[144] Memoirs, by Prince Hoare, (London, 1820,) p. 28.
[145] Memoirs, p. 29.
[146] Memoirs, pp. 32-35. Clarkson's History of the Abolition of the African Slave-Trade, Vol. I. pp. 57-60.
[147] Memoirs, p. 38.
[148] Memoirs, p. 49.
[149] Ibid., p. 45.
[150] Ibid., p. 67.
[151] Memoirs, pp. 52-61.
[152] Memoirs, pp. 91, 92, note. The text of the first edition (1765), as quoted by Sharp's biographer, Hoare, was as follows: "And this spirit of liberty is so deeply implanted in our Constitution, and rooted even in our very soil, that a Slave, or a Negro, the moment he lands in England, falls under the protection of the laws, and, with regard to all national rights, becomes eo instanti a freeman." As altered, the latter part was found to read thus: "... a negro, the moment he lands in England, falls under the protection of the laws, and so far becomes a freeman; though the master's right to his service may possibly still continue." Hoare remarks, that he finds this reading in the fifth edition, 1773. It appears also in an edition printed at Philadelphia so early as 1771. And thus the text was finally left by the author, and so remains. In the third edition, printed at Oxford in 1768, for "possibly" in the last clause we have the word "probably." Of this prior reading Hoare makes no mention.
[153] Since this Address, private papers have seen the light, by which it appears, that the claimant was cashier and paymaster of customs in North America, and for some years previous to this important case resided in Boston, where Somerset was known. Through all the arguments he is spoken of as from Virginia, and reference is constantly made to the laws of Virginia; nor is this mistake astonishing, when it is understood that an orator in Parliament once spoke of the "Island of Virginia," and nobody corrected him.—Mass. Hist. Soc. Proceedings for 1863-64, p. 324: Villenage, by Emory Washburn.