He was a wise and humane judge, and he clearly did his honest best and fairest, — according to his lights. That is a large reservation. His lights — I mean his rearing — often colored his decisions. Whenever there was a dispute between a noble or gentleman and a person of lower degree, the king’s leanings and sympathies were for the former class always, whether he suspected it or not. It was impossible that this should be otherwise. The blunting effects of slavery upon the slaveholder’s moral perceptions are known and conceded, the world over; and a privileged class, an aristocracy, is but a band of slaveholders under another name. This has a harsh sound, and yet should not be offensive to any — even to the noble himself — unless the fact itself be an offense: for the statement simply formulates a fact.