52

SLAVES, AND

[CH. II. the most cruel treatment, seemed almost justified by the great law of self-preservation. But when the principal nations of Europe, Asia, and Africa, were united under the laws of one sovereign, the source of foreign supplies flowed with much less abundance, and the Romans were reduced to the milder, but more tedious, method of propagation. In their numerous families, and particularly in their country estates, they encouraged the marriage of their slaves. The

encou

pass it over in silence. "Upon establishing despotic government in the Roman empire," are the words of Robertson, "domestic tyranny rose in a short time to an astonishing height. In that rank soil, every vice which power nourishes in the great, or oppression engenders in the mean, thrived and grew up apace....It is not the authority of any single detached precept in the gospel, but the spirit and genius of the Christian religion, more powerful than any particular command, which hath abolished the practice of slavery throughout the world. The temper which Christianity inspired was mild and gentle, and the doctrines it taught added such dignity and lustre to human nature, as rescued it from the dishonourable servitude into which it was sunk." To keep up the number of their slaves is vainly then represented by Gibbon as the only motive which induced the Romans to treat them with greater kindness in the time of the emperors. The same cause had existed before, and had operated with a contrary tendency. How was its effect so suddenly changed? "The masters," he said, 66 raged the marriage of their slaves. The sentiments of nature, the habits of education, contributed to alleviate the hardships of servitude.” The offspring of slaves belonged to their master, and could be disposed of or alienated at will by him, like any other article of property. Can "the sentiments of nature" be developed in such a position, or the habits of education softened and confirmed in so dependent a state? Inadequate and ineffectual causes must not be assigned for effects which require a more energetic spring; and even if some working of such inferior agencies should be traced in their production, we must remember that these, themselves, are the effects of a first, a higher, and more extensive cause. This it was, which gave to mind and character a more disinterested and humane impulse, and disposed mankind to assist and promote, by their own conduct and by a total change of manners, the happy result which was to come forth.GUIZOT.] *The Romans allowed a kind of marriage (contuber nium) among their slaves, as well in the earliest days of their republic as at a later period; and when they became mighty and wealthy, luxury soon required an increased number of these attendants. (Strabo, 1. 14, p. 668.) The regular means of supply were not equal to the demand, and they had recourse to the purchase of slaves, even in the eastern provinces annexed to their dominion. Slavery is well known not to be favourable to an increase of population; and in the present times, where there are slaves, although they are encouraged to marry, and provisions are cheap, still there is an annual loss of five or six per

sentiments of nature, the habits of education, and the possession of a dependant species of property, contributed to

cent. which is made good by new purchases. In after times marriage was more frequent among the Roman slaves in the country than in towns; in the latter, living was expensive, and it was cheaper to buy than to rear slaves.-WENCK.] [See Hume's Essays, and Malthus on the Principles of population, vol. i. p. 334.-GUIZOT.] [Dean Milman and others have condemned M. Guizot's want of candour in the foregoing notes on the subject of slavery. He either did not comprehend the spirit of Gibbon's observations, or went out of his way to attain an object in which he has failed. Modern writers have been too willing to flatter the pride of their contemporaries or the prejudices of their Bect, by exaggerating their moral improvement under the benign influence of religion. It is to be wished that they could produce less vague and dubious proofs of what they assert. No code of ethics can be more pure, more perfect, than that which Christianity inculcates. To doubt its hitherto manifested efficacy, is neither to deny its excellence nor question its authority; and those by whom it is most sincerely admired, must blush the most, when they see how inefficacious it has actually been to check the animosities and contests of belligerent nations. Robertson's remarks on this subject, which M. Guizot so highly commends, are not those of an impartial observer. Vanity and hyperbole often allowed themselves an enormous latitude, in magnifying the destructive consequences of ancient victory. The very fact that the conqueror could sell his prisoner, no matter what the price he obtained, proves that he must have been more anxious to take his enemy alive than to put him to the sword. Defence may have been more obstinate, but surely assailants had a strong motive to be more merciful. To come however to facts, do any horrors of ancient warfare transcend those practised by Tilly in the Rhenish Palatinate and at Magdeburgh, (see Schiller's Thirty Years' War, Bohn, p. 138, &c.), by Alva in the Netherlands, by Cromwell at Drogheda, by the Russians at Jassy and Ismail, and even in these civilized times wherever a fortified town is taken by storm? Nor is it true that of old "chains and slavery were the certain lot of the conquered." History abounds with instances to the contrary, where captives were led way to colonize thinly-peopled districts and inhabit new towns. The ousands whom Ptolemy Soter took from their homes after he had subdued Judæa, were settled by him in comfort and happiness at Alexandria and Cyrene, as equal citizens (ioonoλiraç) with the Macedonians (Joseph. Ant. Jud. 12, 1, 1,) patronized by him and his son, and allowed the free exercise of their religion; they were assisted, too, by money and privileges in the pursuits of industry, so that many of their countrymen followed voluntarily, and all were raised to opulence and consideration. Compare with these the surviving victims of "Pultowa's day," sent into Siberia, or the unfortunate prisoners who during our last long war with France pined in the barracks of Stilton and Dartmoor, or within the walls of Vincennes. When the Romans conquered, they no doubt made many slaves, but they made more allies and associates. Compare any of their subjugated realms with

