the fews here, was attended by an almost entire Extirpation of all the former Inhabitants. Their own civil Wars, and those with their petty Neighbours, confumed vaft Multitudes almost every Year for several Centuries; and the Irruptions of the Kings of Babylon and Affyria made immenfe Ravages. Yet we have their History but partially, in an indiftinct confused Manner; fo that I shall only throw the strong Point of Light upon that Part which coincides with Roman History, and of that Part only on the Point of Time when they received the great and final Stroke which made them no more a Nation; a Stroke which is allowed to have cut off little less than two Millions of that People. I fay, nothing of the Loppings made from that Stock whilft it ftood; nor from the Suckers that grew out of the old Root ever fince. But if, in this inconfiderable Part of the Globe, fuch a Carnage has been made in two or three fhort Reigns, and that this Carnage, great as it is, makes but a minute Part of what the Hiftories of that People inform us they fuffered; what fhall we judge of Countries more extended, and which have waged Wars by far more confiderable?

Inftances of this Sort compose the Uniform of Hiftory. But there have been Periods when no lefs than univerfal Deftruction to the Race of Mankind feems to have been threatened. When the Goths, the Vandals, and the Huns poured into Gaul, Italy, Spain, Greece, and Africa, carrying Destruction before them as they advanced, and leaving horrid De

farts

farts every where behind them. Vatum ubique filentium; fecreti colles ; fumantia procul teɛta ; nemò exploratoribus obvius, what Tacitus calls facies Victoria. It is always fo; but was here emphatically fo. From the North proceeded the Swarms of Goths, Vandals, Huns, Oftrogoths, who ran towards the South into Africa itself, which fuffered as al to the North had done. About this Time, another Torrent of Barbarians, animated by the fame Fury, and encouraged by the fame Succefs, poured out of the South, and ravaged all to the North-eaft and West, to the remoteft Parts of Perfia on one hand, and to the Banks of the Loire or further on the other; deftroying all the proud and curious Monuments of human Art, that not even the Memory might feem to furvive of the former Inhabitants. What has been done fince, and what will continue, to be done whilst the fame Inducements to War continue I shall not dwell upon. I fhall only in one Word mention the horrid Effects of Bigotry and Avarice, in the Conqueft of Spanish America; a Conquest on a low Eftimation effected by the Murder of ten Millions of the Species. I fhall draw to a Conclufion of this Part, by making a general Calculation of the Whole. I think I have actually mentioned above thirty-fix Millions. I have not particularized any more. I don't pretend to Exactnefs; therefore, for the fake of a general View, I fhall lay together all thofe actually flain in Battles, or who have perished in a no jefs miferable Manner by the other deftructive Confequences of War, from the Beginning of the World

to this Day, in the four Parts of it, at a thousand Times as much; no exaggerated Calculation, allowing for Time and Extent. We have not perhaps fpoke of the five-hundredth Part; I am fure I have not of what is actually ascertained in Hiftory; but how much of thefe Butcheries are only expreffed in generals, what Part of Time History has never reached, and what vaft Spaces of the habitable Globe it has not embraced, I need not mention to your Lordship. I need not enlarge on thofe Torrents of filent and inglorious Blood which have glutted the thirsty Sands of Afric, or difcoloured the polar Snow, or fed the favage Forefts of America for fo many Ages of continual War; fhall I, to justify my Calculations from the Charge of Extravagance, add to the Accounts thofe Skirmishes which happen in all Wars, without being fingly of fufficient Dignity in Mischief, to merit a Place in History, but which by their Frequency compenfate for this comparative Lanocence; fhall I inflame the Account by thofe 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 purposely avoided a Parade of Eloquence on this Occafion. I fhould defpife it upon any Occasion; else, in mentioning thefe Slaughters, it is obvious how much the whole might be heightened, by an affecting Description of the Horrors that attend the Wafting of Kingdoms, and Sacking of Cities, But I do not write to the Vulgar, nor to that which

only

only governs the Vulgar, their Paffions. I go upon a naked and moderate Calculation, just enough, without a pedantical Exactness, to give your Lordfhip fome Feeling of the Effects of political Society. I charge the whole of these Effects on political Society. I avow the Charge, and I fhall presently make it good to your Lordship's Satisfaction. The Numbers I particularized are about thirty-fix Millions. Befides thofe killed in Battles I have said something, not half what the Matter would have juftified, but fomething I have said, concerning the Confequences of War even more dreadful than that monfterous Carnage itself which shocks our Humanity, and almost staggers 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 500 Millions at the moft, Here the Slaughter of Mankind, on what you will call a fmall Calculation, amounts to upwards of feventy times the Number of Souls 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 Society is juftly chargeable with much the greatest Part of this Deftruction of the Speices. To give the fairest Play to every Side of the Question, I will own that there is a Haughtinefs and Fiercenefs in human Nature, which will caufe innumerable Broils, place Men in what Situation you please; but, owning this, I still infift in charging it to political Regulations, that

thefe

thefe Broils are fo frequent, fo cruel, and attended with Confequences fo deplorable. In a State of Nature, it had been impoffible to find a Number of Men, fufficient for fuch Slaughters, agreed in the fame bloody Purpofe; or, allowing that they might have come to fuch an Agreement, (an impoffible Suppofition) yet the Means that fimple Nature has fupplied them with, are by no means adequate to fuch an End; many Scratches, many Bruifes, undoubtedly would be received upon all hands; but only a few, a very few Deaths. Society and Politics, which have given us these deftructive Views, have given us alfo the Means of fatisfying them. From the earliest Dawnings of Policy unto this Day, the Invention of Men has been fharpening and improving the Mystery of Murder, from the firft rude Effays of Clubs and Stones, to the present Perfection of Gunnery, Cannoneering, Bombarding, Mining, and all thofe Species 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 those Animals, who ftill follow her Laws, and even of thofe to whom she has given Dispositions more fierce, and Arms more terrible than ever she intended we should use. It is an incontestable Truth, that there is more Havock made in one Year by Men, of Men, than has been made by all the Lions, Tigers, Panthers, Ounces, Leopards, Hyenas, Rhinocerofes, Ele

phants,