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Show 36 ON THE SLAVERY AND CoMMERCE JEgcean fea; and the Iliad, that it had t_akcn place among thofe Grecians on the contment of Europe, who had embarked from thence on the Trojan expedition. This appears particularly at the end of the {event~ bo_ok. A fleet is defcribed there, ~s havwg JU!l arrived from Lemnos, with a fupply of wine for the Grecian camp. The merchants are defcribed alfo, as immediately expofing it to f 1le, and as receiving in exchange, among other articles of barter, "a munber if jlaveJ ." It will now be fufficient to obferve, that, as other fiates arofe, and as circumfiances contributed to make them known, this cu!tom is difcovered to have exified among them; that it travelled over all Afia; that it fpread through the Grecian and Roman world; was in ufe among the barbarous nation s, which overturned the Roman empire; and was praClifed therefore, at the f.1me period, throughout all Europe: C H A P. VII. This jlavery and commerce, which had continued for fo long a time, and which was thllll OF T ll r: HUMAN SpECIES. 37 thus praClifcd in E urope at {o late a period as that, which fucceeded the grand revolutions in the well:ern world, began, as the northern nations were fettled in thei r conquells, to decline, and, on their full eflabliil1ment, were abol iil1ed. A difference of opinion has arifen refpeCling the caufe of their abolition; fome having ailerted, that they were the neccili1ry confeq uences of the feudaljjjlem; while others, fuperiour both in number and in argument, have maintained that they were the natural effeCls of Cbrijlianity. The mode of argument, which the former adopt on this occafion, is as follows. " The multitude of little !tates, " which fprang up from one great one at "this JEra, occafioncd infinite bickcrings . "and matter for contention. There was " not a ll:ate or fcignory, which did not " want all the hands they could m u!ter, ei" ther to defend their own right, or to <;!if" pute that of their neighbours. Thus " every man was taken into the fcrvice: " whom they armed they mu!t trufl:: and " there could be no tru!t but in free men. C 3 "Thus |