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referred to, involving (as it does when proved) loss of freehold, or a suspension, more or less enlarged, from the enjoyment of that freehold, besides other consequential damage and misery, is entitled, above all things, to be ventilated in the morally free atmosphere of a court of law.

There is also the glaring absurdity of keeping up a separate court to try criminals whose appearances in that court, as the enemies of the church even confess, are on an average not two in the year. For after all, the Anglican clergyman, like the hero of La Fontaine's chose impossible, is plus noir que malin.

We should recommend, after the preliminary inquiries have been made, every case, unless confessed and submitted to by the clerk, should be transferred at once to one of the superior courts; that the facts should be there tried before a jury; and that the case should then be remitted, with the verdict, to the ordinary from whom it came. The defendant, if found guilty, would have his sentence pronounced by the ordinary, in accordance with the rules of the canon law. The Arches Court might then be abolished.

To this, we believe, no valid objection can be urged, except that of imposing on the judges additional labours.

ART. IV.—THE LAW OF SLAVERY.

1. The Law of Freedom and Bondage in the United States. By JOHN CODMAN HURD, Counsellor-at-Law. In 2 vols. Vol. I. Boston: Little, Brown, & Co. Trübner & Co., London, 1858. 2. An Inquiry into the Law of Negro Slavery in the United States of America, to which is added an Historical Sketch of Slavery. By T. R. R. COBB of Georgia. Vol. I. Philadelphia : Johnson & Co. Savannah: W. T. Williams, 1858.

3. On Slavery as it existed in England during the Saxon Era, and the Substitution of Villenage after the Norman Conquest,

until its Gradual Extinction. By JOSEPH WRIGHT, Esq., Solicitor, Doncaster, (Transaction of the Historic Society of Lancashire and Cheshire, vol. 10.) Liverpool: Brakell, 1858.

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LTHOUGH in England the question of Slavery has passed through the phases of discussion and final legislation, it yet remains one of the highest interest, socially and politically, historically and legally. Abolition tales have been circulated here by hundreds of thousands, and the effect of the struggle arising from the institution of slavery on American politics, is watched in England with great avidity. The events which led to emancipation of our own West Indian colonies, form an important chapter in the history of modern politics and parliamentary parties, containing some of the noblest names of modern English statesmen.

The relation of slavery to jurisprudence and international law, however, is that to which we now purpose to draw the reader's attention. It is in the United States of America that this aspect of the institution is now most readily studied; and the three works, the titles of which will be found at the head of this article, afford a favourable opportunity for considering it. Slave states, and those which repudiate the institution, are there in close contiguity, and this has given plentiful occasion to the jurists in that great country to treat of the many points of conflict springing from this juxtaposition, and which depend upon and illustrate vital principles of international law.

In European countries, the "conflict of laws" connected with slavery, especially as to its recognition in international jurisprudence, has borne fruit; and it will be well to remind the reader of some of the results of the decisions arrived at on various leading occasions, in England and the neighbouring continent. It would not be profitable to carry investigation back to earlier times, either to examine the original principles which we find accepted in the ancient world relating to slavery, or to introduce the theological arguments which are of such frequent and infelicitous occurrence in the discussions on the subject. The authority

of history and the sanctions of religion, are indeed urged by contending parties to demonstrate, on the one hand, that in all times, and according to all theological systems, it has been pronounced an accursed thing to establish slavery; and, on the other, that it is a highly beneficial and necessary institution, approved by experience, and even appointed by heaven itself. "A detailed and minute inquiry," says Mr. Cobb, "into the history of slavery, would force us to trace the history of every nation of the earth; for the most enlightened have at some period within their existence adopted it as a system; and no organized government has been so barbarous as not to introduce it amongst its customs. It has been more universal than marriage, and more permanent than liberty

The beginning dates back at least to the deluge; one of the inmates of the ark became a 'servant of servants,' and, in the opinion of many, the curse of Ham is now being executed upon his descendants in the enslavement of the negro race." Abraham, Sarah, Hagar, Rebecca, Isaac, and other respectable people of the same kind, are cited as witnesses. Every book in the Biblə is put successively in evidence. Judaism and Christianity, the letter and the spirit, original texts and disputed interpretations, are appealed to equally by angry combatants, who, if they do not advance thereby the discussion, have at least the satisfaction of shewing that their opponents are impious and ignorant. This sentiment is somewhat akin to that which the affectionate son professed, who, when defeated in his attempt to set aside his father's will, declared that though he had failed to shew that his parent was lunatic, yet he was glad to say he had demonstrated to the world that he was a perfect scoundrel. By some writers on the subject of African slavery we are told, and, even by some judicial tribunals it has been held, that the personal character of the law of slavery is authoritatively determined by revelation. In Neal v. Farmer, for example (9 Georgia R., p. 582), it is declared that the slavery of "the issue of Ham is an institution of Christianity!".

