When this matter, therefore, was first in agitation, it stated itself thus generally to my comprehension: that as it was a case which existing for two centuries and upwards, and never receiving finally any judicial determination, it had better remain in the situation it was. It compared itself to me with some cases of royal prerogative, and of parliamentary privilege, which were excellent in theory, but subject to inconvenience in practice; and whose best and safest law was that of suspense: but, my Lord, when I found that the case was to be argued, and the judgment of the Court of King’s Bench taken thereupon, my hopes were, that, if it was possible to counteract the law of the land, the decision would be in favour of the Negroe: for although the knowledge of their being free might spirit them up to insurrections in America, yet it would put a stop to their importation here by their owners, and they would be more usefully kept and employed in the colonies to which they belonged. On the contrary determination too, my Lord, it being solemnly adjudged that Negroes in this country were not free, I foresaw that this fatal consequence might follow: that the trade from Africa to America would be diverted from Africa to England; and Negroes, in process of time, would be sold in Smithfield market, as horses and cattle now are. Each farmer would have his Negroe to drive his plough, each manufacturer his slave under his own controul; and America that was conquered in Germany, as was the saying of a very great man, would become America ruined in England.