Relative Duties.

PART II.

OF RELATIVE DUTIES WHICH ARE INDE, TERMINATE.

Chapter I.

CHARITY,

I USE the term Charity neither in the com

mon fenfe of bounty to the poor, nor in St. Paul's fense of benevolence to all mankind, but I apply it at prefent, in a sense more commodious to my purpose, to fignify the promoting the happiness of our inferiors.

Charity in this fenfe I take to be the principal prov ince of virtue and religion: for whilft worldly prudence will direct our behaviour towards our fuperiors, and politenefs towards our equals, there is little befide the confideration of duty, or an habitual hu manity, which comes into the place of confideration, to produce a proper conduct towards those who are beneath us, and dependent upon us.

There are three principal methods of promoting the happiness of our inferiors.

1. By the treatment of our domeftics and depend.

ants.

2. By profeffional affistance,

3. By pecuniary bounty.

W

Chapter II.

CHARITY.

TREATMENT OF OUR DOMESTICS AND DEPEND

ANTS.

A PARTY of friends fetting out together upon a journey, foon find it to be the best for all fides, that while they are upon the road, one of thecompany fhould wait upon the reft; another ride forward to feek out lodging and entertainment; a third carry the portmanteau; a fourth take charge of the horfes; a fifth bear the purfe, conduct and direct the rout: not forgetting, however, that as they were equal and independent when they fet out, fo they are all to return to a level again at their journey's end. The fame regard and refpect; the fame forbearance, lenity, and referve in ufing their fervice; the fame mildness in delivering commands; the fame ftudy to make their journey comfortable and pleasant, which he, whofe lot it was to direct the reft, would in common decency think himself bound to obferve towards them; ought we to fhew to thofe, who, in the cafting of the parts of human fociety, happen to be placed within our power, or to depend upon us. Another reflection of a like tendency with the former, is, that our obligation to them is much greater than theirs to us. It is a miftake to fuppofe, that the rich man maintains his fervants, tradesmen, tenants, and labourers: the truth is, they maintain him. It is their industry which supplies his table, furnishes his wardrobe, builds his houfes, adorns his equipage, provides his amufements. It is not the eftate, but the labour employed upon it, that pays his rent. All that he does is to diftribute what others produce; which is the least part of the business.

Nor do I perceive any foundation for an opinion, which is often handed round in genteel company,

that good ufage is thrown away upon low and ordinary minds; that they are infenfible of kindness, and incapable of gratitude. If by "low and ordinary minds" are meant the minds of men in low and ordinary ftations, they feem to be affected by benefits in the fame way that all others are, and to be no lefs ready to requite them: and it would be a very unaccountable law of nature if it were otherwise.

Whatever uneafinefs we occafion to our domeftics, which neither promotes our fervice, nor answers the juft ends of punishment, is manifeftly wrong; were it only upon the general principle of diminishing the ' fum of human happiness.

By which rule we are forbidden,

1. To enjoin unneceffary labour or confinement, from the mere love and wantonnefs of domination. 2. To infult our fervants by harsh, scornful, or opprobrious language.

3. To refuse them any harmless pleafures.

And by the fame principle are alfo forbidden caufe. lefs or immoderate anger, habitual peevifhness, and groundless fufpicion.

Chapter III.

SLAVERY.

THE prohibitions of the last Chapter extend to the treatment of flaves, being founded upon a principle independent of the contract between mafters and fervants.

I define flavery to be "an obligation to labour for the benefit of the mafter, without the contract or confent of the fervant."

This obligation may arise, confiftently with the law of nature, from three causes:

1. From crimes.

2. From captivity. 3. From debt.

In the first case, the continuance of the flavery, as of any other punishment, ought to be proportioned to the crime; in the second and third cafes, it ought to cease, as soon as the demand of the injured nation or private creditor is fatisfied.

The flave-trade upon the coaft of Africa is not excused by these principles. When flaves in that country are brought to market, no questions, I believe, are asked about the origin or juftice of the vendor's title. It may be prefumed, therefore, that this title is not always, if it be ever, founded in any of the caufes above affigned.

But defect of right in the first purchase is the leaft crime, with which this traffic is chargeable. The natives are excited to war and mutual depredation, for the fake of fupplying their contracts, or furnishing the market with flaves. With this the wickednefs begins. The flaves, torn away from parents, wives, children, from their friends and companions, their fields and flocks, their home and country, are transported to the European fettlements in America, with no other accommodation on fhipboard, than what is provided for brutes. This is the fecond ftage of cruelty, from which the miferable exiles are delivered, only to be placed, and that for life, in fubjection to a dominion and fyftem of laws, the most mercilefs and tyrannical that ever were tolerated upon the face of the earth: and from all that can be learned by the accounts of the people upon the spot, the inordinate authority, which the plantation laws confer upon the flave-holder, is exercised, by the English flave-holder, especially, with rigour and brutality.

But neceffity is pretended; the name under which every enormity is attempted to be juftified. And,

after all, what is the neceffity? It has never been proved that the land could not be cultivated there, as it is here, by hired fervants. It is faid that it could not be cultivated with quite the fame conveniency and cheapnefs, as by the labour of flaves: by which means, a pound of fugar, which the planter now fells for fixpence could not be afforded under fixpence halfpenny-and this is the neceffity!

The great revolution which has taken place in the Western World may probably conduce (and who knows but that it was defigned?) to accelerate the fall of this abominable tyranny and now that this conteft, and the paffions which attend it, are no more, there may fucceed perhaps a feafon for reflecting, whether a legislature, which had fo long lent its affiftance to the fupport of an inftitution replete with human mifery, was fit to be trufted with an empire, the most extensive that ever obtained in any age or quarter of the world.

Slavery was a part of the civil conftitution of moft countries, when Chriftianity appeared; yet no paffage is to be found in the Chriftian fcriptures, by which it is condemned or prohibited. This is true; for Chriftianity, foliciting admiflion into all nations of the world, abftained, as behoved it, from intermeddling with the civil inftitutions of any. But does it follow, from the filence of fcripture concerning them, that all the civil inftitutions which then prevailed, were right? or that the bad fhould not be exchanged for better?

Befide this, the discharging of flaves from all obligation to obey their mafters, which is the confequence of pronouncing flavery to be unlawful, would have had no better effect, than to let loofe one half of mankind upon the other. Slaves would have been tempted to embrace a religion, which afferted their right to freedom.. Mafters would hardly have been perfuaded to confent to claims founded upon fuch authority. The moft calamitous