tient Inhabitants. In fhort, it were hardly poffible to conceive a more horrid and bloody Picture, if that which the Punic Wars that enfued foon after did not prefent one, that far exceeds it. Here we find that Climax of Devaftation and Ruin, which feemed to shake the whole Earth. The Extent of this War, which vexed so many Nations, and both Elements, and the Havock of the human Species caused in both, really astonishes beyond Expreffion, when it is nakedly confidered, and those Matters which are apt to divert our Attention from it, the Characters, Actions, and Defigns of the Perfons concerned, are not taken into the Account. Thefe Wars, I mean those called the Punic Wars, could not have ftood the human Race in less than three Millions of the Species. And yet this forms but a Part only, and a very fmall Part, of the Havock caused by the Roman Ambition. The War with Mithridates was very little lefs bloody? that Prince cut off at one Stroke 150,000 Romans by a Maslactę. In that War Sylla deftroyed 300,000 Men at Cheronea. He defeated Mithridates's Army under Dorilaus, and flew 300,000. This great and unfor tunate Prince loft another 300,000 before Cyzicum. In the Course of the War he had innumerable other Loffes; and having many Intervals of Succefs, he revenged them feverely, He was at laft totally overthrown; and he crushed to Pieces the King of Armenia, his Ally, by the Greatnefs of his Ruin. All who had Connections with him fhared the fame Fate. The merciless Genius of Sylla had its full Scope; and the Streets of Athens were not the only ones

which ran with Blood. At this Period, the Sword, glutted with foreign Slaughter, turned its Edge upon the Bowels of the Roman Republic itself; and prefented a Scene of Cruelties and Treafons enough almost to obliterate the Memory of all the external Devaftations. I intended, my Lord, to have proceeded in a fort of Method in estimating the Numbers of Mankind cut off in these Wars which we have on Record. But I am obliged to alter my Defign. Such a tragical Uniformity of Havock and Murder would difguft your Lordship as much as it would me; and I confefs I already feel my Eyes ake by keeping them fo long intent on fo bloody a Prospect. Ifhall observe little on the Servile, the Social, the Gallic, and Spanish War; nor upon those with Jugurtha, nor Antiochus, nor many others equally important, and carried on with equal Fury. The Butcheries of Julius Cæfar alone, are calculated by fome body elfe; the Numbers he has been a means of deftroying have been reckoned at 1,200,000. But to give your Lordship an Idea that may ferve as a Standard, by which to measure, in fome Degree, the others, you will turn your Eyes on Judea; a very inconfiderable Spot of the Earth in itself, though ennobled by the fingular Events which had their Rife in that Country.

This Spot happened, it matters not here by what means, to become at feveral times extremely populous, and to fupply Men for Slaughters fcarcely credible, if other well-known and well-attefted ones had not given them a Colour. The first Settling of

the

the fews here, was attended by an almost entire Extirpation of all the former Inhabitants. Their own cívil Wars, and those with their petty Neighbours, confumed vaft Multitudes almoft 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 fhall only throw the ftrong 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 whilst 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 ?

Instances of this Sort compofe the Uniform of Hiftory. But there have been Periods when no less 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 Deftruction before them as they advanced, and leaving horrid De

farts

farts every where behind them. Vaftum ubique filentium; fecreti colles; fumantia procul teɛta; nemo exploratoribus obvius, what Tacitus calls facies Victorie. 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 itfelf, which fuffered as all 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-east 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 fhall not dwell upon. I shall only in one Word mention the horrid Effects of Bigotry and Avarice, in the Conqueft of Spanish America; a Conqueft 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 Exactness; therefore, for the fake of a general View, I fhall lay together all those actually flain in Battles, or who have perished in a no lefs miferable Manner by the other destructive Confequences of War, from the Beginning of the World

to

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 spoke of the five-hundredth Part; I am sure I have not of what is actually ascertained in Hiftory; but how much of these 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 Hiftory, but which by their Frequency compenfate for this comparative Innocence; 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 Occafion; elfe, in mentioning thefe Slaughters, it is obvious how much the whole might be heightened, by an affecting Defcription 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