thus addressed the speaker in favour of the imposition.

"As the consequences, sir, of the determination which we must make in the subject of this day's debate, will greatly affect posterity as well as ourselves, it surely merits our most serious attention. If this be bestowed, it will appear both from reason and experience, that the importation of slaves into this colony, has been and will be attended with effects dangerous to our political and moral interest. When it is observed that some of our neighbouring colonies, though much later than ourselves in point of settlement, are now far before us in improvement, to what, sir, can we attribute this strange but unhappy truth? The reason seems to be this, that with their whites, they import arts and agriculture, while we with our blacks, exclude both. Nature has not particularly favoured them with superior fertility of soil, nor do they enjoy more of the sun's cheering influence, yet greatly have they outstript us.

"Were not this sufficient, sir, let us reflect on our dangerous vicinity to a powerful neighbour; and that slaves, from the nature of their situation, can never feel an interest in our cause, because they see us enjoying every privilege and luxury, and find security established, not for them but for others; and because they observe their masters in possession of liberty which is denied to them, they and their posterity being subject for ever to the most abject and mortifying slavery. Such people must be natural enemies, and

consequently their increase dangerous to the society in which they live.

"This reasoning we find verified in the Grecian and Roman histories, where some of the greatest convulsions recorded, were occasioned by the insurrections of their slaves; insomuch, says a Roman historian, that Sicily was more cruelly laid waste by the war with the slaves, than by that with the Carthaginians. This slavish policy still continuing at Rome, at length increased the number of slaves so much, that the Romans were obliged to make for their government laws so severe, that the bare recital of them is shocking to human nature.

"Nor, sir, are these the only reasons to be urged against the importation. In my opinion, not the cruelties practised in the conquest of Spanish America, not the savage barbarities of a Saracen, can be more big with atrocity than our cruel trade to Africa. There we encourage those poor ignorant people to wage eternal war against each other; not nation against nation, but father against son, children against parents, and brothers against brothers; whereby parental and filial affection is terribly violated; that by war, stealth or surprize, we Christians may be furnished with our fellow creatures, who are no longer to be considered as created in the image of God, as well as ourselves, and equally entitled to liberty and freedom, by the great law of nature, but they are to be deprived, for ever deprived, of all the comforts of life, and to be made the most miserable of all the human

race. I have seen it observed by a great writer, that Christianity, by introducing into Europe the truest principles of humanity, universal benevolence, and brotherly love, had happily abolished civil slavery. Let us, who profess the same religion, practise its precepts, and by agreeing to this duty, convince the world that we know and practise our true interests, and that we pay a proper regard to the dictates of justice and humanity."

What effect this measure might have had on the prosperity of Virginia, it is impossible to conjecture; it is probable, however, that the pleasure of having done his duty, was the only result of the speech to the orator who delivered it.

The love of power is so exclusive in its nature that it perverts the judgment, and would limit the competency to share in government to those with whom timidity makes it participate. Presenting in a mass the evils which reason has traced or declamation imputed to republican principles, it brands as visionary or condemns as false, the maxim "that the people are the legitimate source of power." In the house of burgesses of Virginia, there was a party which seemed to be actuated by this exclusive principle, and willing to believe that the capacity of a people to manage their own concerns was contradicted by history. These were they, who covering their ignorance with the veil of pride, and their vices with the trappings of wealth, affected to look down with contempt upon what they were pleased to call, the lower orders of

the community. They voted with the administration on every subject, and imitated in all that was worthless, hereditary nobility. Lavish, dissolute, and haughty, their income did not always meet their expenses, and their pride was not so unbending, as to resist the pressure of their other vices; hence they came under pecuniary obligations to Mr. Robinson, the then treasurer of the colony, and leader of the aristocratic party in the house of burgesses.

When his private funds failed, facility of temper, weakness of judgment, or depravity of intention, prompted him to lend to his friends, the redeemed treasury bills, which honesty of purpose in the duties of his office, required him to destroy, least at any time, the colony by them might sustain some loss.

The odium of malignant motive, too frequently rests on a prosecutor, who fails, to prove the delinquency of one high in official station and in the estimation of the public. There was a great risk, therefore, in the attempt to bring to light the secret and corrupt practises of the treasurer. An inquiry into his conduct was likely to be vigorously resisted by the faction, whose consciences could anticipate the result, and it was entered on with reluctance by all to whom his suavity of manners, his frankness and liberality, had much endeared him. With a conviction of the necessity, men shrunk nevertheless from the responsibility, of calling for and conducting an investigation into the state of the treasury. But Richard Henry Lee, regardless of all selfish considera

tions, fearlessly undertook the task, nor desisted, till he had finished the work which imperious public duty required at his hands. With candour in his countenance, and persuasion on his tongue, his eloquence brought conviction to all, even to those whose sophistry attempted to obscure the truth, while, by threatening looks, they impotently endeavoured to check its development. To the colony, the result of the inquiry was security from heavy losses and pecuniary embarrasment, while Mr. Lee gained for himself the gratitude of a people, a high place amid the republican party, and the approbation of his own conscience.

To mark the course of events, which rendered it necessary to sever the bonds that had connected us with England, would be to presume ignorance in the reader of what has been told in other parts of this work. A far more grateful task is ours-to show the successful opposition of Mr. Lee to the arbitrary measures of the British ministry, and his able support of all that was, by the laws of nature and of nature's God, the right of an American.

The termination of the war with France was glorious to the arms of England, but her treasury was exhausted, her resources anticipated, and her people restless under their burdens. To remedy these evils, and at the same time maintain a large standing army, the mind of Charles Townshend conceived the design of taxing the colonies; and in a brilliant speech on the subject, he dazzled the eyes of the British par