54

ENFRANCHISEMENT.

[CH. IL. alleviate the hardships of servitude.* The existence of a slave became an object of greater value; and though his happiness still depended on the temper and circumstances of the master, the humanity of the latter, instead of being restrained by fear, was encouraged by the sense of his own interest. The progress of manners was accelerated by the virtue or policy of the emperors; and by the edicts of Hadrian and the Antonines, the protection of the laws was extended to the most abject part of mankind. The jurisdiction of life and death over the slaves, a power long exercised and often abused, was taken out of private hands, and reserved to the magistrates alone. The subterraneous prisons were abolished; and, upon a just complaint of intolerable treatment, the injured slave obtained either his deliverance, or a less cruel master.†

Hope, the best comfort of our imperfect condition, was not denied to the Roman slave; and if he had any opportunity of rendering himself either useful or agreeable, he might very naturally expect that the diligence and fidelity of a few years would be rewarded with the inestimable gift of freedom. The benevolence of the master was so frequently prompted by the meaner suggestions of vanity and avarice, that the laws found it more necessary to restrain than to encourage a profuse and undistinguishing liberality, which might degenerate into a very dangerous abuse. It was a maxim of ancient jurisprudence that a slave had not the state of Poland, in Russian thraldom. Nor did Christianity "put an end to the cruel institution of slavery." The serfs of the feudal ages, and many such, still existing in Christian countries, the Mexican and Peruvian sufferers under Spanish tyranny and avarice, the longenduring and tardily emancipated sugar-cultivators under British do minion, and the still oppressed negroes in the American States, all disprove the assertion. We may rejoice at the ever-advancing improvement of society, but we ought to lament that religious principle still so often holds only a second place, and yields, even in Christian countries, to that which is, or seems to be, expedient and profitable. Let us then forgive Gibbon for having exercised his ingenuity in an endeavour to discover any alleviations of slavery amongst the Romans, and for ourselves let us take heed how we boast.-ED.] * See in Gruter, and the other collectors, a great number of inscriptions addressed by slaves to their wives, children, fellow-servants, masters, &c. They are all, most probably, of the imperial_age. Augustan History, and a Dissertation of M. de Burigny, in the 35th + See the volume of the Academy of Inscriptions, upon the Roman slaves.

See another Dissertation of M. de Burigny, in the 37th volume, on the Roman freedmen,

any country of his own; he acquired with his liberty an admission into the political society of which his patron was a member. The consequences of this maxim would have prostituted the privileges of the Roman city to a mean and promiscuous multitude. Some seasonable exceptions were therefore provided; and the honourable distinction was confined to such slaves only as, for just causes, and with the approbation of the magistrate, should receive a solemn and legal manumission. Even these chosen freedmen obtained no more than the private rights of citizens, and were rigorously excluded from civil or military honours. Whatever might be the merit or fortune of their sons, they likewise were esteemed unworthy of a seat in the senate; nor were the traces of a servile origin allowed to be completely obliterated till the third or fourth generation.* Without destroying the distinction of ranks, a distant prospect of freedom and honours was presented, even to those whom pride and prejudice almost disdained to number among the human species.

