of the Cause returned_, the law of this Case. But no sooner had this reconciliation taken place in my mind, than another perplexity followed. In the recital of the opinion recognized by Lord Hardwick, sitting as Chancellour, it is made to conclude thus: “that though the Statute of Charles II. had abolished Tenure so far that no man could be a _Villein regardant_, yet if he would acknowledge himself a Villein ingrossed in any Court of Record, he knew of no way by which he could be entitled to his freedom without the consent of his Master.” Now, by connecting this latter with the former part of the opinion, in the manner it is done, it appears, as if Lord Hardwick meant to declare, that the state or situation of Negroes towards their masters or owners arose out of, and was founded upon, the remains of the antient laws of villenage in this country. That Lord Hardwick might have said what is here stated, in order to shew (by way of illustration of the Case upon which he was then arguing) that even an Englishman might still become a slave in this country, _if he pleased_, I cannot deny: but with any intention to prove that the condition of Negroes proceeded from, and was the same with, the condition of villeins, is, I must assert, either the mistake of the person from whose notes this speech was taken, or the intention of him to puzzle and perplex the Case: for it is manifestly impossible that the Court could have put so much self-contradiction and ignorance of the law in the mouth of so wise and so great a lawyer. His Lordship says, “that Trover will lie for a Negroe slave.” Now, can any thing be more expressive of the law and condition of Negroes than this is? What the nature of an action of Trover is, and what kind of property is required in a plaintiff to maintain such an action, every Tyro of the law must be acquainted with. Would his Lordship have said, that Trover would lie for a villein? Every Tyro of the law knows that it would not. But if a Negroe and a villein were governed by the same laws, Trover would lie for a villein. His Lordship’s own words therefore, and not this combination of them, are the best comment upon his meaning; and he in me, _non tali auxilio eget_, &c. It is enough that I have given the clew; the reader will unravel the rest himself.