Scriptural Researches on the Licitness of the Slave-Trade

The pamphlet appeared in 1788, while a committee of the Privy Council was taking evidence on the slave trade. It is dedicated to the mayor, aldermen and common council of Liverpool. In the preface the author says that he condemns cruelty and abuses but will prove from Scripture that the trade is lawful in itself, and that he divides his argument into three parts, on the law of nature, the Mosaic dispensation and the Christian law.

It is cited in this wiki as a document of the Christian defence of the trade. Thomas Clarkson, its opponent, says that the author had been a clergyman and a Jesuit and was then a clerk in Liverpool, and that the pamphlet was circulated by those with an interest in the trade.