I am not qualified, and if I were, I should think it rather unsuitable to my present character, as a Minister of the Gospel, to consider the African Slave Trade, merely, in a political light. This disquisition more properly belongs to persons in civil life. Only thus far my character as a Minister will allow, and perhaps require me, to observe, that the best Human Policy, is that which is connected with a reverential regard to Almighty God, the Supreme Governor of the Earth. Every plan, which aims at the welfare of a nation, in defiance of his authority and laws, however apparently wise, will prove to be essentially defective, and, if persisted in, ruinous. The Righteous Lord loveth Righteousness, and He has engaged to plead the cause, and vindicate the wrongs of the oppressed. It is Righteousness that exalted a nation; and Wickedness is the present reproach, and will, sooner or later, unless repentance intervene, prove the ruin of any people. Perhaps what I have said of myself may be applicable to the nation at large. The Slave Trade was always unjustifiable; but inattention and interest prevented, for a time, the evil from being perceived. It is otherwise at present; the mischiefs and evils, connected with it, have been, of late years, represented with such undeniable evidence, and are now so generally known, that I suppose there is hardly an objection can be made, to the wish of thousands, perhaps of millions, for the suppression of this Trade, but upon the ground of political expedience, Tho’ I were even sure, that a principal branch of the public revenue depended upon the African Trade (which, I apprehend, is far from being the case), if I had access and influence, I should think myself bound to say to Government, to Parliament, and to the Nation, “It is not lawful to put it into the Treasury, because it is the price of blood[1].” Footnote 1: Matth. xxvii. 6. I account an intelligent Farmer to be a good Politician, in this sense; that, if he has a large heap of good corn, he will not put a small quantity, that is damaged, to the rest, for the sake of encreasing the heap. He knows that such an addition would spoil the whole. God forbid, that any supposed profit or advantage, which we can derive from the groans and agonies, and blood of the poor Africans, should draw down his heavy curse, upon all that we might, otherwise, honourably and comfortably possess. For the sake of Method, I could wish to consider the African Trade,—First, with regard to the effects it has upon our own people; and Secondly, as it concerns the Blacks, or, as they _are_ more contemptuously styled, the Negroe Slaves, whom we purchase upon the Coast. But these two topics are so interwoven together, that it will not be easy to keep them exactly separate.