The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1876-02-27
sOMF NEW BOOKS.


Mintlnrtlf TtCOtnlIe0 NUTOuhhVhta hikt Hhb VI
enc inhabited globe. IL may be further said
ehat until the last hundred years no country or
Deople, however enlightened, could be named
which bad not at every period Of its ex-
ktence, either avowedly through legal
actions, at home or Ia its colonies, tolerated the
institution of slavery. work proposing an
exhaustive treatment of compre ensive a
eopic might have come naturally enough from
che Ge .Iuan press, but we are somewhat sur
sriasd to nnd II presented In the Spanish Ian
gusge, written, moreover, by a Cuban gentle
nan-Dou JOSH ANTONIO SACo-born and edu-
eaied In the island.
This book, the Historic de La Escldrttud desde
- 7Scmpos mas rcmotos hdstd nuestros Dtds. OF
which the lrst volume (nrst, we believe, OF six)
has lately appeared In Paris, Ia marked by some
obvious shortcomings and some signel merits.
n can hardly be called n scientific work In the
ssnse OF presenting tho logical evolution OF q
complex and multlform social institution from
Ia rudimentary conditions. The genesis and
veritable cradle of all human relations are to be
sought not in the earliest annals Of the most
ancient nations, since the existence OF records
kmplies q notable advance In civilization, but In
enc wary observation OF those savage tribes still
satant In the world, following the method of
Or John Lubbock and other students OF primi-
eve man, with whose labors our author seems to
- his researches he has overlooked authorities
Of capital Importance. In hts discussion, for In
stance, OF slavery In Greece, he verv properly
cites Muller's " Dorians" and Boeckh's "Pohti-
cal Economy OF the Athenlans," but nowhere
ssfers to Crote or Curtus, some OF whose most
care fuI Investigations are directed 10 the same
subject. In subsequent chapters, where his
suotations from Justinian's Code, the Digest,
and Juristic writer's are incessant, he appears
20 be ignorant of the mastery treatses OF Aus
sin and Maine, and the nOod Of Hight cast by
chem on the primal nature and gradual M din-
cation OF sllvcry In Rome reflected In her
Jurisprudence. Finally, his critical dlscriuiina-
don OF the relative weight to be accorded to
ainerent chroniccrs Is 50 far below the level of
modern scholarship that IT seems rather to
belong to the last century. For example, he
efers authority upon an historical point that
romantic tract on ideal education known as the
Cyrop@dia and writing of Alexander the Great,
Ne relies on Quintus Curtius as confidently on
Arran. Niebuhr, too, would seem to have lived
m vain, so far as Don jose Saco Is concerned,
Cor the latter refers to the early hooks Of Ivy
and the legendary kings of Rome as glibly US to
xoly bius and 1acuus. who photographed for us
their own contem poraries.
Notwithstanding these reserves and qunllaca-
eons, the " Historia de La Esclavtud" is a con-
nibution Of positive value to letters. II has OK
acted from its author the acquisition Of at least
sfx languages beside his own, considerable
literary skin, the continual exercise OF a sound
Judgment, unswerycd by prejudice Of IN, Mad,
whether religious, national, or sentimental, and
che most indefatigable industry. Estimated
from its FIRST volume. this book s destined 10 be
. vast repository of curious materials not al
WAYS coUrdinated, much less assimlatcd, but
eth related to the central theme, constltn Ing
A.. 1T
Bearing on the record OF human slavery not at
sainable IN any other single work. Probably tie
naive and conscientious author-his naIyet6 and
his honesty are visible on every page-would be
content with the not very extravagant en-
eomium which at all events embodies our
opinion, VIZ, that Senior Saco's History OF
Slavery" Is the most ambitious, painstasng,
and, on the whole, creditaole work which has
,een printed In the Spanish language Tor AFT,
ears In other words, since Condo compiled
rom rare mud almost unknown manuscripts his
Domination de los Arabes en- Espaha."
In the course OF the Investigations covered by
shis volume, which trace the record Of
slavery In the several nations OF the an
sient world down TO the epoch OF Con-
stantine the Great, the author has kept In
view certain leading inquiries concerning the
sources Of the Institution, which included war
Gafic, and legislation; its comparative charac-
Ter for IN idncss or rigor, and the provisions foI
the protection and manumission of slaves
Where It Is possible, moreover, he is careful 10
indicate the ratio OF the enslaved to the free
stipulation, and the average price OF slaves nj
different times and places, data from which
much naturally may be Inferred. He Is able oc-
sasionally to explode some hasty assumption.
and CONGRATULATIONS which have been allowed to
pass current In literature. For instance the ex
kaustion OF ancient Italy has been often as
sribed to the monstrous excresence of Roman
slavery, but Sehor Saco reminds us that The
sumber OF slaves In China, whose decadenc'
d far more deplorable than was that Of thu
Western Empire In the 9th century, has beer
- all times so uncomfortable that It's influence
may he wholly eliminated. Again, some writer
ere fond OF detecting a more intimate relation
chan one OF mere coincidence between the pc
sAtion Of woman n given country and the con
aition Of its slaves. whereas in truth the female
SCI mas nowhere been more studiously de
graded, or the slave more sedulously protecte,
and kindly fostercd, than among tho people o
China. So too the Koran, which sanctions pc
hRumy, and thereby renders the elevation o
woman impractcable, never fails to insuIcat'
tenderness and consideration for the slave. Ant
nnally, the most atrocious excuses which dis
hgure the history OF slavery arr chroniced b.
Las Casss, and were per etrated by those Chris
ladies Ia embalmed in the works of De Veg
and Cervantes
In Egypt, under the elder dynasties, Their
seem to have been fow slaves. ana those wer
mainly employed In domestic service. Most o
the monuments portrayed by Greek travellers
including those which yet survive, were con
structed by artisans and laborers belonging t
the lowest oaste, to whose status, by the way
much more nearly than to slavery proper tn
condition OF the Israelites In Goshen approx
mated. During many ages those Egyptian
who did not pay their debts might be enslave'
b. their creditors but this custom was broker
NJ by King Bocchoris in the eighth century be
fore Christ He directed that process SHOULD
henceforth issue against the goods only OF tn
debtor, because they were his own property. bu
aot against his person, since that belonged u
the State, which had a night to his services boil
IN war and peace. While, however, the prohibit
billion OF slavery for debt shut on one source o
servitude, another was opened by law OF Saba
con, OF the Ethiopian dynasty, which, abollshn
capital punishment In Egypt, condemned Go la
Dor In the mines such criminals as would pre-
Uously have suffered DEATH
Most Of the private slaves were SunnIIed eithe