|
Page vii:-
well subsist but amongst those who reside in territories
contiguous to the boundaries of two hostile or rival states.
Its requisite is Expedition, and its object Plunder. The
disturbance of wars, like the boiling of a cauldron, hath a
sort of scum. Troublesome tempers, incapable of rest, and
fond of rapine through native avarice or inveterate habits;
these tempers, when jealousy makes nations under the masque
of peace ill at ease with each other, or when civil
administration is held with a lax hand, or again when the
governors of the outlying provinces, from private interests
or pique, connive at their practices, will too often receive
tacit encouragement. But add to these, even in better times,
the advantages of night, secrecy, and by-ways; the obstacles
to regular judicial inquiry, from difference of laws under
different governments, the patronage and protection of their
immediate lords, of relations and neighbours; together with
the force of example handed down from father to son for many
generations; and we need not wonder, if such a disease
acquired no small degree of virulence. There may, however,
be still more reasons assigned; for when such a people are
uncertain to which government they belong, or are
continually changing their masters, they are willing enough
to think they belong to neither, may make incursions on
both, or fight out their own quarrels amongst themselves,
without imagining that they are accountable to any one.
Besides, individuals of this cast are too apt, when their
fortunes are desperate, to forget that they have any native
country at all, and to consider every thing as lawful game;
or even, from a custom so long nourished in the lap of
barbarity, may never dream that such actions are criminal,
and perhaps consider them as requisites of life. Moreover,
when wrenched by force from one party, or surrendered with a
grudge, their practices may be abetted by that party as the
hopes of a war, and the means of recovery. There might,
without doubt, were we more intimately acquainted with
circumstances, be many more causes adduced to confirm the
likeliness of a durable and extensive effect attached to
such a life; but these which are already mentioned, and for
which there is undoubted authority with respect to their
application in the present purpose, are sufficient to
persuade any one that they were enough to produce certain
effects, which would add new horror and cruelty to
themselves; namely, old wrongs to avenge, and hereditary
antipathies to gratify. But it ought not to be forgot, that
such men, by their continual acquaintance with danger,and
their knowledge of the country; but their hardiness,
subtlety, and swiftness, would be excellent attendants on
more regular armies; they would be well qualified for
partisans, foragers, and spies; and from thence might
receive additional encouragement; nay, we know that the bulk
of many armies has consisted of them: they will be, without
doubt, extremely fierce and cruel; for with war a certain
degree of barbarity will creep into mankind; but habitual
war, and incessant violence must ensavage them strangely:
History uniformly ascribes principles like these to a wild
people, and generally finds them wild in a situation like
this of which we are speaking.
|
|
VI. When a country is exposed to continual invasions from a
neighbouring enemy, its means of defence will be
proportionally numerous. A regular government generally
establishes a chain of forts, or of military stations, for
its defence; or, as the Chinese have down, and as the Romans
did in more places than one, builds a barrier still more
continuous to exclude the invaders. but in the half-anarchy
of the feudal system, every petty lord had his castle to
defend his domain and his own hoard, independent of those
that were maintained at the public charge. One mode had in
view the security of a whole province; the other, whilst it
weakened the first, more immediately regarded the property
of individuals. One expects, in the first case, numerous
encampments, fortresses, and military stations; in the
latter, that when the defence of the inhabitants in a great
measure to themselves, every house will be as strong as the
owner can afford to make it, or will be built on an eminence
for the sake of a good look-out; but, if neither of these
can be accomplished, will be in the vicinity of some strong
place, to which its inhabitants may withdraw for shelter.
Again: When a detached kingdom retains its independence long
after those contiguous to it; its manners and religious
rites, when those of the others are abolished, or changed by
the intrusion of strangers, we expect it should retain
proportionally fresher marks of its former condi-
|
Lakes Guides menu.
