her under fufpicion of plotting with him against the government, fhe was condemned to undergo the punishment of the knout. At the place of execution fhe appeared in a genteel undrefs, which heightened her beauty. Of whatever indifcretion the might have been guilty, the fweetnefs of her countenance, and her compofure, left not in the fpectators the flighteft fufpicion of guilt. Her youth alfo, her beauty, her life and fpiric pleaded for her.-But all in vain: fhe was deferted by all, and abandoned to furly executioners; whom he be held with astonishment, feeming to doubt whether fuch preparations were intended for her. The cloak that covered her bofom being pulled off, modefty took the alarm, and made her ftart back: fhe turned pale, and burft into tears. One of the executioners ftripped her naked to the waist, feized her by both hands, and threw her on his back, raifing her fome inches from the ground. The other executioner laying hold of her delicate limbs with his rough fifts, put her in a pofture for receiving the punishment. Then laying hold of the knout, a fort of whip made of a leathern ftrap, he retreated a few fteps, and with a fingle ftroke tore off a flip of skin fron the neck downward, repeating his strokes till all the skin of her back was cut off in fmall flips. The executioner finished his task with cutting out her tongue; after which fhe was banifhed to Siberia *

The native inhabitants of the island Amboyna are Malayans. Thofe on the sea coaft are subject to the Dutch : thofe in the inland ́parts are declared enemies to the Dutch, and never give quarter. A Dutch captive, after being confined five days without food, is ripped up, his

* The prefent Empress has laid an excellent foundation for civilizing her people, which is a Code of laws, founded on principles of civil liberty, banishing favery and torture, and expreffing the utmost regard for the life, property, and liberty, of all her subjects, high and low. Peter I. reformed many bad cuftoms; but being rough in his own manners, he left the manners of his people as he found them. If this Empress happen to enjoy a long and profperous reign, she may poffibly accomplish the most difficult of all un, dertakings, that of polishing her people. No task is too arduous for a woman of fuch fpirit,

heart cut out, and the head fevered from the body, is preferved in fpice for a trophy. Those who can how the greatest number of Dutch heads are the most honourable.

In early times, when revenge and cruelty trampled on law, people formed affociations for fecuring their lives and their poffeffions. Thefe were common in Scandinavia and in Scotland. They were alfo common in England during the Anglo-Saxon period, and for fome ages after the Conqueft. But instead of fupporting juftice, they contributed more than any other cause to anarchy and confufion, the members protecting each other, even in robbery and murder. They were fuppreffed in England by a ftatute of Richard II.; and in Scotland by reiterated ftatutes.

Roughness and harshness of manners are generally connected with cruelty; and the manners of the Greeks and Trojans are accordingly reprefented in the Iliad as remarkably rough and harsh. When the armies were ready to engage (a), Meneftheus King of Athens, and Ulyffes of Ithaca, are bitterly reproached by Agamemnon for lingering, while others were more forward. "Son of Peleus, he faid, and thou verfed in artful de"ceit, in mifchief only wife, why trembling fhrink ye "back from the field; why wait till others engage in

fight? You it became, as first in rank, the first to meet "the flame of war. Ye firft to the banquet are called "when we spread the feaft. Your delight is to eat, to "regale, to quaff unftinted the generous wine.' In the fifth book Sarpedon upbraids Hector for cowardice. And Tlepolemus, ready to engage with Sarpedon, attacks him first with reviling and fcurrilous words. cause Hector was not able to rescue the dead body of Sarpedon from the Greeks, he is upbraided by Glaucus, Sarpedon's friend, in the following words. "Hector,

Be

though fpecious in form, diftant art thou from valour in arms. Undeferved haft thou fame acquired, when

"thus thou fhrinkeft from the field. Thou fuftaineft

(a) Book 4.

"not the dreadful arm, nor even the fight of the god"like Ajax. Thou haft fhunned his face in the fight: "thou dareft not approach his fpear.”

Rough and harsh manners produced slavery; and flavery fostered rough and harsh manners, by giving them conftant exercife. The brutality of the Spartans to the Helots, their flaves, is a reproach to the human fpecies. Befide the harsheft ufage, they were prevented from multiplying by downright murder and maffacre. Why did not fuch barbarity render the Spartans deteftable, inftead of being refpected by their neighbours, as the most virtuous people in Greece? There can be but one reason, that the Greeks were all of them cruel, the Spartans a little more, perhaps, than the reft. In Rome, a flave, chained at the gate of every great houfe, gave admittance to the guests invited to a feaft; could any but barbarians bear fuch a fpectacle without pain? If a Roman citizen was found murdered in his own houfe, his whole houfehold flaves, perhaps two or three hundred, were put to death without mercy, unless they could detect the murderer. Such a law, cruel and unjuft, could never have been enacted among a people of any humanity.

