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TION.

INTRODUC- and the lives of multitudes, from the throne to the cottage: the passions which were called into action were not the momentary excitation of national rivalry, or the casual burst of hostile feeling, but the mutual and deep-rooted hatred which had been gathering strength from the foundation of the world. The friends of liberty inhaled their spirit from the example of antiquity, and drank deep of the fountains which the writers of Greece and Rome had opened; the supporters of the throne struck the profounder chords of religion and loyalty, and summoned to their aid the precepts of Christian faith and the honour of modern nobility. The fervour of ancient eloquence, the recollections of classical achievement, warmed the former; the feelings of hereditary devotion, the glories of chivalrous descent, animated the latter. It was not the ripple of a minute that burst upon the shore, but the long swell of the Atlantic, wafted from distant realms, and heaved on the bosom of remote antiquity.

8.

depression

orders.

The struggle between the high and the low, the throne Causes of and the people, has subsisted from a remote period; but the early it is only in modern times that the principles of general of the lower freedom have been established, or those powers brought into collision which had been mutually gaining strength from the earliest times. How just soever it may appear to us, that the welfare and interests of the great body of the people should be protected from the aggressions of the powerful, there is nothing more certain than that such is not the primitive or original state of man, nor indeed, from the state of society, is it then possible. The varieties of human character; the different degrees of intellectual or physical strength with which men are endowed; the consequences of accident, misfortune, or crime; the total destitution and helpless state of the poor in the infancy of civilisation; the general want of foresight by which they are then distinguished early introduce the distinction of ranks, and precipitate the lower orders into that state of dependence on their superiors, which is

TION.

known by the name of slavery. This institution, however INTRODUCodious its name justly becomes in later times, is not an evil when it first arises; it only becomes such by being continued in circumstances different from those in which it originated, and in periods when the protection and secure sustenance it affords to the poor are no longer required.

9.

slavery.

The universality of slavery in the early ages of mankind is a certain indication that it is unavoidable, from Consequent the circumstances in which the human species is every of, and neuniversality where placed, in the first stages of society. Where capi- cessity for, tal is unknown, property insecure, and violence universal, there is no security for the lower classes but in the protection of their superiors; and the only condition on which this can be obtained is that of slavery. Property in the person and labour of the poor is the only consideration, which can then induce the opulent to take them under their protection. Indolence is the great bar to the progress of mankind; the species seems chained to the savage or pastoral state, from the universal antipathy to continued exertion. War, dictated by the savage passions of the human heart, is in such an era a work of extermination; the victor seeks only to satiate his wrath by the blood of the vanquished. Compulsion is the only power which can render labour general in the many ages which must precede the influence of artificial wants, or a general taste for its fruits; the prospect of gain by the sale of captives, the only counterpoise that can be relied on to stay the uplifted hand of the conqueror. Humanity, justice, and policy, so powerful as principles of government in civilised ages, are then unknown, and the sufferings of the destitute are as much disregarded as those of the lower animals. If they belonged to no lord, they would speedily fall a prey to famine or violence. How miser- 1 Sism. able soever the condition of slaves may be in these France, i. unruly times, they are incomparably better off than they 50-160. would have been if they had incurred the destitution of freedom.1

Hist. de

INTRODUC

TION.

10. Difference

in the condition of slaves in early and

later times.

The simplicity of rural or patriarchal manners mitigates the severity of an institution which necessity had first introduced. The slaves among the Arabs or the Tartars enjoy almost as much happiness as their masters; their occupations, fare, and enjoyments are nearly the same.* It was with unwilling steps that Briseïs left the tent of Achilles ; and, in our own times, when some thousand female Greek captives were taken by Ibrahim Pasha from the Morea and the islands of the Archipelago, not more than five or six, when freedom was offered them on the conclusion of peace, would accept the offer and return home. To the maids of Circassia, who are trained from their earliest years to look forward to entering the haram of some Oriental potentate, the moment of leaving their paternal home is one in which hope and excitement generally overbalance grief; and in the slave-market of Constantinople itself, hardly any symptoms of sorrow are perceptible among the young women, excepting such as run the risk of being separated from their offspring. To the young and the handsome, it is the theatre of the same excitement as the ball-room or the opera in the capitals of Western Europe. To this day, the condition of a slave in all the Eastern empires differs but little from that of a domestic servant in modern Europe; and even the enfranchised poor of France and England would find something to envy in the situation of a Russian peasant. Succour in sickness, employment in health, and mainteTravels, i. nance in old age, are important advantages even in the best regulated states; during the anarchy of early times, their value is incalculable.1

1 Park's

Travels in

Africa, i.

