Ch. xiv. among the Romans. 251 



r e 



Wallace and Hume have made ; Wallace, to shew 

 that it would be the interest of masters to take 

 care of their slaves and rear up their offspring;* 

 and Hume, to prove that it would more frequently 

 be the interest of the master to prevent than to 

 encourage their breeding.! If Wallace's obser- 

 vation had been just, it is not to be doubted that 

 the slaves would have kept up their own numbers 

 with ease by procreation ; and as it is acknow- 

 ledged that they did net do this, the truth of 

 Hume's observation is clearly evinced. " To rear 

 " a child in London till he could be serviceable, 

 " would cost much dearer than to buy one of the 

 ** same age from Scotland or Ireland, where he 

 " had been raised in a cottage, covered with rags, 

 " and fed on oatmeal and potatoes. Those who had 

 " slaves therefore, in all the richer and more popu- 

 " lous countries, would discourage the pregnancy 

 " of the females, and either prevent or destroy 

 " the birth." % It is acknowledged by Wallace 

 that the male slaves greatly exceeded in number 

 the females,§ which must necessarily be an addi- 

 tional obstacle to their increase. It would appear 

 therefore that the preventive check to population 

 must have operated with very great force among 

 the Greek and Roman slaves ; and as they were 

 often ill treated, fed perhaps scantily, and some- 

 times great numbers of them confined together in 



* Dissert, on the Numbers of Mankind, p. 89. 



t Hume, Essay xi. p. 433. 



$ Ibid. 



§ Appendix to Dissertation, p. 182. 



