Book XV.
In What Manner the Laws of Civil Slavery Relate to the
Nature of the Climate.
15.1. 1. Of civil Slavery.
Slavery, properly so called, is the
establishment of a right which gives to one man such a power over
another as renders him absolute master of his life and fortune. The
state of slavery is in its own nature bad. It is neither useful to the
master nor to the slave; not to the slave, because he can do nothing
through a motive of virtue; nor to the master, because by having an
unlimited authority over his slaves he insensibly accustoms himself to
the want of all moral virtues, and thence becomes fierce, hasty, severe,
choleric, voluptuous, and cruel.
In despotic countries, where they are already in a state of
political servitude, civil slavery is more tolerable than in other
governments. Every one ought to be satisfied in those countries with
necessaries and life. Hence the condition of a slave is hardly more
burdensome than that of a subject.
But in a monarchical government, where it is of the utmost
importance that human nature should not be debased or dispirited, there
ought to be no slavery. In democracies, where they are all upon
equality; and in aristocracies, where the laws ought to use their utmost
endeavours to procure as great an equality as the nature of the
government will permit, slavery is contrary to the spirit of the
constitution: it only contributes to give a power and luxury to the
citizens which they ought not to have.
15.2. 2. Origin of the Right of Slavery among the Roman Civilians.
One would never have imagined that slavery should owe its birth to pity, and
that this should have been excited in three different ways.
[1]
The law of nations to prevent prisoners from being put to death has
allowed them to be made slaves. The civil law of the Romans empowered
debtors, who were subject to be ill-used by their creditors, to sell
themselves. And the law of nature requires that children whom a father
in a state of servitude is no longer able to maintain should be reduced
to the same state as the father.
These reasons of the civilians are all false. It is false that
killing in war is lawful, unless in a case of absolute necessity: but
when a man has made another his slave, he cannot be said to have been
under a necessity of taking away his life, since he actually did not
take it away. War gives no other right over prisoners than to disable
them from doing any further harm by securing their persons. All
nations
[2]
concur in detesting the murdering of prisoners in cold blood.
Neither is it true that a freeman can sell himself. Sale implies a
price; now when a person sells himself, his whole substance immediately
devolves to his master; the master, therefore, in that case, gives
nothing, and the slave receives nothing. You will say he has a peculium.
But this peculium goes along with his person. If it is not lawful for a
man to kill himself because he robs his country of his person, for the
same reason he is not allowed to barter his freedom. The freedom of
every citizen constitutes a part of the public liberty, and in a
democratic state is even a part of the sovereignty. To sell one's
freedom
[3]
is so repugnant to all reason as can scarcely be supposed in
any man. If liberty may be rated with respect to the buyer, it is beyond
all price to the seller. The civil law, which authorises a division of
goods among men, cannot be thought to rank among such goods a part of
the men who were to make this division. The same law annuls all
iniquitous contracts; surely then it affords redress in a contract where
the grievance is most enormous.
The third way is birth, which falls with the two former; for if a
man could not sell himself, much less could he sell an unborn infant. If
a prisoner of war is not to be reduced to slavery, much less are his
children.
The lawfulness of putting a malefactor to death arises from this
circumstance: the law by which he is punished was made for his security.
A murderer, for instance, has enjoyed the benefit of the very law which
condemns him; it has been a continual protection to him; he cannot,
therefore, object to it. But it is not so with the slave. The law of
slavery can never be beneficial to him; it is in all cases against him,
without ever being for his advantage; and therefore this law is contrary
to the fundamental principle of all societies.
If it be pretended that it has been beneficial to him, as his master
has provided for his subsistence, slavery, at this rate, should be
limited to those who are incapable of earning their livelihood. But who
will take up with such slaves? As to infants, nature, who has supplied
their mothers with milk, had provided for their sustenance; and the
remainder of their childhood approaches so near the age in which they
are most capable of being of service that he who supports them cannot be
said to give them an equivalent which can entitle him to be their
master.
