A cheap, speedy, and impartial administration of justice was another of those great ideas, on which Moses founded his civil polity.
Under the Hebrew constitution, the poor and the weak were not to be the victims of the rich and the strong. The small as well as the great1 were to be heard, and equal justice awarded to all, without fear or favor. That terrible and ruinous evil, "the law's delay," was unknown to the Hebrew jurisprudence. Courts of various grades were established, from high courts of appeal down to those ordained for every town. "Judges and officers shalt thou make thee in all thy gates,"2 was the constitutional provision on this subject. To what a minute subdivision the judiciary system was carried, appears from the ordinance which required that there should be "rulers over thousands, rulers over hundreds, rulers over fifties, and rulers over tens, who should judge the people at all seasons.3 Care was thus taken, that in suits and proceedings at law, every man should have what was just and equal, without going far to seek it, without waiting long to obtain it, and without paying an exorbitant price for it. Certainly, with a judiciary constituted in this manner, justice could be administered promptly, while provision was made against the evils of hasty decisions, in the right of appeal to higher courts; in important cases, even to the venerable council of seventy, composed of the wisest, the gravest, the ablest, the most upright, and trustworthy men in the nation.4
Another a vital principle of the Hebrew constitution was peace.
A thirst of conquest, and the foul passions which it implies and engenders, had no place in the legislator's own bosom, and were utterly repugnant to the spirit of his legislation. It was a prime object of his polity to discountenance and repress a military spirit in the nation.
In the first place, his constitution made no provision for a standing army, and a soldiery under pay was an innovation long posterior to the time of Moses. The whole body of citizens, holding their lands on condition of military service, when required,5 formed a national guard of defense. Thus the landholders (and every Israelite was a landholder) formed the only soldiery known to the Mosaic constitution.
In the second place, the intensely agricultural character of the Hebrew government served to impress upon it an almost equally pacific character. Light and darkness are scarcely more repugnant to each other, than husbandry and war. Among the ancient Germans, as we learn from Tacitus and Caesar, the chiefs, in the general council of the nation, made an annual distribution of the lands in the country. The motive prompting to such a procedure was that the thoughts of the people might not be diverted from war to agriculture. Deeply did those sagacious chieftains feel, for clearly did they perceive, that permanent landed possessions, improved habitations, and a too curious attention to domestic conveniences and comforts, would beget in the tillers of the soil an affection for the spots they cultivated, which would produce sentiments and manners quite repugnant to their own schemes of conquest and military aggrandizement.
Thirdly, the use of cavalry, at once the effect and the cause of a passion for war, was prohibited by the constitution.6 On the occasion of a certain victory, when a large number of the enemy's horses had fallen into his hands, Joshua was directed by the oracle to "hough" or hamstring them, that is, to cut their thigh sinews.7 This was practiced on similar occasions, even as late as the reign of David.8 The law against multiplying horses appears to have been faithfully observed, till the proud ambition of Solomon swept away this, in common with many other wholesome provisions of the national constitution. In governments, which have made conquest a leading object of pursuit, the principal military force has consisted in cavalry, and this especially in rude societies. In the infancy of the military art, the superiority of cavalry over infantry is very conspicuous. The fate of battle depended on that part of the army which fought on horseback or in chariots. It is obvious that no founder of an empire, in those early ages, who intended his people for a career of conquest and military grandeur, would or could have dispensed with cavalry in his armies. The fact that Moses forbade the use of this species of force, is a proof that he designed his people for peaceful pursuits, and not for military glory.
The object of "houghing" the horses was not, as most expositors, following Kimchi and Bochart, have represented, to merely lame them in the hind legs and let them go, but to kill them. A horse can be hamstrung in an instant, and, as the operation cuts the artery of the thigh, he soon dies of the wound, by bleeding to death. This plan is still sometimes used by military commanders to render horses, which have been taken in battle and cannot be carried away, unserviceable to the enemy.
