,}}r16 On the Use and Abuse of 



.of the people, gaye rise to the alliance of 

 .;]^Joody ^hews and combats, with manly sports 

 ^and exercises. A gloomy and ferocious su- 

 2perstition, operating on the minds of a people 

 njnpfed, like^h© Romans, to foreign warfare 

 and intestine broils, suggested the practice of 

 -shedding the blood of captives, as a gratoful 



- sacrifice to the vianes of illustrious warriors. — 

 ^Tf J>is practice, at first a superstitious rite, be- 



.Q^me ^ ceremony of more pomp and osten- 

 tation at the obsequies * of distinguished 



(persons. Hence the origin amongst the Romans 

 jofthe profession of a gladiator — and when the 



- people had once acquired a taste for bloody ex- 

 hibitions, the detestable spectacle of gla- 

 diatorial combats was presented for their 

 amusement. 



The progress of cruelty and the danger of 

 gratifying barbarous propensities, cannot admit 

 of more striking illustration than what is 

 afforded by considering the effects of these 

 savage exhibitions on the manners and cha- 

 racter of the Romans. 



This is not the proper place to discuss the 

 question, of Right or Expediency, which man 



* The first shew of gladiators was insliluted by Marcus 

 and Decius Brutus, on the death of their father, in the 



year of the city, 490. Sec Kennel's Antiquities of 



Rome. 



3 



