Note 23 — A LECTURE ON AFRICAN MISSIONS.

“Immemorial usage preserves a positive law, after the occasion or accident which gave rise to it, has been forgotten; and tracing the subject to natural principles, the claim of slavery never can be supported. The power claimed never was in use here, or acknowledged by the law. Upon the whole, we can not say the cause returned is sufficient by the law; and therefore the man must be discharged.”—Close of Lord Mansfield’s decision in the Somerset case.