OCR Text |
Show I I I 92 ON THE SLJ\VERY AND COMMERCE when both parties had fent their military into the field to determine the difpute, it was at the j;rivate choice of the legionary foldier before-mentioned, whether he would fpare the life of his conquered opponent, when he was thought to be entitled to take it, if he had chofen, by the laws of war. To produce more in fiances, as an illull:ration of the fubjeCl:, or to go farther into the qrgument, would be to trefpafs upon the patience, as well as underll:anding of the reader. In ajfate if nature, where a man is fuppofed to commit an injury, and to be unconneCted with the rell: of the world, the aCt is private, and the right, which the injured acquires, can extend only to himfilf: but in a jfate if .fociety, where any member or members of a particular community give offence to thofe of another, and they are patronized by the fiate, to which they belong, the cafe is altered; the aCt becomes immediately pub/ick, and the publzck alone are to experience the confequences of their injull:ice. For as no pa!ticular member of the community, if conlidered as an individual, is guilty, excep~ the perfon, by whom the injury was done, it oF THE HuMAN SPECIES. 93 it would be contrary to reafon and jufiice, to apply the principles of reparation and punijhment, which belong to the people as a colleCtive body, to any individual of the community, who fhould happen to be taken. Now, as the principles of reparation and punijhment are thus inapplicable to the prifoners, taken in a publick war, and as the right of capture, as we have !hewn before, is infuflicient to intitle the viClors to the firvice of the vanquilhed, it is evident that jfavery cannot jul1:ly exill: at all, Iince there are no other maxims, on which it can be founded, even in the mofi equitable wars. But if thefe things are fo; if 11avery cannot be defended even in the mofi equitable wars, what arguments will not be found againll: that fervitude, which arifes from thofe, that are unjujl? Which arifes from thofe African wars, that relate to the prefent fubjeCl:? The African princes, corrupted by the merchants of Europe, feek every opportunity of quarrelling with one another. Every (park is blown into a flame; and war is undertaken from no other conGderation, than that ofprocuringjfaves: while the Eu-ropeans, |