If such a toleration should ever be generally admitted in England, (which God forbid) we shall no longer deserve to be esteemed a civilized people; because, when the customs of uncivilized nations, and the uncivilized customs which disgrace our own colonies, are become so familiar as to be permitted amongst us with impunity, we ourselves must insensibly degenerate to the same degree of baseness with those from whom such bad customs were derived; and may, too soon, have the mortification to see the hateful extremes of tyranny and slavery fostered under every roof.
Then must the happy medium of a well regulated liberty be necessarily compelled to find shelter in some more civilized country: where social virtue, and that divine precept, "Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself," are better understood.
An attempt to prove the dangerous tendency, injustice, and disgrace of tolerating slavery amongst Englishmen, would, in any former age, have been esteemed as superfluous and ridiculous, as if a man should undertake, in a formal manner, to prove, that darkness is not light.
Sorry am I, that the depravity of the present age has made a demonstration of this kind necessary.
Now, that I may sum up the amount of what has been said in a single sentence, I shall beg leave to conclude in the words of the great Sir Edward Coke, which, though spoken on a different occasion, are yet applicable to this; see Rushworth's Hist. Col. An. 1628. 4 Caroli. fol. 450.
"It would be no honour to a King or kingdom, to be a King of bondmen or slaves: the end of this would be both dedecus[A] and damnum[B] both to King and kingdom, that in former times have been so renowned."
[A]: Disgrace.
[B]: Loss.