GENERAL DESCRIPTION OE THE ISLAND. 39 
the condition of the slave—of the comfort he has, 
and the immunity he enjoys from all anxiety or 
responsibility. The examples of Abraham and 
the patriarchs, and the Pauline instructions, 
have been quoted with a view to modify the 
harsh judgment one might be disposed to pass 
upon a system which makes one man the chattel 
of another, to be sold or slain at will. But the 
real healthy feeling of the whole civilised world 
is, without doubt, altogether against this lenient 
view of what is really an outrage upon the first 
great law of human life and society. Man was 
made upright, and endowed with an individu¬ 
ality and a will. No doctrine of expediency or 
of necessity, no theory as to inferiority of mental 
power, or difference of cranial structure, or defici¬ 
ency of facial angle, can destroy the sacred in¬ 
dividuality and personal responsibility of man. 
Indeed, from whatever stand-point the subject of 
this trade in mankind is approached, we find it 
remains in principle, as it is in fact, a horrible 
and cursed thing, an outcome of that greed and 
cruelty which has so long disgraced heathen and 
semi-civilised communities. It is a fearful defi¬ 
ance of the laws of divine beneficence, and an 
outrage against humanity the foulest and most 
disastrous in its effects which the evil heart of 
man has yet conceived or the earth witnessed. 
Imagine the mental and moral condition of a 