Nor is slavery less opposed to the civil law than to that of nature.
What civil law can restrain a slave from running away, since he is not a
member of society, and consequently has no interest in any civil
institutions? He can be retained only by a family law, that is, by the
master's authority.
Footnotes
[1]
Justinian, "Institutes," Book i.
[2]
Excepting a few cannibals.
[3]
I mean slavery in a strict sense, as formerly among the Romans,
and at present in our colonies.
15.3. 3. Another Origin of the Right of Slavery.
I would as soon say that
the right of slavery proceeds from the contempt of one nation for
another, founded on a difference in customs.
Lopez de Gama
[4]
relates that the Spaniards found near St. Martha
several basketsful of crabs, snails, grasshoppers, and locusts, which
proved to be the ordinary provision of the natives. This the conquerors
turned to a heavy charge against the conquered. The author owns that
this, with their smoking and trimming their beards in a different
manner, gave rise to the law by which the Americans became slaves to the
Spaniards.
Knowledge humanises mankind, and reason inclines to mildness; but
prejudices eradicate every tender disposition.
Footnotes
[4]
"Biblioth. Ang.," tome xiii, part II, art. 3.
15.4. 4. Another Origin of the Right of Slavery.
I would as soon say that
religion gives its professors a right to enslave those who dissent from
it, in order to render its propagation more easy.
This was the notion that encouraged the ravagers of America in their
iniquity.
[5]
Under the influence of this idea they founded their right
of enslaving so many nations; for these robbers, who would absolutely be
both robbers and Christians, were superlatively devout.
Louis XII
[6]
was extremely uneasy at a law by which all the negroes
of his colonies were to be made slaves; but it being strongly urged to
him as the readiest means for their conversion, he acquiesced without
further scruple.
Footnotes
[5]
See Solis, "History of the Conquest of Mexico," and Garcilasso de
la Vega, History of the Conquest of Peru.
[6]
Labat, "New Voyage to the Isles of America," vol. iv, p. 114, 1728,
12mo.
15.5. 5. Of the Slavery of the Negroes.
Were I to vindicate our right to
make slaves of the negroes, these should be my arguments:
The Europeans, having extirpated the Americans, were obliged to make
slaves of the Africans, for clearing such vast tracts of land.
Sugar would be too dear if the plants which produce it were
cultivated by any other than slaves.
These creatures are all over black, and with such a flat nose that
they can scarcely be pitied.
It is hardly to be believed that God, who is a wise Being, should
place a soul, especially a good soul, in such a black ugly body.
It is so natural to look upon colour as the criterion of human
nature, that the Asiatics, among whom eunuchs are employed, always
deprive the blacks of their resemblance to us by a more opprobrious
distinction.
The colour of the skin may be determined by that of the hair, which,
among the Egyptians, the best philosophers in the world, was of such
importance that they put to death all the red-haired men who fell into
their hands.
The negroes prefer a glass necklace to that gold which polite
nations so highly value. Can there be a greater proof of their wanting
common sense?
It is impossible for us to suppose these creatures to be men,
because, allowing them to be men, a suspicion would follow that we
ourselves are not Christians.
Weak minds exaggerate too much the wrong done to the Africans. For
were the case as they state it, would the European powers, who make so
many needless conventions among themselves, have failed to enter into a
general one, in behalf of humanity and compassion?
15.6. 6. The true Origin of the Right of Slavery.
It is time to inquire
into the true origin of the right of slavery. It ought to be founded on
the nature of things; let us see if there be any cases where it can be
derived thence.
In all despotic governments people make no difficulty in selling
themselves; the political slavery in some measure annihilates the civil
liberty.
According to Mr. Perry,
[7]
the Muscovites sell themselves very
readily: their reason for it is evident; their liberty is not worth
keeping.