The religious adjunct to the social or legal inquiry into slavery

VOL. VIII. NO. XV.

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is, we confess, an incumbrance to the investigation, calculated indeed to enlist strong prejudices and excite unpleasant party passions, but adding nothing towards the happy settlement of known difficulties. The slave-owner in America, the cottonspinner in Manchester, the country gentleman, and the railway conractor, may, as it seems to us, be equally good men and orthodox Christians; and the practice of pulling Bibles to pieces, in order to construct missiles wherewith to assault our neighbour, is a bad use to which to apply the sacred volumes. It seems to us a sad waste of a man's time, and can hardly increase his literary or legal credit to incorporate in his work such passages as the following:"The first great revelation of moral precepts was given upon Mount Sinai, and condensed in that most wonderful code, the decalogue. The precepts are not only pure, but the law of the Lord is perfect'-(Psalms xix.) Its general teachings are not only true, but by no implication can sin find an apology or excuse therein. This law was not intended for any particular age or people. It is that universal law of God which Christ came 'not to destroy, but to fulfil.' When He was asked by the young man, 'What shall I do to inherit eternal life?' his reply was, 'Keep the commandments.' The last of these commandments is, 'Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's wife, nor his man-servant, nor his maid-servant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is thy neighbour's'— (Exodus xx. 18.) The right of property in the man-servant and maid-servant is not only here plainly recognised, but is protected even from covetousness." 1 The writer then proceeds to show that Abraham was a large slaveholder, "but "God blessed him.' How? by opening his eyes to the sin of slavery? No! but by 'giving him flocks and herds, and silver and gold, and men-servants and maidservants, and camels and asses."" Further, it is "generally remarked that God not only gave slaves to Abraham as evidence of his blessing, but he commanded the Jews to make slaves of the heathen round about them-(Leviticus xxv. 44, 46);" that "the Almighty thus gave his people the charter under which they 1 Cobb on Slavery.

enslaved the Canaanites," " that revelation thus sustains the conclusion to which the natural law points;" namely, that the inferiority of race makes slavery consistent with the Divine will. Mr. Cobb is, like other writers who pursue a similar line of argument, a little pressed with the fact that polygamy stands on the same footing with slavery. But, after an amusing attempt at casuistical interpretation, he honestly admits that polygamy is not necessarily a sin. The author then conducts us into the "bright light of Christianity," though without our deriving any greater advantage than when he was drawing inferences from the code of Moses.

During the discus

We must not forget that the practice of importing such arguments as the above into a treatise on the "law of negro slavery" is not peculiar to American writers. sion of emancipation in the West Indies, all parties resorted to them indiscriminately, just as the Puritans and High Churchmen did in the controversies of a former age. The study of astronomy, moreover, of old, was impeded, and geology, among certain contemporary schools, is now disfigured by the like intrusive

considerations.

An excuse, however, for introducing into legal treatises a reference to religious systems is, that international law depends upon natural law; that the test of a law being a natural one is its universality, which involves the necessity of the examination of the religions of mankind. There is doubtless a relationship between Christianity and the view taken of slavery in English jurisprudence, which is rather a subject for curiosity than of practical value. We refer to the maxim, that "Christianity is part of the common law of England." Indeed, the "law of God," which is a phrase sufficiently vague to be employed alike to impose upon one's self and to deceive others, is probably admitted as supreme in all legal systems; but that which the legislature adopts and the tribunals enforce, is in fact the law which the jurist must study, and the subject obey. So, as Mr. Hurd has observed-" If Christianity is to be held part of the common law of England, a sanction given to the slavery of Africans or negroes in any part of the world, is

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