tinual war. Shall I, to juftify my calculations from the charge of extravagance, add to the account those skirmishes which happen in all wars, without being fingly of fufficient dignity in mifchief, to merit a place in hiftory, but which by their frequency compenfate for this comparative innocence; fhall I inflame the account by those general maffacres which have devoured whole cities and nations; thofe wafting peftilences, thofe confuming famines, and all thofe furies that follow in the train of war? I have no need to exaggerate; and I have purpofely avoided a parade of eloquence on this occafion. I should despise it upon any occafion; elfe in mentioning these flaughters, it is obvious how much the whole might be height ened, by an affecting defcription of the horrouts that attend the wafting of kingdoms, and facking of cities. But I do not write to the vulgar, nor to that which only governs the vulgar, their paffions. I go upon a naked and moderate calculation, just enough, without a pedantical exactness, to give your Lordship fome feeling of the effects. of political fociety. I charge the whole of thefe effects on political fociety. I avow the charge, and I fhall presently make it good to your Lordfhip's fatisfaction. The numbers I particularized are about thirty-fix millions. Befides thofe killed in battles I have faid fomething, not half what the matter would have juftified, but fomething I have

faid, concerning the confequences of war even more dreadful than that monftrous carnage itfelf which fhocks our humanity, and almoft ftaggers our belief. So that allowing me in my exuberance one way, for my deficiencies in the other, you will find me not unreasonable. I think the numbers of men now upon earth are computed at five hundred millions at the moft. Here the flaughter of mankind, on what you will call a fmall calculation, amounts to upwards of feventy times the number of fouls this day on the globe: a point which may furnish matter of reflexion to one lefs inclined to draw confequences than your Lordship.

I now come to fhew, that political fociety is justly chargeable with much the greatest part of this deftruction of the fpecies. To give the faireft play to every fide of the queftion, I will own that there is a haughtiness, and fiercenefs in human nature, which will caufe innumerable broils, place men in what fituation you pleafe; but owning this, I still infift in charging it to political regulations, that these broils are fo frequent, fo cruel, and attended with confequences fo deplorable. In a ftate of nature, it had been impoffible to find a number of men, sufficient for fuch flaughters, agreed in the fame bloody purpose; or allowing that they might have come to such an agreement, (an impoffible fuppofition) yet the means that

fimple nature has fupplied them with, are by no means adequate to fuch an end; many fcratches, many bruises undoubtedly would be received upon all hands; but only a few, a very few deaths. Society, and politicks, which have given us thefe destructive views, have given us alfo the means of fatisfying them. From the earliest dawnings of policy to this day, the invention of men has been fharpening and improving the myftery of murder, from the first rude effays of clubs and ftones, to the prefent perfection of gunnery, cannoneering, bombarding, mining, and all thefe fpecies of artificial, learned, and refined cruelty, in which we are now fo expert, and which make a principal part of what politicians have taught us to believe is our principal glory.

How far mere nature would have carried us, we may judge by the example of thofe animals, who ftill follow her laws, and even of thofe to whom she has given difpofitions more fierce, and arms more terrible than ever the intended we fhould ufe. It is an inconteftible truth, that there is more havock made in one year by men, of men, than has been made by all the lions, tygers, panthers, ounces, leopards, hyenas, rhinocerofes, elephants, bears, and wolves, upon their feveral fpecies, fince the beginning of the world; though these agree ill enough with each other, and have a much greater proportion of rage and fury in

their compofition than we have. But with refpect to you, ye legiflators, ye civilifers of mankind! ye Orpheuses, Mofefes, Minofes, Solons, Thefeufes, Lycurgufes, Numas! with respect to you be it spoken, your regulations have done more mischief in cold blood, than all the rage of the fierceft animals in their greatest terrours, or furies, has ever done, or ever could do!

Thefe evils are not accidental. Whoever will take the pains to confider the nature of society, will find they refult directly from its conftitution. For as fubordination, or in other words, the reciprocation of tyranny, and flavery, is requifite to fupport these focieties, the intereft, the ambition, the malice, or the revenge, nay even the whim and caprice of one ruling man among them, is enough to arm all the reft, without any private views of their own, to the worst and blackest purpofes; and what is at once lamentable, and ridiculous, these wretches engage under those banners with a fury greater than if they were animated by revenge for their own proper wrongs.

It is no lefs worth obferving, that this artificial divifion of mankind, into feparate focieties, is a perpetual fource in itself of hatred and diffenfion among them. The names which diftinguish them are enough to blow up hatred, and rage. Examine hiftory; confult prefent experience; and you will find, that far the greater part of the

quarrels

quarrels between feveral nations, had scarce any other occafion, than, that these nations were different combinations of people, and called by different names; to an Englishman, the name of a Frenchman, a Spaniard, an Italian, much more a Turk, or a Tartar, raises of course ideas of hatred, and contempt. If you would infpire this compatriot of ours with pity or regard, for one of thefe; would you not hide that distinction? You would not pray him to compaffionate the poor Frenchman, or the unhappy German. Far from it; you would speak of him as a foreigner, an accident to which all are liable. You would represent him as a man, one partaking with us of the fame common nature, and fubject to the fame law. There is fomething fo averfe from our nature in these artificial political diftinctions, that we need no other trumpet to kindle us to war, and deftruction. But there is fomething fo benign and healing in the general voice of humanity, that maugre all our regulations to prevent it, the fimple name of man applied properly, never fails to work a falutary effect.

This natural unpremeditated effect of policy on the unpoffeffed paffions of mankind, appears on other occafions. The very name of a politician, a statesman, is sure to cause terrour and hatred; it has always connected with it the ideas of treachery, cruelty, fraud and tyranny; and those writers who VOL. I.

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have