government has tolerated and established slavery in the plantations, the
supreme charge of these creatures may be regarded rather as a national
than a provincial concern. Being members of a great empire, living under
its supreme care and jurisdiction, and contributing to the increase of
trade and commerce, to the improvement and opulence of the British
dominions, they are unquestionably entitled to a share of national
benevolence and Christian charity. An institution for their religious
instruction was an object of such usefulness and importance, that it
merited the attention of the supreme legislature; and the expence of a
few superb and perhaps empty churches in England, would certainly have
been better employed in erecting some neat buildings in the plantations
for this beneficial purpose. To such an institution the merchants of
Britain, especially those who owe a great part of their opulence to the
labours of Africans, and whose plea for the trade was the bringing them
within the pale of the Christian church, ought certainly to have
contributed in the most liberal manner. The profits of the trade,
abstracting from other considerations, could well admit of it; but every
principle of compassion for the ignorant, the poor, and the unfortunate,
powerfully dictates the same duty, the neglect of which, to every
impartial judge, must appear in a very inexcusable and criminal light.
Masters of slaves under the French and Spanish jurisdictions, are obliged
by law to allow them time for instruction, and to bring them up in the
knowledge and practice of the Catholic religion. Is it not a reproach to
the subjects of Britain, who profess to be the freest and most civilized
people upon earth, that no provision is made for this purpose, and that
they suffer so many thousands of these creatures, residing in the British
dominions, to live and die the slaves of ignorance and superstition? How
can they expect the blessing of heaven on the riches flowing from their
foreign plantations, when they are at no pains to introduce those objects
of their care to the knowledge of the true God, and to make them