuch a fon." The fecond fon of Robert Brerewood laft-mentioned was Edward, the famous fcholar, of Brazen nofe College in Oxford, who was afterwards chosen the first Profeffor of Aftronomy in Gresham College, London, the author of feveral learned works, fome of which were publifhed by his nephew Sir Robert after his deceafe, which happened on the 4th of November, 1613, by a fever, in his 48th year. Edward Brerewood is mentioned in high encomium by Dr. Fu ler †, in his "Worthies of England;" where his name is fpelt Brierwood. An elder brother of Edward was John 1, the father of Sir Robert, who, as Sir Peter Leicefter § tells us, was Sheriff of that city, though his name ap The following books, written by him, are taken from Ward's " Profeffors of Gre fham College," fol 1740, 74, 75 1. De Ponderibus et Pretiis Veterum Num morum, eorumque cum Recentioribus Collatione, Lib. 1. Londini, 1614, 4to. Languages and Religions through the chief 2. Enquiries touching the Diversities of Parts of the World. Lond. 1614, 23, 35, 4to; 1647, &c. 8vo. 3. Elementa Logicæ, in Gratiam ftudiofæ Juventutis in Academia Oxonienfi. Lond. 1614, 15, &c. 8vo. 4. Tractatus quidam Logici de Prædicabilibus, et Prædicamentis. Oxon. 4to, 1628; 1638, &c. 8vo. 5. Tractatus duo: quorum primus eft de Meteoris, fecundus de Oculo. Oxon. 1631, 38, 8vo. 6. A Treatife of the Sabbath, 1611. Oxf. 1631, 4to. 7. Mr. Byfield's Answer, with Mr. Brerewood's Reply. Oxford, 1631, 4to. 8. A fecond Treatife of the Sabbath; or, an explication of the Fourth Commandment. Oxford, 1632, 4to. 9. Commentarii in Erbica Ariftotelis. Oxon. 1640, 4to. 10. A Declaration of the Patriarchal Government of the Antient Church. Oxford, 1614, 4to.; Lond. 1647; Bremen, 1701, 8vo. +Folio, London, 1662- Chester, 190. Not the fon of Robert, as is reprefented by A. Wood, Athenæ Oxon. vol. I. § Some Antiquities touching Chester, by Sir Peter Leicester, bart. London, 1672, p. 187. pears |