It was once proposed to discriminate the slaves by a peculiar habit; but it was justly apprehended that there might be some danger in acquainting them with their own numbers. Without interpreting, in their utmost strictness, the liberal appellations of legions and myriads, we may venture to pronounce, that the proportion of slaves, who were valued as property, was more considerable than that of servants, who can be computed only as an expense.§ The youths of a promising genius were instructed in the arts and sciences, and their price was ascertained by the degree of

* Spanheim, Orbis Roman. 1. 1, c. 16, p. 124, &c. [Many infringements on these useful instructions and regulations were introduced by the emperors. The Treatise of Pignorius De Servis, to which reference is made in a subsequent note, was printed in 12mo at Amsterdam, in 1674. With it is generally bound the smaller tract, Popmæ De Operis Servorum, 12mo. Amst. 1672. Both authors had a genius proportioned to their subject.-WENCK.] + Seneca de Clementiâ, L. 1, c. 24. The original is much stronger, "Quantum periculum immineret si servi nostri numerare nos coepissent." See Pliny (Hist. Nat. 1. 33) and Athenæus (Deipnosophist, 1. 6, p. 272). The latter boldly asserts, that he knew very many (аμToλλo) Romans who pos sessed, not for use, but ostentation, ten and even twenty thousand slaves. $ In Paris there are not more than forty-three thousand seven hundred domestics of every sort, and not a twelfth part of the Inhabitants. Messange, Recherches sur la Population, p. 186.

56

POPULOUSNESS OF

[CH. IL their skill and talents. Almost every profession, either liberalt or mechanical, might be found in the household of an opulent senator. The ministers of pomp and sensuality were multiplied beyond the conception of modern luxury.‡ It was more for the interest of the merchant or manufacturer to purchase than to hire his workmen; and in the country slaves were employed as the cheapest and most laborious instruments of agriculture. To confirm the general obser vation, and to display the multitude of slaves, we might allege a variety of particular instances. It was discovered, on a very melancholy occasion, that four hundred slaves were maintained in a single palace of Rome.§ The same number of four hundred belonged to an estate which an African widow, of a very private condition, resigned to her son, whilst she reserved for herself a much larger share of her property. A freedman, under the reign of Augustus, though his fortune had suffered great losses in the civil wars, left behind him three thousand six hundred yoke of oxen, two hundred and fifty thousand head of smaller cattle, and, what was almost included in the description of cattle, four thousand one hundred and sixteen slaves.**

The number of subjects who acknowledged the laws of Rome, of citizens, of provincials, and of slaves, cannot now be fixed with such a degree of accuracy as the importance of the object would deserve. We are informed, that when the Emperor Claudius exercised the office of censor, he took an account of six millions nine hundred and forty-five thousand Roman citizens, who, with the proportion of women and children, must have amounted to about twenty millions of souls. The multitude of subjects of an inferior rank was uncertain and fluctuating. But, after weighing with attention every circumstance which could influence the balance, it seems probable that there existed, in the time of Claudius, about twice as many provincials as there were citizens, of either sex, and of every age; and that the slaves were at

* A learned slave sold for many hundred pounds sterling: Atticus always bred and taught them himself. Cornel. Nepos in Vit. c. 13. + Many of the Roman physicians were slaves. See Dr. Middleton's Dissertation and Defence. Their ranks and offices are very copiously enumerated by Pignorius de Servis. § Tacit. Annal. 14, 43. They were all executed for not preventing their master's murder. Apuleius in Apolog. p. 548. Edit. Delphin., (Bohn's transl, P **Plin. Hist. Natur. 1 33, 47.

839.)