The Sun.
London, England, 1820-12-14 00:00:00

POLITICAL LITERATURE..

/ FARTHER EXTRACTS FROM
RECOLLECTIONS "IND REFLECTIONS,
PERSONAL AND POLITICAL,
AS CONNECTED WITH PUBLIC AFFAIRS DURING

THE REIGN_ OF GFORG,g
By JOI-IN'Nkl-TOLli, Esq. la;t. Member of Parliament, &e.

CHAPTER i'r.--SLAITE TRADE.

.
I was in-the House of :Co:Moons during the discussions on
the AboliCo'n of the Slave Trade ; but I never voted on the
nth-yea"; there were eircumstances.which led me to.he4ita4 :
and islieta••l ,ivubted on which side.l ought to vote, 1, thought
. it most safe to
,abstain front voting at all. No man can
like
the stave Trade. It 'is oppressive to the•slave•; it is roar in-
juriens-t the master, ;for it ,corrupts his morals.; accustom-
ing diim to believe. that he may live with other human erra-,
teel-es without ltr.iiic stiMliect to the rest raitii'nf uroral
Perhaps thers.is no collo!! y •in Europe in which the
portion'of -slaves to freemen was•at one time greater than it
was'in Itlngiand. • i apprehend • that. this was owing to the
Heptarchy.The division of the cOutitry into seven Kingdoms
produced wars;-wars occasioned captives, and. captives heeanw
slaves. Serpi via ,N•treilianon:. The -wise decisions of our.
Cioarte-of'-Law; assisted by other eirctuustaitees, effectuated
ertlratChisentent. I will mention some of these-circumstances.
t heCourts of Law decided,t hat an illegitimate childconlil
not tic a slave, or, as our law"•calls him, a sent; or vi47ein. He
csuld inherit niaadvaletage•from his parents ; it would, there;
fort. haVe been unreasonable that balloond inherit a disade
vantage. Secondly, if the femaleslaye, or,as.she is called in
our-law boolis,.a niffe, -married a freeman, .she became en-
franchised during the.coverture, and her children were free.
'thirdly, if the: male slave. became a monk he became free.—
It Was the same if the teinale slave became a ton. There
were marts; other 'decisions of the Courts of, Law, which fa-
- voured the enfranchisement of villeins. • I.will only mention
one :»ore, and', shall select that because it W3l ..at so
Taft a period'as the reign of Richard 11., and-in Opposition.to
the wishes of the•Legisiature.• If A, the villein-of B, hrought
an action in a Court of Law against.. T 3, and B pleaded
in bar of-- his action,'. thbugh A failed in his snit,
yet.
./)„,., the villein,-hecame enfranchised ; for 13, hy plead-
ing
• in bar to his action, had treated -A as a freeman ; and lie
caald not afterwaids falsify. his own admission. To prevent
this inconvenience, 1i was 'Under the necessity of pleading in
•nhateinerit,,,or disability of A's person. His plea therefore
avottl..l regularly- have run in these words,-•" That be, was
not bound. to answer .A's action, becausethat he, A,• was his
villein, re-gar-dant to-Bls•manor of Wellington in the county,
of--tornersct.". To .this,.plea in abatement, A, according-to
the regular course of pleading, ought to-have replied in these
words, -via. " That he,,. A,' was frees. williont this
ti•at he: A, ..was • the villein of B, regardatit to. B's
manor of Wellington, ifs the comity of •Somerset." 'Three,_
according to, the ordinary rules of pleading, ,1 his question,
whkliet:;‘, was a vi lwii regardant to B's orator of Welling—
ton its Ilie.county of Somerset, .ought to have been ivied by a
;trry of tiomersetshiee.: But, in favour of liberty, the courts
,of..law departed from the ordinary course of pleading, ani.
decided, that A should be allowed to plead a.manner dif-
ferent from what was commonly prescribed : and they allow-
ed ••A to plead iii these•words, viz. ‘• That he, A, was.ft ee,''
omitting arty answer to • the other part of B's plea. By. this
adveritage-thoe allowed to A,.the question or issue between
rA and 13 was no longer accompanied-with any circumstances
of*locality. The Nsue or question hetween.t ha. parties. was
eimply‘whother A was free, and, was therefore to lie tiled
by a jory•of that -county in: which A had brought his action.
In Cite seventeenth iir• Richard It. an Act Of Parliament
'passed, reciting-aa it:convenience front this mode of pleading,
and applying a renhoiv. • Ti•e act recited, that it often: hap-
ppued, that a -villein tied into a.town, Where the inhabitants
w.ere disposed to favour.. the. claim of freedom. That he thell,
»fought a fictitious .aoti colourable action eg,ainst his lerd;
setith a view toorre. of these two advantages, vie,. " That if
thelord,pieade-3 it bar of •Irs action„ he, Ibe -villein, :night
be enfranchised by. his lord's plea : alidaf the lord pleaded
in disability, of his person; and iu abatement of, his aetion,,
that their the plea ought be tried ,by a jury every aay dis-
posed to find iii the eillein's . farimr." To remedy this
mis-
chief', the statute enaote,l, that the lord might plead in bar, of
:be villein's action; actsompanying-hisolva with a protestation,
that the plaintiff wasqns eilleitt: zatiathat a plea in bar, ae-=.
• comp:tided with this prostatiort, clownl slot renilert
statutiej.ws..wiiiten the French language.
tt.r._--$44,4j4ii 'rf- t tr.s.
id..„:_!::?ttudial of Sir ria;