But Moses had another motive for his prohibition of cavalry. The political equality of all the citizens, as we have seen under a former head, was a darling object with him. But in all ancient nations, where cavalry was employed, the horsemen, being necessarily the wealthier members of the community, became also the more powerful. The system threw the chief political power into the hands of a few rich citizens, who could afford to mount and bring into the field themselves and their dependants. This naturally tended to the establishment of monarchical and aristocratical governments. Moses could not but perceive this tendency, and on this account, as well as on account of his repugnance to an aggressive military policy, he excluded a mounted soldiery from the forces of the republic. It is remarkable how speedily the substitution of the monarchical for the republican form of polity led to the introduction and use of cavalry in the Israelitish armies.
Fourthly, according to the testimony of Josephus, it was required, except in the case of the Canaanitish nations, that, previous to actual hostilities, heralds should be sent to the enemy with proposals of peace; and not until negotiation had failed, was force to be called in. This testimony is confirmed by a law contained in Deuteronomy 20:10. Considerable light is also thrown upon the point, by what I will venture to call a state paper of Jephthah.9 It is a letter of instructions to his ambassadors, directing them as to the manner in which they should conduct a negotiation with the king of the Ammonites. the instructions are drawn up with an ability, force, and skill, which would not discredit any statesman of modern times.
Another proof of the repugnance of Moses to aggressive wars, and of the peaceful spirit of his general policy, may be drawn from the law of the Hebrew festivals. Thrice every year all the males were required to repair to the capital.10 With such a law in operation, how could a nation engage in schemes of foreign conquest? The idea seems little less than preposterous.
Finally, this view of the pacific character of the Hebrew constitution is strengthened by a forcible argument of Michaelis, in which that learned writer undertakes to prove that the sin of David in numbering the people, which has so puzzled the commentators, consisted, not in any ambitious motions, hid in the secret chambers of his own heart, but in openly aspiring at the establishment of a military government, and in attempting, with that view, to subject the whole nation to martial regulations, to form a standing army, and so to break down and ride over one of the fundamental provisions of the constitution--the many successful wars which he had carried on having, in all likelihood, filled his mind with the spirit of conquest.
In beautiful harmony with the peaceful genius of his institutes, was the conduct of Moses, whenever he wished to march through the territories of other nations. Unlike the mere military chieftain of ancient times, whose sole aim was conquest and plunder, he always asked permission to do so, promising to abstain from treading down the cornfields, and to pay for everything he consumed, not accepting even water. Sihon himself was not conquered and despoiled of his territories, because of his refusal to grant a passage through them, nor because he marched an army of observation toward his frontier, for the Edomites had done the same before, but because he proceeded beyond his frontier into the wilderness, and, without provocation, attacked the Israelites first.11
Let us pause here, for a moment, to contemplate the remarkable phenomenon, offered to our observation. What do we behold? A man, whose deep sagacity, under the guidance of a divine illumination, "discerned the hollowness of martial glory, in an age when battles were the business and delight of nations; when hardly any thing was respected, either in societies or men, in comparison with military fame; and when public virtue and civil wisdom dwindled into nothing before the splendid sins of war." In such an age, his penetrating genius saw that the true elements of public prosperity lay in the path of public tranquility; and that the greatness of a nation consisted not in standing armies, in memorable victories, or in uncounted acres; but in the calm virtues of industry, frugality, and beneficence; in the bloodless triumphs of disciplined intelligence; in the mild dignities, which play around the domestic circle; and in the amount of individual prosperity and happiness, spread through the homes and hearts of the land. And was he not right in this estimate? Of all the evils which afflict humanity, the greatest in magnitude, the most injurious in its moral influences, the most repugnant to Christianity, and the most expensive of money, is war. How, then, can we sufficiently admire the wisdom of a lawgiver, who, in an age of barbarism and war, established a government upon the broad principles of equity and peace? In vain does the imagination essay to follow, in all their amplitude and variety, the streams of happiness, which shall gush forth, as from a thousand fountains, when war shall never again unfurl his crimson banner to the breeze, nor imprint his bloody footsteps upon the earth. Then shall religion, learning, social order, and regulated liberty become the inheritance of the race. Humanity shall receive purer impulses. Arts shall flourish, and science extend her enriching victories. Plenty and contentment shall become the general lot. Piety, that plant of renown, the fairest flower that bloomed in the abode of primeval innocence, shall again strike deep its roots into the human heart. And the broad earth, now scathed and blighted by the curse of its offended maker, shall again smile in the freshness and beauty of Eden.