At Achim every one is for selling himself. Some of the chief
lords
[8]
have not less than a thousand slaves, all principal merchants,
who have a great number of slaves themselves, and these also are not
without their slaves. Their masters are their heirs, and put them into
trade. In those states, the freemen being overpowered by the government,
have no better resource than that of making themselves slaves to the
tyrants in office.
This is the true and rational origin of that mild law of slavery
which obtains in some countries: and mild it ought to be, as founded on
the free choice a man makes of a master, for his own benefit; which
forms a mutual convention between the two parties.
Footnotes
[7]
"Present State of Russia."
[8]
Dampier, "Voyages," vol. iii.
15.7. 7. Another Origin of the Right of Slavery.
There is another origin
of the right of slavery, and even of the most cruel slavery which is to
be seen among men.
There are countries where the excess of heat enervates the body, and
renders men so slothful and dispirited that nothing but the fear of
chastisement can oblige them to perform any laborious duty: slavery is
there more reconcilable to reason; and the master being as lazy with
respect to his sovereign as his slave is with regard to him, this adds a
political to a civil slavery.
Aristotle
[9]
endeavours to prove that there are natural slaves; but
what he says is far from proving it. If there be any such, I believe
they are those of whom I have been speaking.
But as all men are born equal, slavery must be accounted unnatural,
though in some countries it be founded on natural reason; and a wide
difference ought to be made between such countries, and those in which
even natural reason rejects it, as in Europe, where it has been so
happily abolished.
Plutarch, in the Life of Numa, says that in Saturn's time there was
neither slave nor master. Christianity has restored that age in our
climates.
Footnotes
15.8. 8. Inutility of Slavery among us.
Natural slavery, then, is to be
limited to some particular parts of the world. In all other countries,
even the most servile drudgeries may be performed by freemen. Experience
verifies my assertion. Before Christianity had abolished civil slavery
in Europe, working in the mines was judged too toilsome for any but
slaves or malefactors: at present there are men employed in them who are
known to live comfortably.
[10]
The magistrates have, by some small
privileges, encouraged this profession: to an increase of labour they
have joined an increase of gain; and have gone so far as to make those
people better pleased with their condition than with any other which
they could have embraced.
No labour is so heavy but it may be brought to a level with the
workman's strength, when regulated by equity, and not by avarice. The
violent fatigues which slaves are made to undergo in other parts may be
supplied by a skilful use of ingenious machines. The Turkish mines in
the Bannat of Temeswr, though richer than those of Hungary, did not
yield so much; because the working of them depended entirely on the
strength of their slaves.
I know not whether this article be dictated by my understanding or
by my heart. Possibly there is not that climate upon earth where the
most laborious services might not with proper encouragement be performed
by freemen. Bad laws having made lazy men, they have been reduced to
slavery because of their laziness.
Footnotes
[10]
As may be seen in the mines of Hartz, in Lower Saxony, and in
those of Hungary.
15.9. 9. Several Kinds of Slavery.
Slavery is of two kinds, real and
personal. The real annexes the slave to the land, which Tacitus
makes
[11]
the condition of slaves among the Germans. They were not
employed in the family: a stated tribute of corn, cattle, or other
movables, paid to their master, was the whole of their servitude. And
such a servitude still continues in Hungary, Bohemia, and several parts
of Lower Germany.
Personal slavery consists in domestic services, and relates more to
the master's person.
The worst degree of slavery is when it is at once both real and
personal, as that of the Helotes among the Lacedmonians. They underwent
the fatigues of the field, and suffered all manner of insults at home.
This helotism is contrary to the nature of things. Real slavery is to be
found only among nations remarkable for their simplicity of life:
[12]
all family business being done by the wives and children. Personal
slavery is peculiar to voluptuous nations; luxury requiring the service
of slaves in the house. But helotism joins in the same person the
slavery established by voluptuous nations and that of the most simple.
Footnotes
[11]
"De Moribus Germanorum," 25.
[12]
Tacitus, "De Moribus Germanorum," 20, says the master is not to be
distinguished from the slave by any delicacy of living.
15.10. 10. Regulations necessary in respect to Slavery.
