Dr. Pefci-Val's Notes and Ilhjlmions. 639 



« proteftlon of the laws ; and, fo far, becomes a freeman — This 

 "• fpirit of liberty is rooted even in our very foil."* But I truft, it 

 is not to be locally circumfcribed ; that it is deeply implanted in 

 pur minds; and that, according to the affertion of Fortefcue, An- 

 gliajura, in omni CASV,lthe-rtaii dant fa-vorem.\ In the cafe of 

 Somerfet, the negro, decided in 1772, it was the judgment of die 

 court of king's bench, that the mafter could not recover his 

 power over his fervant, by fending him abroad, at pleafure. 

 And the chief court of juftlciary in Scotland, in 1778, made an 

 award againft John Wedderbum, in favour of Jofeph Knight, 

 an African, " that the dominion affumed over this negro, under 

 « the law of Jamaica, being unjust, could not be fupported, 

 « in this country, to any extent : that, therefore, the defender 

 " had no right to the negro's fervice, for any fpace of time; 

 " nor to fend him out of the country againft his confent." J So 

 explicit a condemnation of the fervitude of the negroes, by very 

 high legal authority, clearly impUes a condemnation, equally 

 ftrong, of that infamous traffic from which it originates ; exclu- 

 fively of every confideration, relative to the barbarity with which 



it is conducted. 



From the report of the lords of the committee of council, 

 concerning the prefent ftate of the trade to Africa, and parti- 

 cularly the trade in flaves, it appears that this traffic is fre- 

 quently carried on by kidnapping, and bears a clofe analogy to 

 piracy. The former is defined by Judge Blackftone, " the 

 « forcible abdudion, or ftealing away of man, woman, or child, 

 « from their own country ; and felling them into another." By 

 the Jewifh law, this was a capital offence: He ihat fteakth a 

 mn, and felleth him, or if he be found in his hand, Jhall furely be 

 put to death. Exodus xxi. 16. By the civil law, alfo, the crime 

 termed Plagium was capital, wHch confifted in fpiriting away, 



• Comment, book I. chap. i. p. J2. 

 + De laud. leg. Ang. c-p. 4*- One nation there is in the world that 

 has, for the direft end of its conflitution, political liberty. Montefqu.eu's 

 Spirit of Laws. vol. I. p. 215- 



\ Millar on the Origin of Ranks, «(iit. third, p. 361. 



and 



