THE SLAVE QUESTION. 
431 
known hardly by name, and among the tendencies of 
the people there is an established idea of justice, and 
the essential character of all is decidedly commercial. 
“ Kings, priests, warriors, down to the meanest slaves, 
all are traders in Africa, and although this ruling pro- 
pensity has been perverted to the worst of purposes, 
it may be turned to the best. Every important con- 
sequence, therefore, that wo can hope to attain, whether 
it be the encouragement of industry, the extension of 
useful arts, or the propagation of true religion, must 
attend our endeavours in proportion as we strike 
powerfully, but with judgment, on that chord which 
already vibrates in the whole length and breadth of the 
land*. 
While it cannot be too strongly asserted that man 
in a state of bondage will never arrive at the dignity 
for which he was intended by his Creator, — it may 
be a subject of prudent consideration, — of ex- 
pediency, — whether the very mitigated form in which 
it is exhibited in Africa may not be used as a transi- 
tion between the aggravated state it has been brought 
to by civilized man, and perfect emancipation in the 
land which gave it birth ; where the sudden accom- 
plishment of such an object, if possible, would be 
attended by a complete dissolution of every social 
tie, a paralysis of all incentive to good, and leading 
inevitably towards anarchy. Whereas by exciting the 
* Captain Allen’s MS. Narrative of tlie First Expedition. 