But of whatsoever kind the slavery be, the civil laws should endeavour on the one hand to
abolish the abuses of it, and on the other to guard against its dangers.
15.11. 11. Abuses of Slavery.
In Mahometan states,
[13]
not only the life and goods of female slaves, but also what is called their virtue or
honour, are at their master's disposal. One of the misfortunes of those
countries is that the greatest part of the nation are born only to be
subservient to the pleasures of the other. This servitude is alleviated
by the laziness in which such slaves spend their days; which is an
additional disadvantage to the state.
It is this indolence which renders the eastern seraglios so
delightful to those very persons whom they were made to confine.
[14]
People who dread nothing but labour may imagine themselves happy in
those places of indolence and ease. But this shows how contrary they are
to the very intent of the institution of slavery.
Reason requires that the master's power should not extend to what
does not appertain to his service: slavery should be calculated for
utility, and not for pleasure. The laws of chastity arise from those of
nature, and ought in all nations to be respected.
If a law which preserves the chastity of slaves be good in those
states where an arbitrary power bears down all before it, how much more
will it be so in monarchies, and how much more still in republics?
The law of the Lombards
[15]
has a regulation which ought to be
adopted by all governments. "If a master debauches his slave's wife, the
slave and his wife shall be restored to their freedom." An admirable
expedient, which, without severity, lays a powerful restraint on the
incontinence of masters!
The Romans seem to have erred on this head. They allowed an
unlimited scope to the master's lusts, and, in some measure, denied
their slaves the privilege of marrying. It is true, they were the lowest
part of the nation; yet there should have been some care taken of their
morals, especially as in prohibiting their marriage they corrupted the
morals of the citizens.
Footnotes
[13]
Sir John Chardin, "Travels to Persia."
[14]
Sir John Chardin, ii, in his description of the market of
Izagour.
15.12. 12. Danger from the Multitude of Slaves.
The multitude of slaves has
different effects in different governments. It is no grievance in a
despotic state, where the political servitude of the whole body takes
away the sense of civil slavery. Those who are called freedmen in
reality are little more so than they who do not come within that class;
and as the latter, in quality of eunuchs, freedmen, or slaves, have
generally the management of all affairs, the condition of a freedman and
that of a slave are very nearly allied. This makes it therefore almost a
matter of indifference whether in such states the slaves be few or
numerous.
But in moderate governments it is a point of the highest importance
that there should not be a great number of slaves. The political liberty
of those states adds to the value of civil liberty; and he who is
deprived of the latter is also bereft of the former. He sees the
happiness of a society, of which he is not so much as a member; he sees
the security of others fenced by laws, himself without any protection.
He perceives that his master has a soul, capable of enlarging itself:
while his own labours under a continual depression. Nothing more
assimilates a man to a beast than living among freedmen, himself a
slave. Such people as these are natural enemies of society; and their
number must be dangerous.
It is not therefore to be wondered at that moderate governments have
been so frequently disturbed by the revolts of slaves, and that this so
seldom happens in despotic states.
[16]
Footnotes
[16]
The revolt of the Mamelukes was a different case; this was a
body of the militia who usurped the empire.
15.13. 13. Of armed Slaves.
The danger of arming slaves is not so great in
monarchies as in republics. In the former, a warlike people and a body
of nobility are a sufficient check upon these armed slaves; whereas the
pacific members of a republic would have a hard task to quell a set of
men who, having offensive weapons in their hands, would find themselves
a match for the citizens.
The Goths, who conquered Spain, spread themselves over the country,
and soon became very weak. They made three important regulations: they
abolished an ancient custom which prohibited intermarriages with the
Romans;
[17]
they enacted that all the freedmen
[18]
belonging to the
Fiscus should serve in war, under penalty of being reduced to slavery;
and they ordained that each Goth should arm and bring into the field the
tenth part of his slaves.
[19]
This was but a small proportion: besides,
these slaves thus carried to the field did not form a separate body;
they were in the army, and might be said to continue in the family.
