“We further entreat that your Majesty would be graciously pleased to place the slaves in your Imperial dominions upon a footing of equality with the rest of your faithful subjects, and to make them free men, having the rightful possession of their own persons, and being at liberty to travel whithersoever they will.

“For your Majesty rightly understands and knows as well as we do, that God the Almighty Maker of us and you, has made all men equal, and has not permitted man to have property in his fellow man, which reduces them to the level of brutes; therefore, to make slaves of our fellows, our brothers and sisters, is to sin against the will and mind of God, and to provoke his wrath and indignation against us, and against our children after us.

“Consequently, we, the Society in England, aforesaid, in common with some of your own Mussulman sovereigns and people, hold Slavery, and the Slave Trade in extreme abhorrence, because it kills and destroys our brothers whom we ought to love and cherish, because it makes them like brutes, whom we ought to esteem as reasonable beings, because it hardens our own hearts and makes us cruel towards our fellows, whom we ought to treat with kindness and compassion, and because it deforms God’s creatures, in whom we ought to revere his spiritual likeness, man being made after the likeness of God, in possessing a spiritual reasoning soul; these evils, however, are the direct and inevitable consequences of the accursed Slave Trade, and for such reasons we, the people of England in general, abhor it, and seek, in every legitimate and righteous way, to persuade men of every nation in the world to abandon this inhuman and wicked traffic.

“Finally, we implore your Majesty to be pleased to follow out that great act of confidence which you have exercised towards the negro race, in appointing them the life-guards of your Imperial person, by graciously liberating them from the cruel yoke of slavery.  From our hearts we believe that your Majesty will find such a spontaneous act of compassion towards the desolate African Slaves to be the wisest worldly policy, and most agreeable to the will of the Eternal Creator of us all.  Your loyal subjects will love the goodness of your heart the more, and serve you the better, while all Africa, of which the immense dominions of your Majesty form so large a part, will catch new life and vigour, under the blessing of the Almighty, and grow happy and prosperous in the ages to come.

“Signed and sealed on behalf of the Society in England for abolishing Slavery and the Slave Trade throughout the world.

“(Signed) THOMAS CLARKSON. (L.S.)”

[25] This is not exact.  The vizier is often the author of certain lines of policy.

[26] All the Moorish Sultans are spoken of by the people as Seedna, “Our Lord,” and departed Saints are addressed by the same title.

[27] It is curious to see the Spartan principle of theft developing itself under such different circumstances.