New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1860-08-18

with the same civil rights and equal IN the sane
tuary OF the gods and before the power OF the law.
The bulk of the natives of the soil consisted oil
peasants, agricuturists, and yeomen, who either
owned their homestead, OF rented it from higher
caste, cutivatpg the fields with their own hands,
or by hired laborers but chattel or domestic slaves
were unknown The slavery which existed IN
Egypt was not an intrinsic element of society, but
an abnormal excresceEce, not the product oil the
national ACTIVITY, but an atOnement for social aba
personal crime. Egyptian slaves consisted OF
prisoners of war, in early times, of strangers VINO
were thrown by accident on the shores of the coun-
try, with no legal claim TO hospitality, and OF
children who were paid as tribute by conquered
countries. They were all the property OF the
Phara0hs, who employed them in various ways,
distributed them to their officials, sold them 10
their subjects Of different castes, or to domestic
and foreign trafickers. Egyptians condemned for
criminal Ofenses became slaves, and were SEN
fenced to public hard labor; but contrary to the
general custom of ant guilty, debtors were not
reduced to personal slavery. Slaves of every kind
might be manumitted, and in that case shared in
all the civil rights of the Egyptians Children born
of Egyptians and their slave women were free, and
shared the inheritance with the legitimate offspring
of the same father. Slaves worked in the mines
and were employed in every kind of hard labor
but chiefly on the public works and monuments
that distinguished the cities of the Nile All the
servants about the palace, sanctuary, and villa
were slaves In ancient Egypt, slavery was, in
the strictest sense, limited to the household 1t
was not until the last stages of Egyptian history
that political slavery, or what is called oriental
despotism, became fused with domestic slavery
From survey of the whole course of her history,
the author concludes that the long and brilliant
civilization of Egypt is due to the fact that domes
tic slavery, for very protracted period, was not
the basis of her domestic and national economy, and
was not interviewed with her social, POLITICAL and
intellectual life
In striking contrast with the peaceful civilization
of Egypt, We find, at an early period, the institu
tons of slavery and the savetrade among the
Pheoicians, and their land the scene of bloody
struggles as the consequence of an inevitable his
tOrical law. The commercial spirit for which this
people was renowned, gave rise among them to the
traffic in slaves of which, it is highly probable,
they were the orginatOrs. After Ph1nIcia had
become the general center of commerce, foreign
slaves constituted large majority OF the popula-
ton of her cities, especially of ByblJs Tyre, and
Sidon, and in this way slavery gradually erept
from the market ard the household into agriCul
ture al general industry. The great accumua-
ton of slaves produced frequent and terrible re-
volts throughout the whole period of her history.
The fragments which remain of her annals abound
with accounts of these fearful tragedies. AT
length the slave-holdng rulers were forced to sus
tain hired soldiery as defense against the ene
my within their own doors, ntrustng the security
of their homes to a motley crowd of foreign mer-
cenares. The hireliDg soldiery at times united
with the revolted slaves, and thus rendered the
country powerless against external conquest 1t
was compelled successfully to pay tribute to Egypt
Assy ria, Babylonia, Persia, and Macedon, till
finally it was swallowed up in the resistess prog
ress of Alexander the Great. An analogy may
here be found, according to the author to the pro-
p0sal of certain sayeholc ers in the United States
who would invoke the aid of France in their
schemes of secession, and allow their cities and
States to be occupied by French garrsons. Should
France listen to such proposals. she would natu-
rally send troops fitted to bear the tropical heats Of
the slave coast--the maarious regions of Louisiana
and South Carolina. Such are the ZOuaves and
Turcos, the Zouaves hostile to every form of slay-
cry, the Turcos negroes themselves. Every French
soldier, even if neither Zouaye nor Turco would
probably at once take sides with the slave. Where
then would be the defenders and the security of
the owner The prejudice of race, so prevalent in
America, is not European characteristic; it did
not exist in antiquity; 1t does not prevail in Eu-
rope now.
Passing over several important ancient nations,
of whose relations to slavery the volume presents
profound analysis we come down to more recent
times, and will rapidly glance at the social condi.
ton of Greece, and especially of Athens With
the growth of commerce, Athens became the seat
and focus of domestic slavery, and in the course of
centuries almost all trades, as well as mining and
agriculture were carried on by slaves The State
used them in public works, sometimes to row the
ships. The greatest number were employed to
work the mills and mines of Attica. About the
time of the Persian wars the slaves nowhere out
numbered the free'nen. Before the invasion Of
Xerxes the free population of Attica was probably
above 1870 600, while the slave population is estina
ted at the utmost as TO- 900.
After the Persian war, Athens became the
wealthiest of commercial cities and the Athenians
a conquerDg nation and by each of these circum
stances the number of slaves was increased. AT
the beginning of the PelopOnneSian war, the free
L a.. IL, 49, ra1