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Considerations on the Negroe cause commonly so called: Addressed to the Right Honourable Lord Mansfield, lord chief justice of the Court of King's Bench, &c. — John Shaqi

Considerations on the Negroe cause commonly so called: Addressed to the Right Honourable Lord Mansfield, lord chief justice of the Court of King's Bench, &c.Estwick, Samuel

Philosophy

Considerations on the Negroe cause commonly so called: Addressed to the Right Honourable Lord Mansfield, lord chief justice of the Court of King's Bench, &c.

Name: Considerations on the Negroe cause commonly so called: Addressed to the Right Honourable Lord Mansfield, lord chief justice of the Court of King's Bench, &c.
Author: Estwick, Samuel

Estwick, Samuel

Slavery -- Law and legislation -- Great Britain; Slavery -- Legal status, laws, etc. -- Great Britain

The Legislature has permitted the slavery of Negroes in America:

But the slavery of Negroes is unnecessary in England:

_Ergo_, the Legislature has not extended the permission of it to
England.

This is his mode of reasoning, and these are his very words, which,
when examined syllogistically, shew, if I have not forgotten my
logic, that they are as little conformable to rule, as to matter
of fact. But, the fact is, Mr. Hargrave has found this objection a
stumbling block in his way, and therefore, nimbly leaping over it
himself, to left it to trip up the heels of his followers.

[5] With respect to the statute of the 5th of Geo. II. c. 7. there
are not wanting frequent instances of its having been inforced in
this country; particularly in a case of the noted Rice: who, forging
a Letter of Attorney with intent to defraud the Bank of England of
a considerable sum of money, fled to France, was delivered up by
that Court, and afterwards hanged at Tyburn. It seems, upon his
absconding, a commission of Bankruptcy was awarded against him; and
the Commissioners, as I am credibly informed, under this very Act
of Parliament here mentioned, sold a Negroe of his in the city of
London, as his property, and among his other goods and chattels, for
the satisfaction of the creditors. But this act does not require
cases for its confirmation, neither is it the place where executed
that I contend for; it is _the vesting of the property_, without
proviso or condition, that surmounts all objection. Suppose I had
purchased a Negroe in the island of Barbadoes, or in any other
part of America, that had been extended there at the suit of the
King for a debt due to him, and had brought this Negroe with me to
England: would Mr. Hargrave, or any other lawyer, say, that a writ
of Habeas Corpus, or any other writ whatsoever _not founded on the
verdict of a jury_, could dispossess me of a property, which I held
under the sense, letter, and spirit of an Act of Parliament? Can any
implication of law operate against the express words and meaning of
a law? And would not such argument in its consequences be a mere
_reductio ad absurdum_?

[6] Vide Blackstone’s Commentaries, vol. i. p. 369.

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Considerations on the Negroe cause commonly so called: Addressed to the Right Honourable Lord Mansfield, lord chief justice of the Court of King's Bench, &c.

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