hovels, and thus creates a population always ready to sell their services to the highest bidder, at any sacrifice of conscience. With every step in this direction, the societary machine becomes less stable and secure-and with each it tends more and more to topple over, until at length it falls, burying in its ruins those who had hoped most to profit by the state of things they had labored to produce. So has it been, even in our own day, in the cases of Napoleon and Louis Philippe; who were, however, but types of their class that class which profits by the exercise of power over their fellow-men, and seeks distinction in the characters of warriors, politicians, or traders.

The more perfect the power of association-the higher the organization of society, and the more complete the development of individuality among its members the more do all such men tend to occupy their natural place, that of instruments to be used by society; and the more does society itself tend to take its natural form, with hourly increase in the power of resistance to any invasion of its rights, and in the capacity for durability. Whatever tends to diminish the power of association, and to prevent the development of individuality, produces the reverse effect of making society the instruments of these men-centralization, slavery, and death travelling always hand in hand together, whether in the moral or material world. *

*The entire identity of the views of the trader and the slave-owner is exhibited in the following passages from recent journals:

“An inexhaustible supply of cheap labor has so long been a condition of our social system, whether in town or country, whether for work or for pleasure, that it remains to be seen whether a great enhancement of labor would not disturb our industrial, and even our political, arrangements to a serious extent. Two men have been after one master so long, that we are not prepared for the day when two masters will be after one man; for it is not certain either that the masters can carry on their business, or that the men will comport themselves properly under the new regime. Commercial enterprise and social development require an actually increasing population, and also that the increase shall be in the most serviceable—that is, the laborious-part of the population, for otherwise it will not be sufficiently at the command of capital and skill."-London Times.

"Cheapness of labor is essential to the material progress of every people. But this can only obtain with the abundance of supply. Now, slave labor is, and ought to be, the cheapest kind of labor. It will only become otherwise when foreign and hostile influences are made to bear against it. The abolition of the slave-trade, by cutting off the supply, tends to this result. Slaves were never before so high in the South. Slavery is, and so long as the South preserves her existence must continue to be, the basis Increase the supply

of all property values in the South.

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of labor, and thus cheapen the cost of slaves, and the South will escape im

To the fact that the policy of Athens, of Rome, and of other communities of ancient and modern times, tended directly to the production of this latter state of things, it is due that there has been, in many of them, seen to arise a state of things giving colour to the idea that societies, like trees and men, have their various stages of growth and of decline-ending, naturally and necessarily, in death. How far this is so, the reader will perhaps be prepared to decide after a brief examination of the course of action pursued by some of the leading communities of the world.

§ 3. In the early period of Grecian history, we find the people of Attica divided into several small and independent communities -but becoming at length united under Theseus; when ATHENS became the capital of the kingdom. The communities of Baotia in like manner associated themselves with Thebes; and the several little states of Phocis united in following their example. The tendency to combination thus exhibited in the various states was early shown in relation to the affairs of Greece at large — in the

minent peril. The number of slave-owners would multiply, the direct interest in its preservation would be more universally diffused, and that great necessity of the South union in defence of slavery-more readily accomplished. If it were possible, every man in her limits should be a slave-owner."-Charleston Mercury.

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The great works of this country depend upon cheap labor."-Lon. Times.
Slavery is the corner-stone of our institutions."-McDuffie.

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"The whole question has become one of a cheap and abundant supply of labor. * The operation of the repeal of the corn laws was, first, to equalize, or approximate, the wages here and on the continent; and, secondly, not, indeed, to lower them here at once, but to make it possible to lower them, if at any future time the relation between demand and supply in the labormarket should render such reduction just and necessary. * For half a century back, the western shores of our island have been flooded with crowds of half-clad, half-fed, half-civilized Celts, reducing the standard of living and comfort among our people by their example, swelling the registers of crimes, to the great damage of the national character and reputation;" but, as the writer continues, "the abundant supply of cheap labor which they furnished had no doubt the effect of enabling our manufacturing industry to increase at a rate, and to reach a height, which, without them, would have been unattainable; and so far they have been of service."-North British Review, Nov. 1852.

"As long as the larger proportion of women are incompetent or unwilling to earn anything except by plain sewing, it is as idle to abuse the order of Davises for the misery of his operatives, as it would be to abuse Providence for bringing them into the world with appetites. It would be better for all of them, in the long run, to reduce wages to the famine point, so as to force all who had sufficient strength into other employments. This at least would diminish competition, and give the remaining ones a better chance."-New York Evening Post.

institution of the Amphictyonic league, the Olympic and other games.

During a long period, the history of Athens appears almost a blank, because of its peaceful and quiet progress. With its immediate neighbors it had occasional disputes, but, the tendency towards union being great, peace was "the habitual and regular condition of their mutual intercourse." Peace brought with it so steady a growth of population and of wealth, that, long prior to the days of Solon, the men engaged in trade and in the mechanic arts constituted an affluent and intelligent body; while everywhere throughout the state, labor and skill were being given to the development of the hidden treasures of the earth. The power to associate and the habit of association grew steadily, with constant increase of that individuality to which Athens stands indebted for her prominent position in the history of man.

