It was immediately after the treaty of Utrecht, in 1713.
Very soon afterwards the nascent spirit of fanaticism began to obtain
a foothold in England; and although large numbers of negro slaves were
owned in Great Britain, and, as I said before, were daily sold on the
public exchange in Lon-don, questions arose as to the right of the
owners to retain property in their slaves; and the merchants of London,
alarmed, submitted the question to Sir Philip Yorke, who afterwards
became Lord Hardwicke, and to Lord Talbot, who were then the solicitor
and attorney-general of the kingdom. The question was propounded to
them, "What are the rights of a British owner of a slave in England?"
and this is the answer of those two legal functionaries. They certified
that "a slave coming from the West Indies to England with or without his
master, doth not become free; and his master's property in him is not
thereby determined nor varied, and the master may legally compel him to
return to the plantations."
And, in 1749, the same question again came up before Sir Philip Yorke,
then Lord Chancellor of England, under the title of Lord Hardwicke, and,
by a decree in chancery in the case before him, he affirmed the doctrine
which he had uttered when he was attorney-general of Great Britain.
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