434. Vol

ney's Syria, P. 312

Clarke's

901-970.

*

There is no instance in the history of the world of the

"Dominum ac servum nullis educationis deliciis dignoscas. Inter eadem pecora, in eodem humo degunt; donec ætas separet ingenuos, virtus agnoscat."-TACITUS, De Mor. Germ. c. 20.

t “ Εκ δ' αγαγε κλισίης Βρισηίδα καλλιπάρηον

Δωκε δ' αγειν· τω δ' αυτις ιτην παρα νηας Αχαιων,

Ἡ δ' αεκουσ ̓ ἅμα τοισι γυνη κιεν.”

Iliad, i. 346.

TION.

which per

slavery.

peasantry in a level country, who are solely employed in INTRODUCthe labours of agriculture, emancipating themselves, without external aid, from this state of dependence on their 11. superiors. Attached to the soil, weighed down by the Causes toil of cultivation, separated from each other, and limited petuate in their observation; ignorant from want of mutual intercourse, and yet destitute of the energy of savage lifethey have every where remained, from generation to generation, unable either to combine against violence or to escape from oppression. The inhabitants of Mesopotamia, of Egypt, and of Bengal, like the serfs of Poland or the boors of Russia in recent times, have continued, from the earliest ages, in the same state of passive and laborious existence. It is by the aid of other habits, and by the influence of a different state of society, that the first rudiments of freedom have been established among mankind.

12.

pastoral life.

The first of these causes is to be found in the independence and solitude of pastoral life. The Arabs who The indefollowed their camels over the sands of Arabia, the pendence of Scythians who wandered over the deserts of Tartary, were subject to no oppression, because they were restrained by no necessity. If the chief of a tribe was guilty of any act of injustice, his subjects had it always in their power to depart with their families and herds; and, before a few hours had elapsed, all trace of their route had disappeared in the sand of the desert, or amidst the vegetation of the steppes. Like our First Parents on leaving Paradise, the world was all before them; and wherever grass flourished, or water was to be found, they were equally ready to sojourn and increase. From this independence of the shepherd tribes, joined to the boundless extent of the plains which nature had prepared for their reception, have sprung the freedom and energy of the pastoral character; the conquests of the Arabs, and the settlements of the Scythians, have arisen from the same cause of hardihood in their native wilds;

INTRODUC- and to the roving habits of our forefathers, who spread TION. from the centre of Asia to the shores of the Atlantic, the liberty of modern times is mainly to be ascribed, and all the glories of European civilisation have sprung-the arts of Greece, the arms of Rome, the chivalry of France, and the navy of England.

13.

of walled

cities.

The second great source of freedom in human affairs, The security is to be found in the protection and opulence of walled cities. Amidst the security which they afford, industry is excited by the desire of enjoyment, and capital accumulates from the means of employing it. With the growth of wealth succeeds a consciousness of the independence which it confers; with the extension of property, an aversion to the oppression which might endanger it. The assembly of multitudes awakens a sense of strength; community of interest engenders public feeling; proximity of residence suggests the means of common defence. Amidst the growing wealth and rapid communication of ideas which prevail in commercial cities, the spirit of freedom is awakened, hatred to oppression confirmed, and the riches capable of combating it are produced. From this source the whole liberty of antiquity took its rise: their republics were all cradled in a single town, and confined to the citizens whom it produced; and the names of a state and political body were derived from that of a town, in which alone they were found to exist.*

14.

tion of mountain retreats.

seques

A

The last source of freedom is to be found in the The protec- tered situation and independent habits of mountaineers. Amid the solitude of the Alps, or the fastnesses of Affghanistaun, vigour is called forth by the necessity for exertion, and independence preserved by security from insult. churlish soil prevents the accumulation of wealth; mountain ridges offer no facilities to commerce; a life of hardihood at once strengthens the courage and invigorates the frame. It is in the long continuance of those habits, from generation to generation, that the cause * Πόλις and Πολιτική.

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