the Romans. The Turks, and other nations, who subverted the empire of the Caliphs, again introduced the Roman custom of condemning to slavery their prisoners of war; and the same system was, by way of retaliation, adopted by the crusaders.

4. After the enthusiastic frenzy of the religious wars had subsided, in proportion as the minds of men became more enlightened, as religion became better understood, and better practised, and as the advancement of commerce and civilization diffused wealth among the people, the system of slavery gradually disappeared, and the feudal system was, by a concurrence of causes, at last abolished in several parts of Europe. It is, however, a melancholy circumstance, that the extinction of slavery in Europe was so soon followed by its establishment in America. We have seen that various causes concurred, in such a manner, as rendered the effect inevitable. In this life, evil is invariably mixed with good, and we, finite creatures, are not able to comprehend the designs of a Providence, infinitely wise, in permitting those scenes of misery which the world so abundantly displays.

5. Slavery is a bitter cup, and we see what multitudes of mankind have been compelled to drink it, which naturally gives rise to this question-What right can be claimed by man, to exercise this tyranny over man, his fellow creature? To Christians, this is a question of the most serious importance, which they ought to endeavour to answer to their own consciences, as they believe that it must one day be answered before the tribunal of the eternal Judge, whose integrity all the gold and silver dug from the mines of the earth cannot bribe, whose omniscience no cunning can elude, and. whose omnipotence no power can resist.

6. O for a lodge in some vast wilderness,
Some boundless contiguity of shade,
Where rumour of oppression and deceit,
Of unsuccessful or successful war,

Might never reach me more. My ear is pained,
My soul is sick, with every day's report

Of wrong and outrage, with which earth is filled.
There is no flesh in man's obdurate heart,
It does not feel for man; the natural bond
Of brotherhood is severed as the flax'
That falls asunder at the touch of fire.

He finds his fellow guilty of a skin

Not coloured like his own; and having power
To enforce the wrong, for such a worthy cause
Dooms and devotes him as his lawful prey.
Lands intersected by a narrow frith
Abhor each other. Mountains interposed
Make enemies of nations, who had else
Like kindred drops been mingled into one.

7. Thus man devotes his brother, and destroys;
And, worse than all, and most to be deplored
As human nature's broadest, foulest blot,
Chains him, and tasks him, and extracts his sweat
With stripes, that Mercy, with a bleeding heart,
Weeps when she sees inflicted on a beast.
Then what is man? And what man, seeing this,
And having human feelings, does not blush,
And hang his head, to think himself a man?
I would not have a slave to till my ground,
To carry me, to fan me while I sleep,
And tremble when I wake, for all the wealth
That sinews, bought and sold, have ever earn'd.
No-dear as freedom is, and in my heart's
Just estimation prized above all price,
I had much rather be myself the slave,
And wear the bonds, than fasten them on him.

QUESTIONS.

1. Did human slavery extensively prevail among ancient nations?-2. How did Christianity tend to the amelioration of the condition of slaves in the latter part of the Roman republic?3. What effect had the subversion of the Roman empire, by the northern nations, upon slavery? -4. Who again introduced the Roman custom of condemning to slavery their prisoners of war? -5. And who adopted the very practice by way of retaliating upon the Turks?

ORIGIN OF AFRICAN SLAVERY.

1. THE very worst of all the consequences of the discovery of the new continent, was the introduction of negro slavery. The first Spanish adventurers treated the unfortunate inhabitants of the newly discovered countries like beasts of burden. They divided among themselves the lands of the new world, and with the lands the ill-fated inhabitants also, whom they reduced to a state of the most abject slavery, and imposed upon them labours which their delicate constitutions were not able to bear. The natives of all those parts of America conquered by the Spaniards, inhabited countries where the fertility of the soil spontaneously produced what was necessary to their support, and the uniform warmth of the climate precluded the necessity of clothing.

