Page:Works of the Late Doctor Benjamin Franklin (1793).djvu/249

239 imagining ſlavery to be diſavowed by the Alcoran! Are not the two precepts, to quote no more, "Maſters, treat your ſlaves with kindneſs—Slaves, ſerve your maſters with cheerfulneſs and fidelity," clear proofs to the contrary? Nor can the plundering of infidels be in that ſacred book forbidden? ſince it is well known from it that God has given the world, and all that it contains, to his faithful Muſſulmen, who are to enjoy it, of right, as faſt as they can conquer it. Let us then hear no more of this deteſtable propoſition, the manumiſſion of Chriſtian Haves, the adoption of which would, by depreciating our lands and houſes, and thereby depriving ſo many good citizens of their properties, create univerſal diſcontent, and provoke inſurrections, to the endangering of government, and producing general confuſion. I have, therefore, no doubt that this wiſe council will prefer the comfort and happineſs of a whole nation of true believers, to the whim of a few Erika, and diſmiſs their petition."

The reſult was, as Martin tells us, that the Divan came to this reſolution: "That the doctrine, that the plundering and enſlaving the Chriſtians is unjuſt, is at beſt problematical; but that it is the intereſt of this ſtate to continue the practice, is clear; therefore, let the petition be rejected."——And it was rejected accordingly.

And ſince like motives are apt to produce, in the minds of men, like opinions and reſolutions, may we not venture to predict, from this account, that the petitions to the parliament of England for aboliſhing the ſlave trade, to ſay nothing of other legiſlatures, and the debates upon them, will have a ſimilar concluſion. HISTORICUS. March 13, 1790.