An action was then
commenced against Stapylton, who defended himself, on the plea, "That Lewis
belonged to him as his slave." In the course of the trial, Mr. Dunning, who
was counsel for Lewis, paid Mr. Sharp a handsome compliment, for he held in
his hand Mr. Sharp's book on the injustice and dangerous tendency of
tolerating slavery in England, while he was pleading; and in his address to
the jury he spoke and acted thus: "I shall submit to you," says Mr.
Dunning, "what my ideas are upon such evidence, reserving to myself an
opportunity of discussing it more particularly, and reserving to myself a
right to insist upon a position, which I will maintain (and here he held up
the book to the notice of those present) in any place and in any court of
the kingdom, that our laws admit of no such property[A]." The result of the
trial was, that the jury pronounced the plaintiff not to have been the
property of the defendant, several of them crying out "No property, no
property."
[Footnote A: It is lamentable to think, that the same Mr.
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