2. In such a state, the natives of America, strangers to the wants and conveniences of civilized life, were unaccustomed to any active or laborious exertions, ether of body or mind. (This habitual indolence, with the relaxing heat of the climate, enervated their bodily frame, and rendered them totally unfit for labour. The difference of bodily strength and constitution between the American natives within the torrid zone, and the Europeans, was so remarkably conspicuous, that one Spaniard was found able to perform as much laborious work, and also required as great a quantity of victuals, as five or six Indians; and the natives of America were astonished at the quantity of provisions which the Spaniards, who are the most abstemious people of Europe, devoured, as well as at the quantity of work they were able to perform.

3. Men, accustomed to so indolent a mode of life, and so scanty a diet, were totally incapable of supporting the labours of cultivating the ground, and working in the mines, which the colonists imposed upon them. Unable to sustain the grievous burdens with which their oppressors afflicted them, multitudes of those unhappy mortals were by death released from all their

earthly sufferings. Hispaniola, Cuba, and other islands, were almost depopulated, before the court of Spain was sufficiently apprised of the matter to interest itself in the sufferings of the Americans. The tyranny of the unprincipled and avaricious colonists excited the abhorrence, and the miseries of the natives stimulated the compassion, of several humane and benevolent Spaniards, both laymen and ecclesiastics, who had been witnesses of those scenes of horror.

4. Among those friends of mankind, the name of Father Bartholomew de las Casas will never be forgotten. This humane ecclesiastic, whose courage no danger could appal, and whose steady and resolute perseverance no difficulties could overcome, had been an indignant spectator of the tyranny exercised by the colonists on the unfortunate natives. He had loudly declaimed against their inhumanity and oppression. Passing from America to Spain, he endeavoured, by every possible means, to excite the public voice, as well as the humanity and compassion of the court, in favour of his oppressed fellow creatures. This benevolent man left no stone unturned to excite the compassion of both Spain and Rome in behalf of those unfortunate sufferers, and to rouse the thunders of the church, as well as the indignation of the Spanish court, against those Christian tyrants and butchers of the human species.

5. The colonists, on their part, were not inactive. They represented the Americans as an inferior race of beings, born for slavery, incapable of comprehending the doctrines of Christianity. This degradation of the Americans from the rank of rational beings, was, however, universally exploded and condemned by the decision of Rome and Spain, where the public indignation was roused against the inhumanity of the colonial tyrants; Father de las Casas, and other friends of bumanity, were indefatigable in their efforts; and it is a pleasing object of contemplation, to see Spanish ecclesiastics of the fifteenth century stand forth the avowed advocates and assertors of the rational and unalienable rights of mankind. The court of Spain interested itself

warmly in the cause of the oppressed Americans, and resolved to take effective measures for putting an end to the disorders which prevailed in the colonies.

6. The colonists, on their part, finding their cause daily losing ground, and seeing reason to apprehend the anathemas of the church, as well as the effective resentment of the mother country, took a new ground, and discovered a post which they supposed, and which actually proved, in some degree, impregnable. They represented the necessity of having hands to cultivate the new settlements, and to work the mines, without which they must be abandoned, and all hopes of drawing any advantage from the discovery and conquest of those rich countries be for ever extinguished; and they represented the natives as an indolent race, whom no wages, no rewards, could induce to work, and whom nothing but absolute compulsion could oblige to apply to any kind of useful labour.

7. This representation, indeed, was not untrue. Their indolent and inactive life had rendered them equally unable and unwilling to apply to any kind of labour. Unaccustomed, as they had ever been, to the elegancies and luxuries of civilized life, and ignorant of their use, they could not suppose them worth the trouble of acquisition, and were astonished that the Europeans should either work themselves, or desire others to babour, for the possession of things not immediately necessary for the support of life; gold and silver were things of no value among them. They had never made use of those metals, except such pieces as they had accidentally found, and used merely as ornaments; and they could not conceive by what infatuation the Spaniards could be induced to ransack the bowels of the earth, and to establish a system of laborious employment for the acquisition of those metals, which appeared to them of so little use, and which they could do so well without.

8. It is very evident, that men of such ideas, and accustomed to so simple a state of life, could not be induced to labour for the sake of gain; for it is an invariable principle of human nature not to labour for