remembered that they are the dear-bought, result of experience. It is
from the fulness of a bursting heart that reproach thus flows to my pen.
These are not the declamations of a man desirous to be eloquent. I have
felt the iron of slavery grating upon my soul.

I believed that misery, more pure than that which I now endured, had
never fallen to the lot of a human being. I recollected with
astonishment my puerile eagerness to be brought to the test, and have my
innocence examined. I execrated it, as the vilest and most insufferable
pedantry. I exclaimed, in the bitterness of my heart, "Of what value is
a fair fame? It is the jewel of men formed to be amused with baubles.
Without it, I might have had serenity of heart and cheerfulness of
occupation, peace, and liberty; why should I consign my happiness to
other men's arbitration? But, if a fair fame were of the most
inexpressible value, is this the method which common sense would
prescribe to retrieve it? The language which these institutions hold out
to the unfortunate is, 'Come, and be shut out from the light of day; be
the associate of those whom society has marked out for her abhorrence,
be the slave of jailers, be loaded with fetters; thus shall you be
cleared from every unworthy aspersion, and restored to reputation and
honour!' This is the consolation she affords to those whom malignity or
folly, private pique or unfounded positiveness, have, without the
smallest foundation, loaded with calumny." For myself, I felt my own
innocence; and I soon found, upon enquiry, that three fourths of those
who are regularly subjected to a similar treatment, are persons whom,
even with all the superciliousness and precipitation of our courts of
justice, no evidence can be found sufficient to convict. How slender
then must be that man's portion of information and discernment, who is
willing to commit his character and welfare to such guardianship!