SLA 
same state as before: [what that right is 
not, we shall presently see]: hence too it 
follows, that the infamous and unchristian 
practice of withholding baptism from negro 
servants, lest they should thereby gain their 
liberty, is totally without foundation, as 
well as without excuse. The law of Eng- 
land acts upon general and extensive prin- 
^ ciples : it gives liberty, rightly understood, 
that is, protection, to a Jew, a Turk, dr a 
Heathen, as well as to those who profess 
the true religion of Christ ; and it will not 
dissolve a civil obligation between master 
and servant, on account of the alteration 
of faith in either of tlie parties ; but the 
^slave is entitled to the same protection in 
England before, as after baptism ; and, 
•whatever, service the Heathen negro owed 
of right to his American master, by general 
not by local law, the same (whatever it be) 
is he bound to render when brought to 
England and made a Christian. 
In the celebrated case of James Somer- 
sett, it was decided, that a Heathen negro, 
when brought to England, owes no service 
to an American, or any other master. 
James Somersett had been made a slave 
in Africa, and was sold there : from thence 
be was carried to Virginia, where he was 
bought, and brought by his master to Eng- 
land. 
Here he ran away from his master, who 
seized him and carried him on board a ship, 
where he was confined, in order to be sent 
to Jamaica to be sold as a slave. Whilst he 
was thus confined, a habeas corpus wns 
granted, ordering the captain of the ship 
to bring np the body of James Sometsett, 
witli the cause of his detainer the above 
mentioned circumstances being stated on 
the return to the writ, after much discus- 
sion in the Court of King’s Bench, the 
court were unanimously of opinion, that 
the return was insufficient, and that Somer- 
sett ought to be discharged. 
In consequence of this decision, if a sliip 
]aden with slaves was obliged to put into 
an English harbour, all the slaves on board 
might (and Mr. Chnstian says ought to) 
be set at liberty. Though tliere are acts of 
parliament which recognise and regulate 
the slavery of negroes, yet it exists not 
|n the contemplation of tlie common law : 
and the reason they are not declared free 
before they reach an English harbour, is 
only because their complaints cannot sooner 
be heard and redressed by the process of 
an English court of justice. 
Liberty^ by the English law, depends not 
SLE 
on the complexion ; and what was said 
even in the time of Queen Elizabeth is now 
substantially true, that the air of England 
is too pure for a slave to breathe in. 
By statute 30 George III. c. 33, (con- 
tinued and amended by statute 31 George 
III. c. 54, 32 George III. c. 52, and sub- 
sequent acts ; and explaining and amending 
a former staf.utfe of 29 George III. c. 66) ; 
several humane provisions were made to 
restrain the cruelties practised in the Afri- 
can slave trade, bounties were given to the 
masters and surgeons of ships delivering the 
slaves well at their destined port, &c. 'This, 
perhaps, was a happy prelude to the aboli- 
tion of that detestable commerce which has 
been so gloriously accomplished. See also 
statute 35 George III. c. 90 : aad the 
Journals of the House of Commons. 
An African company was also established 
by statute 31 George HI. c. 65, for carry- 
ing on a trade between Great Britain and 
the coasts and countries of Africa ; and a 
colony w'as for that purpose established on 
the peninsula of Sierra Leone. Tin’s com- 
pany was intended to supersede, in time, 
the necessity of the African slave trade, by 
raising sugars tiiere by native Africans; it 
being one of the conditions of the act, that 
the company shall not deal in nor employ 
slaves. The company is to last for thirty- 
one years from July 1st, 1791. At length, 
as a last act of the administration to which 
Mr. Fox had belonged, the abolition of the 
slave trade as respects the subjects of 
Great Britain, and her colonies was effect- 
ed by act of parliament in the year 1807, 
May this brilliant example of justice be 
followed by other nations. 
SLEDGE, a kind of carriage without 
wheels, for the conveyance of very weiglity 
things, as'hiige stones, &c. 
This is also the name of a loxge smith’s 
hammer, to be used with both hands. Of 
this there are two sorts ; the nphand-sledge, 
which is used by under-workmen, when the 
work is not of the larger sort ; it is used 
with the hands before, and they seldom 
raise it higher than their head ; but the 
other, which is called the about sledge, and 
which is used for battering or drawing out 
the largest work, is held by the handle with 
both hands, and swung round over their 
beads, at their arru’s end, to strike as hard 
a blow as they can. 
SLEEPERS, in a ship, timbers lying be- 
fore and aft, in the bottom of the ship, as 
•the rung-heads do ; the lowermost of the«i| 