Footnotes
[17]
"Law of the Visigoths," lib. iii, tit. 1, section 1.
[18]
Ibid., lib. v, tit. 7, section 20.
[19]
Ibid., lib. ix, tit. 2, section 9.
15.14. 14. The same Subject continued.
When a whole nation is of a martial
temper, the slaves in arms are less to be feared.
By a law of the Alemans, a slave who had committed a clandestine
theft
[20]
was liable to the same punishment as a freedman in the like
case; but if he was found guilty of an open robbery,
[21]
he was only bound to restore the things so taken. Among the Alemans, courage and
intrepidity extenuated the guilt of an action. They employed their
slaves in their wars. Most republics have been attentive to dispirit
their slaves; but the Alemans, relying on themselves and being always
armed, were so far from fearing theirs that they were rather for
augmenting their courage; they were the instruments either of their
depredations or of their glory.
Footnotes
[20]
"Law of the Alemans," cap. 5, section 3.
[21]
Ibid., section 5, per virtutem.
15.15. 15. Precautions to be used in Moderate Governments.
Lenity and humane treatment may prevent the dangers to be apprehended from the
multitude of slaves in a moderate government. Men grow reconciled to
everything, and even to servitude, if not aggravated by the severity of
the master. The Athenians treated their slaves with great lenity; and
this secured that state from the commotions raised by the slaves among
the austere Lacedmonians.
It does not appear that the primitive Romans met with any trouble
from their slaves. Those civil broils which have been compared to the
Punic wars were the consequence of their having divested themselves of
all humanity towards their slaves.
[22]
A frugal and laborious people generally treat their slaves more
kindly than those who are above labour. The primitive Romans used to
live, work, and eat with their slaves; in short, they behaved towards
them with justice and humanity. The greatest punishment they made them
suffer was to make them pass before their neighbours with a forked piece
of wood on their backs. Their manners were sufficient to secure the
fidelity of their slaves; so that there was no necessity for laws.
But when the Romans aggrandised themselves; when their slaves were
no longer the companions of their labour, but the instruments of their
luxury and pride; as they then wanted morals, they had need of laws. It
was even necessary for these laws to be of the most terrible kind, in
order to establish the safety of those cruel masters who lived with
their slaves as in the midst of enemies.
They made the Sillanian Senatus-Consultum, and other laws,
[23]
which decreed that when a master was murdered all the slaves under the same
roof, or in any place so near the house as to be within the hearing of a
man's voice, should, without distinction, be condemned to die. Those who
in this case sheltered a slave, in order to save him, were punished as
murderers;
[24]
he whom his master
[25]
ordered to kill him, and who
obeyed, was reputed guilty; even he who did not hinder him from killing
himself was liable to be punished.
[26]
If a master was murdered on a
journey, they put to death those who were with him and those who
fled.
[27]
All these laws operated even against persons whose innocence
was proved; the intent of them was to inspire their slaves with a
prodigious respect for their master. They were not dependent on the
civil government, but on a fault or imperfection of the civil
government. They were not derived from the equity of civil laws, since
they were contrary to the principle of those laws. They were properly
founded on the principles of war, with this difference, that the enemies
were in the bosom of the state. The Sillanian Senatus-Consultum was
derived from the law of nations, which requires that a society, however
imperfect, should be preserved.
It is a misfortune in government when the magistrates thus find
themselves under the necessity of making cruel laws; because they have
rendered obedience difficult, they are obliged to increase the penalty
of disobedience, or to suspect the slave's fidelity. A prudent
legislator foresees the ill consequences of rendering the legislature
terrible. The slaves amongst the Romans could have no confidence in the
laws; and therefore the laws could have none in them.
Footnotes
[22]
"Sicily," says Florus, "suffered more in the Servile than in the
Punic war." — Lib. ii. 19.
[23]
See the whole title of the "Senat. Cons. Sillan.," ff.