The doctrine that agriculture constitutes the best basis of the prosperity and happiness of a state, was the tenth fundamental principle of the Mosaic polity.
Moses labored to impress upon his people the conviction that their country was best adapted to agriculture, and that agriculture was most favorable to its true and lasting prosperity. 14 He represented it as a land flowing with milk and honey; a land that drank liberally of the river of heaven, and wherein bread should be eaten without scarceness.12 Nothing can be plainer, than that it was on agriculture alone, taken in its broadest sense, so as to include the culture of vineyards, olive grounds, and gardens, that Moses saw fit to lay the foundation of the Israelitish state. By a provision in the constitution, before explained, no Israelite could be born who did not inherit a piece of land from his progenitors.
Country life has inspired the genius, and tuned the lyre, of many a rural bard. Their smiling pictures have lent new charms to nature herself, and have inspired, in many hearts, a taste for rural scenes and labors. But agriculture presents itself to us under a point of view more positive and practical. It is the parent art, the paramount interest, of civilized society. The great pursuit of man is agriculture. It is the nurse of the human race. It has principles which elevated it to the rank of a science, a noble and comprehensive science. In the improvement of domestic animals and the fertilization of soils, the most abstruse principles of physiology and chemistry must be consulted. The principles of natural philosophy, also, have an equal relation to agriculture; for there is not a change of the seasons or the wind, there is not a fall of rain or of snow, there is not a fog or a dew, which does not affect some one or more of the manifold operations of the farmer. The relation of science to agriculture is close and vital. It is an error to suppose that the whole education of a farmer consists in knowing how to plough and sow and reap, the rest being left to the earth, the seasons, good fortune, and providence. The nature of soils and plants, the food they require, and the best methods of supplying it, are objects worthy of an earnest study. In a word, farming is a science, whose principles must be investigated, mastered, and skillfully applied, in order to insure profitable crops. There is no other pursuit in which so many of the laws of nature must be understood and consulted as in the cultivation of the earth.
What, then, shall we think of those ancient nations, which treated agriculture as a servile profession, and refused to the tillers of the soil a rank among the citizens of the state? What shall we say of those Greek philosophers and legislators, who abandoned to slaves and the dregs of the people the culture of the lands? Both Plato and Aristotle required slaves to till the land. In many of the states of Greece, agriculture was a servile profession. The inhabitants of conquered countries were compelled to practice it, while the citizens found employment in gymnastic and military exercises, forming, as Montesquieu says, a society of wrestlers and boxers. Thus the soil was tilled by the Helots among the Lacedaemonians, by the Periecians among the Cretans, by the Penestes among the Thessalians, and by other conquered people in other republics.
Not thus did the Hebrew lawgiver think and act. He made agriculture the great channel of Hebrew industry. Doubtless, the circumstance of the Hebrew people and the grand design of their polity had an influence over this direction. Still, it cannot be doubted that Moses regarded agriculture as, in itself, the most useful and the most honorable of employments.
The honor accorded by a lawgiver to any pursuit is a sure test of the esteem in which he holds it, and the most effectual means of causing any branch of industry to flourish among a people is to honor it. Apply this test to agriculture among the Hebrews, and what is the result? We see the same men passing from the labors of the field to the exercise of the highest public functions and returning again to their private toils. Even after his elevation to the royal dignity, Saul goes back to the labors of husbandry.13 Elijah casts his prophetic mantle upon Elisha, when the latter is engaged in ploughing.14 David is taken from the sheepfold, to fill the throne of his country, and to become the leader and shepherd of the people.15 The highest proof of the devotion of a people to agriculture, and of its flourishing condition, is the increase of population; since, among an agricultural people, this will generally be in proportion to the increased means of subsistence. But nowhere, in the whole history of mankind, has an equal extent of territory given birth and sustenance to a population as numerous as that of ancient Palestine. The figures of the prophets attest the zeal of the Hebrews in preparing their soil, in removing stones and weeds, and in surrounding their fields with walls and hedges.