Whence the rough and harsh manners of our WeftIndian planters, but from the unrestrained licence of venting ill humour upon their negro flaves *? Why are

* C'est de cet esclavage de negres, que les Creoles tirent peutetre en partie un certain caracter, qui les fait paroitre bizarres, fantafques, et d'une fociete peu goutee en Europe. A peine peuventils marcher dans l'enfance, qu'ils voient autour d'eux des hommesgrands et robustes, destines a deviner, a prevenir leur volonte. Ce premier coup d'oeil doit leur donner d'eux-memes l'opinion la plus extravagante. Rarement exposes a trouver de la refiftance dans leurs fantaisies meme injuftes, ils prennent un efprit de prefomp. tion, de tyrannie, et de mepris extreme, pour une grande portion du genre humain. Rien n'eft plus infolent que l'homme qui vit prefque toujours avec fes inferieurs; mais quand ceuxci font des efclaves, accoutumees a fervir des enfans, a craindre jusqu' a des cris qui doivent leur attirer des chatimens, que peuvent devenir des maitres qui n'ont jamais obei, des mechans qui n'ont jamais ete punis, des foux qui mettent des hommes a la chaine? Hiftoire Philofophique et Politique des Etabliffemens des Europeens dans les Deux Indes, 1. 4. p. 201.-.-[In English thus: "It is from this

cartets a rugged fet of men? Plainly becaufe horses, their flaves, submit without resistance. An ingenious writer, defcribing Guiana in the fouthern continent of America, obferves, that the negroes, who are more numerous than the whites, must be kept in awe by feverity of difcipline. And he endeavours to justify the practice; urging, that befide contributing to the fafety of the white inhabitants, it makes the flaves themfelves lefs unhappy. "Impoffibility of attainment," fays he, "never fails to annihilate the defire of enjoyment; and "rigid treatment, fuppreffing every hope of liberty, "makes them peaceably fubmit to flavery." Sad, indeed, must be the condition of flaves, if harsh treatment contribute to make them lefs unhappy. Such reasoning may be relished by rough European planters, intent upon gain: I am inclined, however, to believe, that the harsh treatment of these poor people is more owing to the avarice of their mafters, than to their own perverseness * That flaves in all ages have been harfhly treated, is a

flavery of negroes, that the Creoles derive, in a great measure, that character which makes them appear capricious and fantasti"cal, and of a style of manners which is not relished in Europe. Scarcely have the children learned to walk, when they fee around "them tall and robust men, whofe province it is to guess their inclinations, and to prevent their wishes. This first obfervation "must give them the most extravagant opinion of themselves. "From being feldom accustomed to meet with any oppofition, even in their most unreasonable whims, they acquire a prefumptuous and tyrannical difpofition, and entertain an extreme contempt for a great part of the human race. None is fo infolent as the man who lives almost always with his inferiors; but when "these inferiors are flaves, accustomed to ferve infants, and to fear even their crying, for which they must suffer punishment, what can be expected of thofe mafters who have never obeyed, profligates who have never met with chastisement, and madmen who load their fellow creatures with chains?"

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In England, flavery fubfifted fo late as the fixteenth century. A commiffion was iffued by Queen Elizabeth, anno 1574. for enquiring into the lands and goods of all her bondmen and bondwo. men in the counties of Cornwall, Devon, Somerfet, and Gloucester, in order to compound with them for their manumiffion, or freedom, that they might enjoy their own lands and goods as free

men.

melancholy truth. One exception I know, and but one, which I gladly mention, in honour of the Mandingo negroes. Their flaves, who are numerous, receive very gentle treatment; the women efpecially, who are generally fo well dreffed as not to be diftinguifhed from those who are free.

deprived of his William Fun

Many political writers are of opinion, that for crimes inftigated by avarice only, flavery for life and hard work, would be a more adequate punishment than death." I would fubscribe to that opinion, but for the following confideration, that the having fuch criminals perpetually in view would harden the hearts of the fpectators, and eradicate pity, a capital moral paffion. Behold the be haviour of the Dutch, in the Ifland of Amboyna. A native who is found guilty of theft is ears and nofe, and made a flave for life. nel, who was there anno 1705, reports, that five hundred of thefe wretches were fecured in prifon, and never fuffered to go abroad, but in order to faw timber to cut ftone, or to carry heavy burdens. Their food is a pittance of coarse rice, boiled in water, and their bed the hard ground. What is ftill worse, poor people, who happen to run in debt, are turned over to the fervants of the Eaft India company, who fend them to work among their slaves, with a daily allowance of twopence, which goes to the creditor. A nation must be devoid of bowels, who can establish such inhumanity by law. But time has rendered that practice familiar to the Dutch, fo as to behold, with abfolute indifference, the multiplied miferies of their fellow-creatures. It appears, indeed, that fuch a punishment would be more effectual than death, to reprefs theft; but can any one doubt, that fo ciety would fuffer more by eradicating pity and humanity, than it would gain by removing every one by death who is guilty of theft? At the fame time, the Dutch, however, cruel to the natives, are extremely complaifant to one another: feldom is any one of them pu. nifhed but for murder: a small fum, will procure pardon any other crime.

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