e to an enemy,
so their loss, added to the restrictions of the treaty, operated as a
great and _publick_ punishment. But with respect to the
Carthaginian prisoners, who had been taken in the war, they were
retained in _servitude:_ not upon the principles of _reparation_
and _punishment_, because the Romans had already received,
by their own confession in the treaty, a sufficient satisfaction:
not upon these principles, because they were inapplicable
to _individuals:_ the legionary soldier in the service of the
injured, who took his prisoner, was not the person, to whom the
_injury had been done_, any more than the soldier in the service of
the aggressors, who was taken, was the person, who had _committed the
offence:_ but they were retained in servitude by the _right of
capture_; because, when both parties had sent their military into the
field to determine the dispute, it was at the _private_ choice of
the legionary soldier before-mentioned, whether he would spare the life
of his conquered opponent, when he was thought to be entitled to take
it, if he had chosen, by the laws of war.

To produce more instances, as an illustration of the subject, or to go
farther into the argument, would be to trespass upon the patience, as
well as understanding of the reader. In _a state of nature_, where
a man is supposed to commit an injury, and to be unconnected with the
rest of the world, the act is _private_, and the right, which the
injured acquires, can extend only to _himself:_ but in _a state
of society_, where any member or members of a particular community
give offence to those of another, and they are patronized by the state,
to which they belong, the case is altered; the act becomes immediately
_publick_, and the _publick_ alone are to experience the
consequences of their injustice. For as no particular member of the
community, if considered as an individual, is guilty, except the person,
by whom the injury was done, it would be contrary to reason and justice,
to apply the principles of _reparation_ and _punishment_,
which belong to the people as a collective body, to any individual of
the community, who should happen to be taken. Now, as the principles of
_reparation_ and _punishment_ are thus inapplicable to the
prisoners, taken in a _publick_ war, and as the _right of
capture_, as we have shewn before, is insufficient to intitle the
victors to the _service_ of the vanquished, it is evident that
_slavery_ cannot justly