"Sam": or The history of mystery./ By C. W. Webber.

"SAM:" OR, THE HISTORY OF MIYSTERY.
entirely root out this idea, for it was not supposed that
a colonial statute could set aside the law of England. What,
precisely, the English law might be on the subject of slavery,
still remained a matter of doubt. Lord Holt had expressed
the opinion, as quoted in a previous chapter, that slavery
was a condition unknown to English law, and that every
person setting foot in England thereby became free. American planters, on their visits to England, accompanied by
their slaves, seem to have been annoyed by claims of freedom set up on this ground, and that, also, of baptism. To
relieve their embarrassments, the merchants concerned in
the American trade had obtained a written opinion from
Yorke and Talbot, the attorney and solicitor-general of that
day. (1729.) According to this opinion, which passed for
more than forty years as good law, not only was baptism no
bar to slavery. but negro slaves might be held in England
just as well as in the colonies. The two lawyers by whom
this opinion was given, rose afterward, one of them to be
chief justice of England, and both to be chancellors. Yorke,
sitting in the latter capacity with the title of Lord Hardwicke (1749), had recently recognized the doctrine of that
opinion as sound law. (Pearce vs. Lisle, Ambler, 76.) lie
objects to Lord Holt's doctrine of freedom, secured by setting foot on English soil, that no reason could be found
'why slaves should not be equally free when they set foot
in Jamaica or any other English plantation.'' All our
colonies are subject to the laws of England, although, as to
some purposes, they have laws of their own.' His argument
is, that if slavery be contrary to English law, no local enactments in the colonies could give it any validity. To
avoid overturning slavery in the colonies, it was absolutely
necessary to uphold it in England. At a subsequent period,
as we shall presently see, the law of England was definitively
settled in favor of liberty, the extra-judicial opinion of Talbot and Hardwicke being set aside by a solemn decision of
the King's Bench. (1750.)
The remaining exclusive privileges of the Royal African
Company having expired, the English government undertook
to maintain, at their own expense, the forts and factories on
the African coast; and thus the slave trade was thrown open
to free competition. The recent introduction of the cultivation
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