Small proprietorships and the cultivation of all the territories of the state by the actual owners, was the policy of the Hebrew laws. Let us inquire into the effect of this policy on the social condition and general welfare of a country.
Under the system of small ownerships, Attica reached the height of her prosperity, but when Herodes Atticus became universal proprietor, she sank to poverty and misery. We look at Rome under Servius, and we see a vast body of small proprietors, enriching themselves by the cultivation of their own lands.16 We look again, and see universal poverty. Immense tracts are now in the hands of the Scipio's and Pompey's, who have replaced the numerous small, but prosperous proprietors. The same scenes have, in modern times, been reenacted in the South of Spain. When the industrious Moors held that country, the lands were divided and worked by the owners, who enriched both themselves and the state. But since these industrious cultivators of their own estates have been succeeded, in the ownership of the soil, by a few princely grandees, the most fertile territories, which the sun visits in his course, are abandoned, I had almost said to sterility and desolation. Thus has it been everywhere and always. General wealth and comfort have increased in proportion to the division of the land.
16 Curius Dentatus once said to his soldiers, when they insisted on a larger division of the conquered lands, "God forbid that a citizen should look upon that as a small piece of land, which is sufficient to support a man." (Plutarch's Lives.) He declared that man a pernicious citizen who did not find seven acres sufficient for his subsistence. Seven acres was the number fixed by law for each Roman on the expulsion of the kings (Pliny in Anthon's Class. Dict. Art Curius.)
The condition of the several sections of our own country confirms this view. Where do we see competence, domestic comfort, industry, intelligence, and manly dignity most extensively diffused among the masses? In those portions, where the land is divided into small farms, and every man works his own estate. The introduction of slavery into Georgia was owing to the system of large proprietorships. The fatal influence of cultivation by tenantry compelled a resort to slave labor, at a time when slavery was abhorrent to the feelings of the inhabitants, as well as to the principle on which the colony had been founded.
But the most remarkable exemplification of the fruits of the two systems of large and small proprietorships is seen in the comparative condition of England and France. In the united kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, with a population of twenty-six millions, the number of landed proprietors does not exceed eighty-five thousand. In France, with a population of thirty-four millions, the landholders are five and a half millions. Yet the aggregate wealth of Britain is greater than that of France. The rental of the former country exceeds that of the latter by about one third.
The effect of this state of things on the social condition of the two countries is well worthy of our study. Great Britain has a million and a half of public paupers, or one in eleven of her whole population; and she expends thirty-five millions of dollars annually for their maintenance. France, with double her population, has only a little more than a third of this number, or one in fifty of her whole population; and the sum expended on their support is less than two million dollars per annum, being about one twentieth of the cost of English pauperism. Great Britain and Ireland together contain fourteen millions of human beings, whose utmost possible earning fall short, by about one fourth, of what it would cost her to maintain the same persons in the poorhouses, notwithstanding a rigid system of economy is practiced in those establishments. The consequence of all this is that the body of the British working people is fast sinking into a state to which there has hardly ever been a parallel. At Stockport Assizes, in the autumn of 1841, a father and mother were arraigned and convicted of poisoning three of their children, to defraud a burial society of 31. 8s., due on the death of each child. It was whispered at the time, that the public authorities hinted that this case might not be a solitary one, and perhaps it would be best not to probe matters too deeply in that direction. "Such instances are like the highest mountain apex emerged into view, under which lies a whole mountain region not yet emerged." Statements like those contained in this paragraph, would be incredible, if their authenticity did not rest on unimpeachable testimony. The English nation is richer than any nation ever was before, and yet half her people are starving. The fable of Tantalus is here a reality. With a soil blooming in beauty and waving with yellow harvest, with a commerce whitening every sea, with workshops studding all her territory, with industrial implements and mechanical skill unmatched, and in the midst of plenty such as earth has seen never, her people perish from hunger. It is as if some demon had covered the land with his enchantments.
