BOOK IIL CHAP. V. 487 



on convidion before a magiftrate, by whipping, not 

 exceeding thirty-one laJJoes. See N° 20. 



12. Selling, or giving away, fugar or fugar-canes, without a 

 ticket; on convidlion, whipping as above. 



13. Free perfons, or flaves[/i';] buying fuch goods, to forfeit 

 10/., and fufFer punifhment by whipping, not exceeding 



twenty la [lies. 

 1749 14. [«] A flave of eighteen years of age, or upwards, being 

 a native of the ifland, or refident in it three years from 

 the time of importation, running away and abfenting 

 himfelf for fix whole months, is to be tried as for a ca- 

 pital offence ; and, upon due proof and conviction, is to 

 fufFer death, or fuch other punifhment as the court fliall ; 

 think fit to adjudge; provided that profecution be com- 

 menced within three months after his being taken or re- 

 turned ; and, further, that no owner (hall be repaid for 

 any flave fo executed, but that the lofs (hall fall upon 

 fuch owner [0]. 



15. A 



[m] Sotne Jews, however, have been knovvri to accumulate feveral calks cf fugar in a year, 

 purloined, in fmall quantities at a time, by the Negroes, who were handlomely rewarded for 

 robbing their mailers. 



[«] There feems a great degree of hardlhip on the face of this claufe, in fubjfeding flaves to 

 the penalty of a capital crime, who perhaps may be ignorant of the penalty they incur. The poi 

 licy on which it is founded is, that all penal laws are made in terrorem, and for prevention : fo is > 

 this. If one flave might elope into the woods, there abide with impunity, and form a fettlement; 

 fo might ten thoufand, to the ruin of the colony. A law to the fame efFeft, pafled thirty-two 

 years before, fet forth, " that many crimes, committed by flaves, which were punilhable with 

 " death, often remained undetefted, by omiflion of their owners to profecute." The owner i* 

 neceflarily the profecutor ; and the provifo, which fubjedts him to the entire lofs ot the 

 value of his flave, if he profectJtes to conviftion, effe<5lually prevents fuch profeculions from being 

 commenced ; for which reafon, this claufe hfelo defe, and utterly non-eft'ertive. And, confidering 

 the feverity which it breathes, it is bell it Ihould be fo ; or elfe be repealed, and the punifhment 

 altered to tranfportation : for to inflidl (katb on a poor wretch, for a tranfgreffion, committed per-- 

 haps through mere ignorance of the law, or enormous ill ufage, is highly tyrannical and cruel. 

 J^o] It items to be an imperfeftion in thefe claufes, that the- punifhment is, in many cafes, left 

 undefined and arbitrary. The plain meaning of the legiOature in the ftrudure of them, where, 

 an alternative is admitted, was to give room for a mitigation, or commutation of the penalty ex- 

 prefled, according to the circumlbnces of each cafe, and the greater or lefs degree of guilt that, 

 niigiit appear. This was commendable, and confonant to the penal claufes which govern the 

 navy and ariny of Great-Britain. But it is a great defeft in them, not to require thefe reftric-' 

 tions, and pen.ilties, to be duly promulgated among the Negroes ; for how can they reafonably be 

 coudemned upon laws which they never fee or know f Unlcfs they aie duly apprized of what 



they 



