The
cardinal, however, with a foresight, a benevolence, and a justice, which
will always do honour to his memory, refused the proposal, not only judging
it to be unlawful to consign innocent people to slavery at all, but to be
very inconsistent to deliver the inhabitants of one country from a state of
misery by consigning to it those of another. Ximenes therefore may be
considered as one of the first great friends of the Africans after the
partial beginning of the trade.
This answer of the cardinal, as it showed his virtue as an individual, so
it was peculiarly honourable to him as a public man, and ought to operate
as a lesson to other statesmen, how they admit any thing new among
political regulations and establishments, which is connected in the
smallest degree with injustice. For evil, when once sanctioned by
governments, spreads in a tenfold degree, and may, unless seasonably
checked, become so ramified, as to affect the reputation of a country, and
to render its own removal scarcely possible without detriment to the
political concerns of the state.
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