BRITISH SETTLEMENT


the necessity of so humane a measure may
have originated in another quarter.* It is
one prohibiting the manumission of slaves,
unless the owner previously enters into a
specific cngagementwith an equivalent se-
curity, that the persons so manumittedshall


 Tt is believed, in tli i.lanud of Jamn:ica. Pre-
vious to the introduction of this rrgulatiun, it will
not be denied, that the condition of the slave was
often found truly deplorable. Broken down by
age or infirmity, the boon, thus obtained, was more
frequently extended, because perhaps that he had
creasi dc, fIrol one or both of the foregoing causes, to
be longer capable of toiling, than from any impulse
of a more generous nature.
 A temple of JEsculapius might occasionally have
begun quite as convenient in our colonies as it was
foundon the island in the Tiber, to which the Romans
consigned their sick slaves, and from which, if the
god was indulgent in restoring them to health, they
once more were taken into their masters' employ:
if they died, no farther inquiry was made about
them.
 Mors ultima line rerum est.
 1