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Show l{ ON THE SLAVERY AND CoMMERCE to conduCt them with fuccefs. Upon this idea piratical expeditions firll came into repute, and their frequency afterwards, together with the danger and fortitude, that were infeparably conneCted with them, brought them into fuch credit among the barbarous nations of antiquity, that of all human profdlions, piracy was the moll honourable.* The notions then, which were thus annexed to piratical expeditions, did not fail to produce thofe confequences, which we have mentioned before. They afforded an opportunity to the views of avarice and ambition, to conceal themfelves under themalkof virtue. They excited a fpirit of enterprize, of all others the moll irrefillible, as it Cubfilled on the llrongell principles of aCtion, emolument and honour. Thus could the vilell of pafiions be gratified with impunity. People were robbed, llolen, murdered, under the pretended idea that thefe were • Hxlxwr~' -r;r.~ AicrxJvn~ 7~n T¥' ~f')'W, G'~fo~'J@- .N 71 '!I A~E"' p.«M.QJI, Thucydidcs, L. 1, fub initio. 'f1 iVxA~f' 7¥70 oi Kl>.tx.H iP&fll<ov. Sextus Empiricus. Wx. «.le~av i.AJt..'lvJ'o;o, 7¥TO• Schol. &c. &c. reputable OF TilE HuMAN SPECIES, reputable adventures: every enormity in ihort was committed, and dreifed up ill the habiliments of honour. But as the notions of men in the lefs barbarous ages, which followed, became more correCted and refined, the praCtice of piracy began gradually to difappear. It had hitherto been fupported on the grand columns of emolument and honour. When the latter therefore was removed, it receiYed a confiderable {hock; but, alas ! it had llill a pillar for its fupport! avarice, which exills in all llates, and which is ready to turn every invention to its own ends, firained hard for its prefervation. It had been produced in the ages of barbari fm ; it had been pointed out in thofe ages as lucrative, and under this notion it was continued. People were fiill fiolcn; many were intercepted (fame, in their purfuits of pleafure, others, in the difcharge of their feveral occupations) by their own countrymen; who previoully laid in wa~t for them, anrl fold them afterwards for · !laves; while others feized by merchants, who traded on the different coafis, were torn from their friends and |