Pearson_ForensicDispute1773_15

14

measure of this law, should ever have express-
ly tolerated it in a particular instance.
I mention this in the present connexion the
rather become I suppose the authority that
the Israelites, when under a government
absolutely theocratical, were permitted to
exercise over strangers, was founded in the
same reason with the authority for which,
I contend, viz, that it was better for them to
reside among a people where they might
have some opportunity for improvement
kn knowledge & virtue, tho' in a state of
subordination, than to remain among the
barbarons & idolatrous nations whence
they originated.

Were it necessary, it would be easy to hero
by comparison in a great variety of instan-
ces the superiority of a slave in this coun-
try in point of condition, to a natural inha-
bitant of Afrida. And tho' it be tro true
that there unhappy creatures are in [mo?ny]
particular cases cruelly treated; yet, while their