The Sun.
London, England, 1818-09-18 00:00:00

F(EDERA A PRICANA.

LETTER 11.

TO THE POWERS ASSEMBLING IN CONGRESS AT AIX.

LA-CHAPELLE.

ILLUSTRIOUS SoVaRRIGNs.—The treaties and
laws made for the deliverance of Africa have
failed, as I have shewo, to produce the desired
effect. Site is not less the n►iserahle victim of the
Slave Trade, than wl►en all the Colonising Powers
of Europe, and tl►e United States of- Amer iea,
sanctioned the commerce by their laws. Their
common remorse, their penitential resoluti,,os,
their general or partial reformation in point of
law, and even the Conventions and Treaties which
some of them have formed with each other for
suppressing the trade, have all proved fruitless.—
The mischief rages as widely and as e►er.
The iniquities and hoc►ors of the Lade are, if
possible, even increased, and the provocation of-
fered to God, the just and compassionate Judge of
the whole earth, is greater and more impious than
before ; because it is no longer denied or doubted,
or unknown, that the Trade is a gross violation of
his laws.

To this awful truth, I would more particularly
invite your attention.
Not only those who have abandoned the prac-
tice, but those who, strange to say, still persist
in it, have proclaimed its guilty character. They
have confessed with their national vnices, in the
most solemn manner, in their laws, their edicts
of State, and their public treaties, that the Slave
Trade is '' repugnant to the principles of natural
justice ;" (I) that it is odious " in itself, and
loudly condemned by the laws of relighor and na-
ture ;" (2) that it is contrary also to " huma-
nity ;" (3) that it is a '' nefarious practice;" (4)
and repugnant " to the principles of the enlight-
ened age in which we live." (5)
But the ever-memorable Declaration of the
Congress of Vienna is a still more solemn, public,
and authoritative recognition of the sAme alarm.
ing truths. The Trade is there branded as a
crime, repugnant '' to the principles of humanity
and of universal morality," and as " a scourge
which has long desolated Africa, degraded Eu-
rope, and afflicted humanity."
Such, Christian Potentates, is your own just
and imperishable censure of the Slave Trade. A,,
system of crimes and horrors, which two Euro.
pean Powers still permit their flags to sanction in
one half of Africa, and with which lawless indi-
viduals continue to scourge the whole of that vast
Continent, has
,been thus most solemnly, and
most righteously, condemned by yourselves, in the
presence of assembled Christendom.
The " principles of natural justice' and huma-
nity,"--the " laws of nature,"—" the principles
of universal morality," what are these but
other names for the Divine Law, written in the
heart of man by his Creator, to disobey which is
to affront the Majesty of Heaven ?
Surely, then, it is not too much to say, that the
provoCation to Almighty God, by those who per-.
sist in this guilty practice, and by those who can,
and will not suppress it, is now more heinous
than before

Violations of human laws are more contuma-
cious to the Sovereign that ordains them, and
more loudly demand from him an exemplary chas-
tisement, when those laws have been proclaimed
or notified, with a view to their future observance.
So in this case, the Universal Lawgiver, the King
of Kings, is more offended (shall I not say more
insulted?) by the Slave Trade, because its repug-
nancy to his known laws has now been publicly
confessed and proclaimed in the hearing of the
whole civilized world. It was net to be hoped,
indeed, that an appeal, however solemn, to moral
or religious principles, would have any influence
on the actual immediate perpetrators of the Slave
Trade, whose• hearts seem to be incurably hard-
ened. That the dragging innocent men, women,
and children into perpetual exile and bondage,
from the sordid motive of avarice alone, by means
of fraud, and rapine, and cruelty, and murder,
should be a practice to sit easy on the consciences
of men—of men too living in this enlightenedlage
—in this civilized region of the globe—and call-.
lag themselves by the Christian name—is certainly
strange enough. 13nr the fact is notoriously true;
and it can only be explained by ascribing to those
depraved and cruel beings, as an effect of their in-
veterate and flagitious habits, an titter insensibi-

lity to the fear of God, and to every moral obli-
gation.—lt is not, therefore, so much by those
sordid miscreants themselves, as by the Euro-
peans who employ, and the Governments which

ought to restrain diem, that the further aggrava-
tion of guilt here spoken of will he incurred. It
is to you, august Sovereigns, and to the people
of every nation of Europe, whose voices may be
lawfully raised against this impiosts commerce,
that the awakening argument is addressed.
You are now called on to put a stop to the de-
vastatiOn of Africa, not only by your humanity,
but by your reverence for God, and your regard to
the honour of his laws.—All sin is an offence
against the Supreme Lawgiver ; but sin publicly
confessed and proclaimed as such by the offeadets
themselves, and yet deliberately and systemati-
cally persevered in, is more than simple disobe-
dience. It amounts to express contumacy, and
absolute defiance.—But there are gradations even
in, impiety like this. Though the laws of God
are all equally binding, there are some of them zo

which he has been pleased to attach a peculiar
sanctity, and to pledge himself, as it were, by a
regard to his own honour, to vindicate in a spe-
cial manner their authority, and punish their in-
fraction. Such are his commandments against
murder, or the shedding of innocent blood ; and
such still more strongly, perhaps, his prohibitions,
not of bloodshed only, hut of all violence and op-
pression, towards the feeble, and defenceless, and
indigent classes of mankind,

The light of nature might suffice to chew us,
that such sins must be peculiarly offensive in his
sight ; they are pi c-eminently odious even in the
sight of men ; for what uncorrupted heart does
not heave with indignation, when the poor and
helpless are treated by their superiors in rank and

(1) Treaty of Great Britain with France.
(2) The same.
(3) Treaty with Spain and Portugal.
(4) Treaty with the Netherlands.
(5) Treaty with France.