[5] (1772) Lofft, 12 Geo. III, 1; (1772) 20 St. Trials 1. [6] These words are not in Lofft or in the State Trials, but will be found in Campbell's _Lives of the Chief Justices_, Vol. II, p. 419, where the words are added: "Every man who comes into England is entitled to the protection of the English law, whatever oppression he may heretofore have suffered and whatever may be the color of his skin. _Quamvis ille niger, quamvis tu candidus esses_ and certainly Vergil's verse was never used to a nobler purpose. Verg. E. 2, 19. William Cowper in _The Task_, written 1783-1785, imitated this in his well-known lines: "Slaves cannot breathe in England; if their lungs Receive our air, that moment they are free. They touch our country and their shackles fall." [7] I use the spelling in Lofft. The State Trials and Lord Campbell have "Somersett" and "Steuart." [8] This was in direct opposition to the opinion of Sir Philip Yorke, Attorney General (afterwards Lord Chancellor Lord Hardwicke) and Sir Charles Talbot, Solicitor General (afterwards Lord Chancellor Lord Talbot) who had pledged themselves to the British planters for all the legal consequences of Slaves coming over to England. The law of Scotland agreed with that of England. [9] See _e.g._, Vinogradoff, _Villeinage in England_, passim. Hallam's _Middle Ages_ (ed. 1827), Vol. 3, p. 256; Pollock and Maitland, _History of English Law_, Vol. 1, pp. 395, sqq. Holdsworth's _History of English Law_, Vol. 2, pp. 33, 63, 131; Vol. 3, pp. 167, 377-393. [10] See Pollock and Maitland's _History Eng. Law_, Vol. 1, pp. 1-13, 395, 415; Holdsworth's _Hist. Eng. Law_, Vol. 2, pp. 17, 27, 30-33, 131, 160, 216. [11] "So spake the fiend and with necessity, The tyrant's plea, excused his devilish deeds." Paradise Lost, Bk. 4, ll. 393, 394. Milton a true lover of freedom well knew the peril of an argument based upon supposed necessity. Necessity is generally but another name for greed or worse. [12] For example, the Statute of (1732) 5 Geo. II, c. 7, enacted, sec. 4, "that from and after the said 29th September, 1732, the Houses, Lands, Negroes and other Hereditaments and real Estates situate or being within any of the said (British) Plantations (in America) shall be liable" to be sold under execution. Note that the Negroes are "Hereditaments and Real estate," as were the villeins--a rule wholly different from that of the French law. [13] His Commission is dated November 28, 1763, Shortt & Doughty, _Constitutional Documents_, 1759-1761, pp. 126, sqq. [14] _Canadian Archives, Murray Papers_, Vol. II, p. 15: the Quebec Act mentioned immediately below is (1774) 14 George III, c. 83. In 1774 the well known Quebec Act reintroduced the former French Canadian law in civil matters while it retained the English law in criminal matters; but the change made no difference in the condition of the slave.