Page:The West Indies, and Other Poems.djvu/87

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Note 3. Page 56, line 15.—When Sharpe on proud Britannia's charter'd shore, &c.—Granville Sharpe, Esq. after a struggle of many years, against authority and precedent, established in our courts of justice the law of the Constitution, that there are no slaves in England, and that the fact of a negro being found in this country is of itself a proof that he is a freeman.

Note 4. Page 57, line 1.—When Clarkson his victorious course began.—No panegyric which a conscientious writer can bestow, or a good man may receive, will be deemed extravagant for the modest merits of Mr Clarkson, by those who are acquainted with his labours.—See his History of the Abolition, &c., two volumes, lately published.

Note 5. Ibid., line 8.—The new Las Casas of a ruin'd race.—The author of this poem confesses himself under many obligations to Mr Wilberforce's eloquent letter on the Abolition of the Slave Trade, addressed to the Freeholders of Yorkshire, and published in 1807, previous to the decision of the question. Las Casas has been accused of being a promoter, if not the original projector, of the Negro Slave Trade to the West Indies. The Abbé Gregoire some years ago published a defence of this great and good man against the degrading imputation. The following, among other arguments which he advances, are well worthy of consideration.

The Slave Trade between Africa and the West Indies commenced, according to Herrera himself, the first and

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