Under the legislation of Solon, the whole body of the citizens exercised the right of voting in the popular assemblies—but all were not equally eligible for filling the offices of state. On the other hand, all were not equally liable to taxation for the maintenance of government. the heaviest contributions being required of the first class, eligible to the highest offices; and their amount diminishing in passing downward, until they finally disappeared on reaching the fourth, which was exempt from taxation, as it was excluded from the magistracy; and here we find the most equal apportionment of rights and duties exhibited in the history of the world. Elsewhere, the few have monopolized the offices, while taxing the many for their support; whereas, here, the few who enjoyed the offices paid the taxes, and the many who were excluded from the former, found themselves wholly relieved from the payment of the latter.

The century succeeding the organization thus effected, exhibits Attica, in the general enjoyment of peace, gradually increasing in both wealth and population. Towards its close, we find the state to have been divided into a hundred townships, each having its local assembly, and its magistracy for the regulation of its own local affairs; and thus was constituted a system more perfectly in accordance with the great physical laws to which reference has heretofore been made, than any the world had seen, prior to the settlement of the provinces now constituting the United

States. The beneficial effect of peace was, at this time, still further exhibited in the fact, that the constituency was enlarged, by the enfranchisement of numerous slaves, and by the admission of many aliens to the rights of citizenship.

With the Persian invasion, terminating in the battle of Marathon, and with the subsequent occupation of Attica by the troops of Xerxes, there came, however, a total change. Fields had been wasted, houses, cattle, and machinery of cultivation had been destroyed, and population had largely diminished; and henceforth we find the Athenians passing from the condition of a peaceful democracy, in which every man was engaged in combining his efforts with his fellow-citizens at home, to that of a warlike aristocracy, engaged in preventing the existence of association abroad and using their power of disturbance as a means of enriching themselves. Having accumulated fortunes by means of extortion and robbery, Themistocles and Cimon were enabled to secure the services of thousands of poor dependants who exhibited themselves in the streets, gladly following in the train of the men whom war had rendered now their masters. Poverty produced a thirst for plunder, the hope of which rendered it easy to fill the army and to man the ships; and next the army and the fleet were employed in reducing to subjection states and cities that had been regarded, hitherto, as equals and allies. One by one they fell, and the plunder thus acquired stimulated the desire for fresh supplies, with constantly increasing power to gratify the appetite. Athens had now become mistress of the seas, and no state, as we are told by Xenophon, could be permitted to have commerce with distant people, unless profoundly submissive to her commands. "Upon her will depends," as he continues, the exportation of the surplus produce of all nations ;" and to enable her to exercise that will wholly unrestrained, we find her next persuading, or compelling, the allies to compound for personal service by money payments, by help of which nearly the whole Athenian people were maintained in the service of the state.

War having now become the trade of Athens, her armies are everywhere seen-in Egypt and in the Peloponnesus, at Megara and at Egina-and to enable her to support these armies, she seizes upon the public treasury, which is transferred to the great

central city. Next, we find an increase in the tribute required of the allies, who are required to pay taxes upon all goods imported, and all exported; the collection of which is farmed by men who find in every stoppage of the societary motion the means of adding to their fortunes. Further, Athens declares herself the court of final resort in all criminal cases, and in nearly all civil ones; and now, the city being thronged with applicants for justice, its people are converted into judges, all ready to sell their awards to the highest bidder. The states themselves now find it necessary to employ agents within the city, and to distribute bribes, by help of which to purchase protection against the demands of the sovereign state.

With every step in this direction, the few become enriched, while the many become more and more impoverished. Temples are erected, and the splendor of the city increases from day to day. Theatres are built, in which the Athenians may gratuitously indulge their tastes; but the right thus to live by the labor of others being now regarded as a privilege whose enjoyment should be limited to the few, inquiry is made into the claim for citizenship-resulting in the rejection of no less than five thousand persons, all of whom are sold as slaves. With every increase of splendor we find an increase of indigence, and an increased necessity for exporting a portion of the people to take possession of distant lands there to exercise upon the earlier settlers the same power the rich have learned to exercise at home. The people their time being now fully occupied in the management of public affairs-next require that they should be paid out of the public purse; and so great has become the general poverty that an obolus. a piece of three cents' value. as compensation for the day's service in the courts, has become an object of desire.

Tyranny and rapacity everywhere exhibited, and producing everywhere a decline of commerce between man and man, and between state and state-next give rise to the Peloponnesian war, closing with the passage of Attica under the dominion of the Thirty Tyrants. Private property is now to a vast extent confiscated to the public use; and to secure the services of the poor in the spoliation of the rich, the wages of attendance at public meetings are trebled in amount. Taxation grows, and with