[24]
Leg. Si quis, 12, ff. "De Senat. Cons. Sillan."
[25]
When Antony commanded Eros to kill him, it was the same as
commanding him to kill himself; because, if he had obeyed, he would have
been punished as the murderer of his master.
[26]
Leg. i, 22, ff. "De Senat. Cons. Sillan."
[27]
Leg. i, 31, ff. ibid., xxix, tit. 5.
15.16. 16. Regulations between Masters and Slaves.
The magistrates ought to take care that the slave has his food and raiment; and
this should be regulated by law.
The laws ought to provide that care be taken of them in sickness and
old age. Claudius
[28]
decreed that the slaves who in sickness had been
abandoned by their masters should, in case they recovered, be
emancipated. This law insured their liberty; but should not there have
been some care also taken to preserve their lives?
When the law permitted a master to take away the life of his slave,
he was invested with a power which he ought to exercise as judge, and
not as master; it was necessary, therefore, that the law should ordain
those formalities which remove the suspicion of an act of violence.
When fathers, at Rome, were no longer permitted to put their
children to death, the magistrates ordained the punishment which the
father would have inflicted.
[29]
A like custom between the master and
his slaves would be highly reasonable in a country where masters have
the power of life and death.
The law of Moses was extremely severe. If a man struck his servant
so that he died under his hand, he was to be punished; but, if he
survived a day or two, no punishment ensued, because he was his
money.
[30]
Strange that a civil institution should thus relax the law of
nature!
By a law of the Greeks,
[31]
a slave too severely treated by his
master might insist upon being sold to another. In later times there was
a law of the same nature at Rome.
[32]
A master displeased with his
slave, and a slave with his master, ought to be separated.
When a citizen uses the slave of another ill, the latter ought to
have the liberty of complaining before the judge. The laws of Plato,
[33]
and of most nations, took away from slaves the right of natural defence.
It was necessary then that they should give them a civil defence.
At Sparta slaves could have no justice against either insults or
injuries. So excessive was their misery, that they were not only the
slaves of a citizen, but also of the public; they belonged to all, as
well as to one. At Rome, when they considered the injury done to a
slave, they had regard only to the interest of the master.
[34]
In the breach of the Aquilian law they confounded a wound given to a beast and
that given to a slave; they regarded only the diminution of their value.
At Athens,
[35]
he who had abused the slave of another was punished
severely, and sometimes even with death. The law of Athens was very
reasonable in not adding the loss of security to that of liberty.
Footnotes
[28]
Xiphilin, in "Claudio."
[29]
See Leg. 3, in "Cod., De Patria potestate," by the Emperor
Alexander.
[31]
Plutarch, on "Superstition."
[32]
See the constitution of Antoninus Pius, "Institutes," i, tit. 7.
[34]
This was frequently the spirit of the laws of those nations who
came out of Germany, as may be seen by their codes.
[35]
Demosthenes, "Orat. contra Midian," p. 610, Frankfort, 1604.
15.17. 17. Of Enfranchisements.
It is easy to perceive that many slaves in
a republican government create a necessity of making many free. The evil
is, if they have too great a number of slaves they cannot keep them in
due bounds; if they have too many freedmen, they cannot live, and must
become a burden to the republic: besides, it may be as much in danger
from the multitude of freedmen as from that of slaves. It is necessary,
therefore, that the law should have an eye to these two inconveniences.
The several laws and decrees of the senate made at Rome, both for
and against slaves, sometimes to limit, and at other times to
facilitate, their enfranchisement, plainly show the embarrassment in
which they found themselves in this respect. There were even times in
which they durst not make laws. When, under Nero,
[36]
they demanded of the senate permission for the masters to reduce again to slavery the
ungrateful freedmen, the emperor declared that it was their duty to
decide the affairs of individuals, and to make no general decree.
Much less can I determine what ought to be the regulations of a good
republic in such an affair; this depends on too many circumstances. Let
us, however, make some reflections.
