Page:A Dissuasion from the Slave Trade.djvu/63

Rh there are others of them they will not venture upon, knowing they are founded upon reason and truth, and I hope will have great influence on those this Treatise concern.

add one necessary query more, to those who hold the sword of justice, and who must account to for the use they make of it. Since the English Law is so truly valuable for its justice, how can they overlook the barbarous deaths and wrongful Slavery of the unhappy Africans, without trial or proof of being guilty of crimes adequate to their punishments? Why are those Masters of vessels (who are not the most considerate of men) suffered to be sovereign arbiters of the lives of these miserable Negroes in their passage, and allowed with impunity to destroy, may I not say murder their fellow creatures in a manner so cruel as can never be related but with shame and horror? Answer me this, ye pretended Judges and Governors in the different Colonies where such practices are used, and not be shocked at the negligence you have sleeped in. Since you are put in remembrance of it now, I hope and sincerely wish, I, or any other person may not have occasion to remind you of the same again, but that you will punish with