JB/008/132/001

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1822 April 12

and the keeping even in that same sad condition
those whose hard lot it is to be found in it. To keep
himself pure from the deeper stain is as perfectly
in every man's power, as to keep himself from plunging
into any other filth that can be named: whether
it be possible for him to cleanse himself from the other;
without producing evil in another shape, and perhaps
even to a still greater amount, depends upon
circumstances infinitely diversified.To abstain from
the traffic in slaves, nothing more is necessary than
the mere negative act of not engaging in it: here too,
wide is the difference between the purchasing of those
who have been recently forced into that sad condition
for the purpose of being sold, and the purchasing of those
who were born in it, or even of those who were found
already settled in it. To abstain altogether from Slave-holding, is
a courde of conduct, which, though negative in the
expression, would require positive acts: acts which,
for the formation of an adequately comprehensive, effective
and preponderantly beneficial system, would require
to be formed woven into a chain of such intricacy, that upon
a cursory view, the the mind is bewildered in the contemplations
of it. Be the man who he may, freedom to him
is no means of well-being, nor so much as of being, except
in so far as accompanied with subsistence and security: subsistence for himself,
and others as well as for himself: security for others: against him, as as well as for
him against others.

Turning with just horror from Slave traffic, —
of Slave-holding, and nothing worse than Slave holding,
for it is quite bad enough, let us now speak. Look
now my friends in the first place to England. See
how manifestly, by the simple act of ridding yourselves of your
Ultramarian incumbrance, you will on this
ground place yourselves above England in the seale
of beneficence. True it is, that neither in England itself, nor
in any country European, Asiatic, or african countries in
under that all-grouping dominion of England — in no one of those quarter of the globe, are there
any human beings in a state of state of domestic slavery:
nor yet, in English America so I hope and believe of that as quarter of the globe in any part of English
America sha situated on the Continent. But England
has

Identifier: | JB/008/132/001 "JB/" can not be assigned to a declared number type with value 8.
Date_1	1822-04-12	Marginal Summary Numbering
Box	008	Main Headings	rid yourselves of ultramaria
Folio number	132	Info in main headings field	rid yourselves
Image	001	Titles
Category	copy/fair copy sheet	Number of Pages	1
Recto/Verso	recto	Page Numbering	d2 / e2
Penner	john flowerdew colls	Watermarks	[[watermarks::[prince of wales feathers] i&m 1818]]
Marginals		Paper Producer	arthur wellesley, duke of wellington
Corrections	jeremy bentham	Paper Produced in Year	1818
Notes public	[[notes_public::"revised" [note in bentham's hand]]]	ID Number	3236
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