A considerable number of freedmen ought not suddenly to be made by a
general law. We known that among the Volsinienses
[37]
the freedmen, becoming masters of the suffrages, enacted an abominable law, which gave
them the right of lying the first night with the young women married to
the free-born.
There are several ways of insensibly introducing new citizens into a
republic. The laws may favour the acquiring a peculium, and put slaves
into a condition of buying their liberty: they may prescribe a term to
servitude, like those of Moses, which limited that of the Hebrew slaves
to six years.
[38]
It is easy to enfranchise every year a certain number
of those slaves who, by their age, health, or industry, are capable of
getting a subsistence. The evil may be even cured in its root, as a
great number of slaves are connected with the several employments which
are given them; to divide among the free-born a part of these
employments, for example, commerce or navigation, is diminishing the
number of slaves.
When there are many freedmen, it is necessary that the civil laws
should determine what they owe to their patron, or that these duties
should be fixed by the contract of enfranchisement.
It is certain that their condition should be more favoured in the
civil than in the political state; because, even in a popular
government, the power ought not to fall into the hands of the vulgar.
At Rome, where they had so many freedmen, the political laws with
regard to them were admirable. They gave them very little, and excluded
them almost from nothing: they had even a share in the legislature, but
the resolutions they were capable of taking were almost of no weight.
They might bear a part in the public offices, and even in the dignity of
the priesthood;
[39]
but this privilege was in some sort rendered useless
by the disadvantages they had to encounter in the elections. They had a
right to enter into the army; but they were to be registered in a
certain class of the census before they could be soldiers. Nothing
hindered the
[40]
freedmen from being united by marriage with the
families of the free-born; but they were not permitted to mix with those
of the senator. In short, their children were free-born, though they
were not so themselves.
Footnotes
[36]
Tacitus, "Annals," xiii. 27.
[37]
Freinshemius, "Supplement," dec. 2, v.
[39]
Tacitus, "Annals," lib. iii. 27.
[40]
Augustus's speech in Dio, lib. lvi.
15.18. 18. Of Freedmen and Eunuchs.
Thus in a republican government it is
frequently of advantage that the situation of the freedmen be but little
below that of the free-born, and that the laws be calculated to remove a
dislike of their condition. But in a despotic government, where luxury
and arbitrary power prevail, they have nothing to do in this respect;
the freedmen generally finding themselves above the free-born. They rule
in the court of the prince, and in the palaces of the great; and as they
study the foibles and not the virtues of their master, they lead him
entirely by the former, not by the latter. Such were the freedmen of
Rome in the times of the emperors.
When the principal slaves are eunuchs, let never so many privileges
be granted them, they can hardly be regarded as freedmen. For as they
are incapable of having a family of their own, they are naturally
attached to that of another: and it is only by a kind of fiction that
they are considered as citizens.
And yet there are countries where the magistracy is entirely in
their hands. "In Tonquin,"
[41]
says Dampier,
[42]
"all the mandarins,
civil and military, are eunuchs." They have no families, and though they
are naturally avaricious, the master or the prince benefits in the end
by this very passion.
Dampier tells us, too,
[43]
that in this country the eunuchs cannot
live without women, and therefore marry. The law which permits their
marriage may be founded partly on their respect for these eunuchs, and
partly on their contempt of the fair sex.
Thus they are trusted with the magistracy, because they have no
family; and permitted to marry, because they are magistrates.
Then it is that the sense which remains would fain supply that which
they have lost; and the enterprises of despair become a kind of
enjoyment. So, in Milton, that spirit who has nothing left but desires,
enraged at his degradation, would make use of his impotency itself.
We see in the history of China a great number of laws to deprive
eunuchs of all civil and military employments; but they always returned
to them again. It seems as if the eunuchs of the east were a necessary
evil.
Footnotes
[41]
It was formerly the same in China. The two Mahometan Arabs who
travelled thither in the ninth century use the word eunuch whenever they
speak of a governor of the city.
