Slaves cannot breathe in England; if their lungs Receive our air, that moment they are free; They touch our country, and their shackles fall. Cowper.—The Task, Book II. Line 40.
And this spirit of liberty is so deeply implanted in our constitution, and rooted in our very soil, that a slave or negro, the moment he lands in England, falls under the protection of the laws, and so far becomes a freeman. Salkeld’s Reports, 666; Sommerset’s Case, 20; State Trials, 79; Loft’s Report, 1; Blackstone’s Comm., 127, 424; see also Grace’s Case, reported by Dr. Haggard.