Let us now turn our regards to France, to see the effect of the opposite system of agriculture--that system in which the lands are minutely subdivided, and, for the most part, worked by those who own them. The French people are less educated, less intelligent, less skillful, and less industrious, than the English. They ought, therefore, to be in circumstances of greater destitution and misery; and they undoubtedly were so, before the revolution of 1789. At that time the minute division of landed property commenced. Since then, wages have slowly but steadily increased, and the social condition of the people has advanced in the same ratio. Rye and wheat flour have superseded buckwheat and oatmeal. The dress of the laboring classes has improved. Their houses are better built, better lighted, better warmed, and better furnished. And, while the rate of wages has increased, bread and clothing have been cheaper, which is a sure proof of the growing prosperity and comfort of the common people. There is pauperism in France undoubtedly; but in the rural districts it is trifling, and the whole amount is but little, when compared with the enormous aggregate of it in England.
Whence this difference? What is the cause of the general misery of the laboring classes in England, and the general well-being of the same classes in France? They have their roots in the respective systems of landed property in the two countries. To a great extent, they are the result, in the one case, of large, in the other, of small proprietorships. The average size of landed estates in England is eight hundred and eighty acres, while in France it is only twenty acres.
"The profit of the earth is for all" was a Hebrew maxim which grew into a proverb. The monopoly of the soil is a sore evil. It makes the many the slaves of the few. It produces ignorance, improvidence, destitution, turbulence, and crime. It is essential to the progress of man, that he be unshackled, that his faculties have free play. But this can never be, unless the earth be owned by those who till it. Ownership of the soil will give tone to the mind, vigor to the body, and earnestness to industry. As well might one circle an oak with iron bands, and expect it to unfold its majestic proportions, as to cramp the human mind by unequal institutions and an oppressive distribution of land, and then expect a full development of its powers, and a happy state of society. "As the attraction of gravity is the great principle of motion in the material world, so the possession of the earth in fee simple by the cultivator, is the great principle of action in the moral world. Nearly all the political evils, which have afflicted mankind, have resulted from the unrighteous monopoly of the earth; and the predicted renovation can never be accomplished, until, to some extent, this monopoly has passed away, and the earth is extensively tilled by the independent owners of the soil." Great proprietorships are the scourge of any country. All history attests this truth. The multiplication of farms, and their cultivation by the actual owners, is the dictate of true political wisdom. It is this which peoples the country and even the cities. It is this which elevates the masses. It is this which confers dignity upon the common people. It is this which stimulates industry, quickens genius, and develops the resources of a state. It is this which gives true freedom and independence to a nation. And this, to the broadest extent ever known in practical legislation, was the policy of Moses.
These observations will, perhaps, be sufficient to establish the wisdom of the Hebrew constitution in its partition of the territories of the republic. Let us now see what can be said in regard to the policy of founding a state on agriculture alone. I shall say nothing here of the special design of the Hebrew institution, but shall confine my inquiries to the point of general legislative policy.
It must be confessed, as Michaelis has observed, that the extreme indifference of Moses to foreign and maritime commerce is not a little remarkable. To some of the politicians of our day, this will seem little short of an absurdity. Yet it may be that some erroneous notion lies at the bottom of their wonder. The wealth acquired by Holland and Great Britain, by means of foreign trade, is so striking, that many are apt to imagine that commerce alone is the true source of national prosperity, and that it is the greatest benefit which a legislator can confer upon a people. The mere name commerce fascinates their imagination, and seems almost to incapacitate them for sober reflection and comparison. In the delirium of their golden dreams, they forget that it may prove the ruin of both public and private prosperity, as when too many superfluous commodities are imported, and the nation is thereby plunged into the mire of foreign indebtedness.
