Page:Remarks upon the Situation of Negroes in Jamaica.pdf/108

 pethaps favours rather more of polity than kindneſs; if however it ſhould be the means of enforcing example, and deterring from crimes, it will have ſome, and perhaps no inconſiderable effect, in the community of ſlaves.

At the time that a trial of Somerſet was determined at Weſtminſter-hall, a negro very ſhrewdly remarked, that Lord Mansfield had told them they were free, but did not tell them where to get food.—It is of little conſequence to give liberty, if protection be not likewiſe extended to thoſe who are become the legal objects of freedom. Since that deciſion, what numbers of poor neglected negroes are conſtantly ſeen lamenting in the ſtreets, and unfeelingly driven from place to place by pariſh officers, and who become pick-pockets, thieves, or murderers in conſequence of emancipation—for who will take theſe degraded creatures into ſervice, without any recommendation but that of poverty; and that of private, and public dereliction? A liberated ſlave in Jamaica (were the practice frequent) would be almoſt in the ſame condition; he would be