Page:Copley 1844 A History of Slavery and its Abolition 2nd Ed.djvu/23

Rh tyrannical and cruel, but the condition, in itself, is the same.

Now let the young reader again attentively peruse this page, and compare the description given of slavery, with any condition or relation between man and man that he has experienced or observed in this "happy land" of liberty.

It has been said, in the first place, that "slavery is the absolute or entire subjection of one human being to the will of another." Now did you ever see any thing like this practised in England? No. An infant, indeed, is in entire subjection to its parents. This is wisely and mercifully appointed by the law of God, for the good of a poor little helpless being, who could not take care of itself. The parents are entrusted with it as a charge from God, and are prompted by natural affection to use it kindly and tenderly. If they are good parents, they have always two things in view,—the commands of God, and the welfare of the child. As the child becomes capable of understanding, they govern it by reason, rather than by force, and endeavour gradually to fit it to govern and take care of itself. While it is entirely dependent on them, they supply all its real wants to the utmost of their ability: they require of it only what is just and reasonable; and if at any time they inflict chastisement, it is not in a spirit of cruelty and tyranny, but in order to cure some evil propensity of the child, and to promote its real welfare. If—and there have been some shocking instances of this kind—if the parents should be wicked people, who, instead of loving and cherishing their tender offspring, should neglect or ill use it, the overseers of the poor have aright to interfere;