A main cause of the overvaluation of commercial as compared with agricultural pursuits, I imagine to be this, that the gains of commerce lie more upon the surface, and are more open to the general observation, while those of agriculture are of a retiring nature, and seldom obtrude themselves on public notice. It will not, therefore, be impertinent to enter somewhat into detail on this point, with the view of showing the superior importance of the cultivation of the earth, as a means of national prosperity, and so of vindicating the wisdom of Moses in founding upon it his civil polity.
Great Britain is the most commercial nation on the globe. Her trade with the United States is nearly twofold that which she carries on with any other country. Yet the entire annual movement of this commerce both ways about equals in value the crop of oats and beans in the former country. The whole foreign commerce of Britain, in pursuit of which she over-spreads the ocean with her fleets, and plants her colonies in the most distant islands, is actually less in value than the annual grass crop of the British Isles. The breadstuffs, annually extracted from our own soil, amount to more than eight hundred million bushels, and their value is triple that of the aggregate exports and imports of the whole country. Our grass crop exceeds in value the whole outward and inward movement of our foreign commerce. The annual Indian corn crop of Tennessee and Kentucky reaches one hundred and twenty million bushels, and is worth as much as all our exports to Great Britain and France. What is not a little remarkable, the corn crop of these two states exactly equals, while the agricultural productions of the single state of New York greatly exceeds in value, the entire cotton crop grown in all the states and territories of this union.
The instability of commercial pursuits, and the greater certainty of the ultimate rewards of agricultural labor, are worthy of consideration here. The prizes in commerce are comparatively few. While one man rises, multitudes sink. The late Mr. Gallatin instituted researches upon this point and arrived at results which seem almost incredible. I have scarcely the courage to repeat them, even under the shelter of such a name. According to this distinguished statesman and philosopher, the fortunate individuals, who attain wealth by trade and commerce, are less than ten percent of the whole number who engage in such pursuits.
The physical and moral influences of agriculture ought not to be overlooked, in estimating the wisdom of a lawgiver, who has seen fit to found his polity upon it. It is the nurse of health, industry, temperance, cheerfulness, and frugality; of simple manners and pure morals; of patriotism and the domestic virtues; and, above all, of that sturdy independence, without which a man is not a man, but the mere slave, or plaything, of his more cunning fellows. Agriculture tends to produce and cherish a spirit of equality and sympathy. Buying and selling are the chief business of cities, the giving and receiving of wages a transaction of hourly occurrence. This produces a collision of interests and feelings, which necessarily begets a spirit of caste, and checks the current of sympathy. But there are comparatively few of these repelling influences in country life. The man who owns fifty acres, and the man who owns a thousand, live side by side, on terms of mutual esteem and friendship. Both, if they are equally entitled to it, have an equal share in the public respect. Both feel and own the bond, that unites them in the cultivation of the earth.
Agriculture begets and strengthens love of country. The heart of the husbandman is bound to the fields, on which he bestows his labor. The soil, which responds to his industry by clothing itself in beauty and riches, has a place in his affections. Especially, the circumstance that his possession has come down to him through a long line of honored ancestors, greatly strengthens the attachment, which he feels both to his home and his country.
The agricultural interest is, in the highest degree, conservative in its nature and action. It is the great antagonist of that mad spirit of radicalism and revolutionary innovation, which is the most terrible enemy of popular institutions. This has long ago been observed by Aristotle. "Husbandry," he says, "is the best stuff of a commonwealth, such a one being the most devoted to liberty, and the least subject to innovation or turbulence." The same thing is noticed by Harrington. "Tillage," he observes, "bringing up a good soldiery, brings up a good commonwealth; for where the owner of the plough comes to have the sword too, he will use it in defence of his own. The plough in the hands of the owner produces the most innocent and steady genius of a commonwealth."
It is in the scenes and occupations of country life that the mind is most tranquil, sober, and unclouded. It is in such an atmosphere that it can discern most clearly the relations of things and look beyond the events of a day. From amid the deep calm of rural pursuits, free states have drawn many of their most illustrious patriots and civilians. The influence of agriculture, therefore, is rather favorable, than adverse, to those exalted and commanding civil qualities, which form the consummate statesman. A Hebrew farmer was summoned from the quiet of a pastoral life on the distant plains of Midian, to become the founder and lawgiver of a mighty republic. A Roman farmer was called from his plough to the helm of state, at a crisis of imminent peril to his country's welfare. And an American farmer led the revolutionary armies to victory, and secured for his grateful and admiring countrymen the blessings of liberty, independence, and self-government.