Tee,

, . .
concludes by s,aying,,
hie does not know is oat to make . The words whir; Sir
Edward Coke transfated-irt:orreetly are the following. The.
statute recites, that the, ,villein files into a town, " ;to it est
fort a trier'envers- sort seigneur.".- Sir Edward..Colve tram-
skies these words, -Where it is. bard to. try .against his lord."
Whereas the true -;trauslation is, Where he, the villein, is
powerfoliwtrii,l against his lord. „And thus, by this mistake
is tho translation, Sir Edward Coke sopposesthe awe -
VI hare bad iq vieW a mischiei .divecfly the reverse of that
vonicli they ,really had in vie-y, and which they wished to
• remedy,. not the solicitude of our Courts of Law, to
increase the number of freenico, defeated thesetstforts of the
lecislature to.preserve the character of villeins in England.
Ferf the courts decided, that if the plaintiff recovered, his.
ation then conid not be deemed fictitious arid malt urtble.
It was therefore not a case within the statute. The (teen-
slant was not entitled In any lie-heft under. tie statute, and
tlie•villeio•was enfrancln-sed -by the defentlant'S plea.
Perhaps one of tie circtunstances, which the most contri-
buted to the enfranoltisement'uf our villeins, is that which is
generally considered as one of the greatest calamities record-
ed in our history: .I mean the long civil war. betwpen the
Houses of York and Lancaster. The lords-enfranchised their
villeins„tbat they might use them- as soldiers. it is a-ccm-
roots expression in the historians .of that Period, in speaking
of.a crat lord who took partin the cull wars, ecru itia
And. as an inducement to the villeins to serve as soldiers,.
they enfranchised them, and.,granted them lands to be held
latopy of Court Roil. Sir Edward.Colie, wlio.wrote in the
'retirso of James 1..' says, that half the land in England was at.
that time copylveld. , As the _proportion of copyhold land is'
ntiw very much diminished, it is possible that eronepeopie May
doubt tlae accuracy of Sir Edward Coke's assertion. 'But let
-it be recollected, that a great. proportion of the. land in the.
Western Counties etas even so bite as in-the memory of peo7
pie now living, held by leases .for ninety7iline, years deter-,
i nable on lires7 Arid, wherever this, practice prevailed, there
is gamut reas'ho to believe', that. the lands
.had
,antecedently
born held by copy.of Court Roll.
• Wherever slavery has prevailed, it has aenerallY been the
resnit of Compest, On the tail of the. Roman Empire, the
Northern nations. overran France, Spain, Portugal, and •
May. They attt>zttiiclaed servitude iu all-these countries. The
Normans.comprered,England... Whether they.reciced any of
- the Saxons. to slavery, or were contented ...with the slaves whom
Vhey found in •is a -question on which I have not
formed Any opinion. Meng the tithe of the Roman Itrptsblic
touch of theitopplation of Italy coniistrdof .slaves. We know
also that a large propiotion of the inhabitants of Albert's'
were slaves: It ',was prtibably the saner in other states of
Greece. We find in the Old Testament, that Joseph e.as sold
to .the Midisnires passing from Valestineinto.Egypt. the
practice ii!f. varrying,slaces.-rots, Egypt.•barl -not- 'brew-esta-
blished, it is not prolittlele; either thaiJosepit's. brethren worth
have-thiitight of selling hist,• or that the Midianites would •
have purchased. him. These Medianites were.probably a ca.,
ravan of slave nrcycbants. , •••• • . ,

Let it not be.ssupposed, that I -am a .fritend.l.o, Slavery, be-
cause 4 thus scrum h or; its antiquiry, Iy only hliiculty.is
about the best means of abolishing,. Slavery.. I doubt
thee it can be abolished . liy the means which have been'
tal.iited• • The inllabit•aots of I he south:ern and western parts
a the United States, of Ainctica will with great reluctance be
brenght to relinquish the .us eof slates, In Sp.anish and l'or-
tvneseili/lIPEICa, all rntempts to abolish the Slave Trade will
be. unsuccessful. I hate rematlitql,that:-the change of the race
fd, the inbabitants has in most countries liien occasioned by
conquest. But this Will not be the CISC in respect to the Ne-
groo-carried to America. They will be carried there as slaves,
but the ihhahitants wit.,gradttally become a mixed rare.
- When the Abolstiwe of the Sizsre.Trade was first suggested in
the House of Commons, I did not think, that the means, by
which it svos.prnposed that the abolition 'should be effected,
-were" judicious.: I had entirely approved of the measures
lay whieb it was honed that the sufferings of the slaves
in their passage (MI; Africa to the West Indies Might he
diuinislted. The bounty -given to 'those captains who
tratispotted their *fares with the smallest average loss,
~pe..itretl likely to °produce the, most benec.ial cense-
trenees. I thought this idei *hued hate been farther ex-,
tended. I thought no slaves should,be allowtil to he trans-
. posted from Africa to the islandi; except its large ships. Jo
a large ship the number of the crew frees them from appre-

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iieosicin of the insbrrectino of their s' arcs. ' And from this
circtitosiaOce, tliey are co4hiedto,atiow.inore indulgence to
the Negroes: The number cif the staves on board each ship
ought by laAv-to hare been regulated, and porportioneJ to
tLe tonnage. .1 believe, that since tilt open exportation of