1808). 
generations, whether they are made Chiris- 
tians, or left in the state of heathens. 
A planter in St, Kitts had two daugh- 
ters, mulattas, one seventeen, the other 
twenty-five, which daughters, being both 
handsome, he had been in the practice, 
as is very usual, of letting out to prosti- 
tution to the officers of the garrison, fleet, 
&c. In consequence of these connections, 
the eldest had a child, five years old; both 
worked well at their needle, and were 
reputed so clever, that this man, to grati- 
fy the avarice of a young black wife, ac- 
tually sold them. both, with the child, to 
a Jew broker, for more than 10001. ! who 
bought them, on commission, for a plant- 
eron some distant island, to be kept to- 
gether, or separated, as was most suitable 
to the purchaser’s inclinations. 
Let Dr. P. think how acute must have 
been the feelings of a Christian mulatta 
under such circumstances, forced into 
prostitution by an unfeeling father, and 
at last sold, to gratify the avarice or Just 
ot a Jew purchaser! Yes, I had almost 
said, while such laws exist, and the bench 
of bishops sit in the legislature, without 
making daily efforts to repeal them, we 
had better not talk of reading-schools, 
or Christianity at all; if the rooc is evil, 
what must be the fruit thereof? And 
will not the quick-sighted negro (for I by 
no means think with his lordship, that 
they are dull or stupid, but as the state 
we keep them in has made them appear 
so), the moment he is able to read his 
Testament, discover the maxim therein, 
which commands us to do to others as we 
would others should do to us? Will he 
not then say to his tyrant, ‘* Woe to you, 
hypocrites, who pay the tythe of mit 
and cummin, and neglect the weightier 
matters of the law?” and will not he say, 
when he is told that he is the sole pro- 
perty of his owner, both body and soul, 
that this is teaching for ductrines the 
commandments of men? 
The Scribes and Pharisees of our days, 
like those of old, are indeed subtile in 
disputation, and plausible in their ad- 
dresses; but, like those of old, they are 
also, when examined, mere “ whited se- 
pulchres,” air to view, but within “* fud/ 
of dead men’s bones.” Until we have the 
honesty to abolish slavery altogether, or 
at Jeast not to suffer it to be legal to carry 
on the slave trade among the islands, it is 
in vain to think of teaching slaves the true 
doctrines of Christ. They will not re- 
ceive it from our polluted, lying lips; but 
while we allow the practice of taking the 
new-born infant from the womb, from 
generation to generation, as cattle bred 
@li the Ostates, 1t is absurd to attempt ir. 
on the Conversion of Negro Slaves. 
a 495 
We must first take the mote out of our 
own eyes, betove we attempt to cast out 
the “ beam from our brothers eye.* 
And the planter who should succeed: iin 
making lis negroes Christians, under the 
vile practices that prevail in the islands, 
would only have raised a host of severe 
censurers of his own and his neighbour's 
conduct, unable.to approve, and conse- 
quently unable to love, and unwillimg te 
obey him. 
I have now only to add, that in pub- 
lishing these sentuneuts, 1 know I expose 
myseif to the petulant auimadversions ef 
many well-educated men, whose feelings 
many parts of this address may hurt; and 
I shall perhaps excite the animesity of 
others, whom all honest men have to fear 
—but, as my views are to befriend the 
friendless, and detect that crooked and 
left-handed policy, which, however highly 
defended, is not defensible on the bread 
principie of the love of our fcllow-crea- 
tures, I am ready to encounter the ar- 
rows that fly in the dark, for I can never 
admit that it becomes an ecclesiastic to 
use the common policy of the world te 
effect a spiritual good. Ishall, therefore, 
conscious of the usefulness of the inter=. 
fereuce, unite to it my name, being, 
Your's, &c. 
G, CUMBERLAND. 
Bristol, June 1, 1808. 
To the Editor of ihe Monthly Magazine. 
SIR, 
MY 
R.. Grant has increased my obli- 
gations to him, by his candid and 
critical remarks in Number 470, p.. 292. 
His respectful attention requires that I 
should briefly state to him my reasong 
for accounting the two adjectives, supe- 
rior and inferior, to be comparatives. 
They do not seem to me to be sunple po- 
sitives, as they do net admit of de- 
grees of comparison, by mere and must; 
since Common usage does not warrant us 
to say more superier, or most superior 5 
and, if they were nothing more than sim- 
ple positives, 1 cannot perceive any rea- 
son why they should not be so used. [I 
conceive them to be comparatives, be- 
cause they convey to me a comparative 
idea. For whether I say “that officer 
is superior fo me in command,” or “ that, 
officer is higher than Lin command, the 
sense appears to me precisely the same : 
veither does the former expression at alf 
intimate that E am dow in command, but 
only that another officer is higher than I; 
it rather indeed intimates that I possess 
@ command somewhat appruaching, at 
least, to his rank, Sentences of a cou. 
struction similar to the fyliowing, are of 
frequent 
