In his "Dissertation on the Duty of Mercy, and on the Sin of Cruelty to Brute-animals," he takes occasion to advert to the subject of the African Slave-trade.

"It has pleased God," says he, "to cover some men with white skins and others with black; but as there is neither merit nor demerit in complexion, the white man, notwithstanding the barbarity of custom and prejudice, can have no right by virtue of his colour to enslave and tyrannize over the black man.

For whether a man be white or black, such he is by God's appointment, and, abstractedly considered, is neither a subject for pride, nor an object of contempt." After Dr.Primatt, we come to baron Montesquieu.

"Slavery," says he, "is not good in itself.

It is neither useful to the master nor to the slave.
Not to the slave, because he can do nothing from virtuous motives.