In a word, this great business, the cultivation of the earth, lies, so far as any branch of human industry can be said to lie, at the foundation of all that is important and valuable in civil society. And, as Mr. Webster once said, if it was for his sins that man was condemned to till the ground, it was the most merciful judgment that almighty benignity could have inflicted upon him.
I promised, in considering the expediency of founding a state on agriculture, to confine myself to the point of general legislative policy. Let me recall that promise, so far as just to advert to the more immediate reasons, which may be supposed to have moved Moses to give no encouragement to commerce. They were probably such as these:
1. Commerce would tend to counteract the first and highest principle of his polity, since it would lead the Israelites to contract intimacies with foreign nations, which could hardly fail to draw them into idolatry.
2. It would entice too many citizens to leave their own country and settle in foreign lands, which would weaken the sentiment of patriotism, and at last cause them to forget their relations and their home. The merchant is, in some sense, a citizen of the world, and has no such ties, either of interest or affection, binding him to his native land, as the man who lives upon his hereditary farm.
3. It would introduce luxurious tastes and habits, before the nation was rich enough to bear the expense of their indulgence. Commerce is more apt to be hurtful, than beneficial, in the infancy of a state.
4. Maritime commerce would be likely to stir up enemies, against whom they could not successfully contend, without special divine assistance, which special divine assistance it would be irrational to expect, when engaged in pursuits prejudicial to true religion. It would, in all probability, have embroiled them with the Sidonians and Tyrians, just as, in modern times, we have seen France incurring the irreconcilable enmity of England and Holland, by the establishment of an East India trading company.
5. The vicinity of these two commercial nations, and the constant passage of Asiatic trading caravans to Egypt, secured to the Israelites all the most important advantages of foreign commerce.
I should, however, fail to do justice to the Mosaic legislation, if I were to leave this topic without adverting to one branch of commerce with which no nation can dispense without essential detriment to its prosperity--I mean a domestic trade, carried on between the different parts of the same country. For such an internal commerce, provision was made in the national festivals, whereby thrice every year the entire male population of Palestine was assembled at Jerusalem. Religious conventions of the kind have generally been made subservient to the purposes of commerce. The airs, so common in Germany, originated at public masses, to which the people flocked from every quarter. The holy pilgrimages to Mecca gave a strong impulse to the commerce of Arabia. In a similar way the interest of internal trade were consulted in the institutes of Moses. Yet it was done in such a manner that the carrying of it on could not become a distinct employment, but would merely occupy the weeks of leisure from the toils of agriculture--before the harvest at the feast of the Passover, after harvest at the feast of Pentecost, and on the conclusion of the vintage at the feast of Tabernacles.
As for foreign commerce, to expand a little hint contained in the last paragraph but one, the country of the Hebrews was so situated that they could enjoy its advantages without engaging in it themselves. The Phoenician cities, Tyre and Sidon, were on their borders, ready to supply them with all they wanted in return for their agricultural productions. The rich caravans of the desert continually swept by them, affording them, without expense or hazard to themselves, the benefit of the enterprise of foreign nations. Moses endeavored to make his countrymen content under their vines and fig trees, and to convince them, that in these unambitious cares and labors they would find the most solid prosperity and happiness. And was he not right in this judgment? It is true that his hopes were disappointed. This unaspiring employment was too quiet for his countrymen, when war was the business of the rest of the world. But the event proved the truth of his principles and predictions. Solomon laid Ophir and Tarshish, the East and West Indies of his day, under contribution. He had his harbors in the Mediterranean and the Red Sea. He built Tadmor in the desert, now a marble wilderness, as a station for his caravans. Wealth flowed in through a thousand channels. But as the prophetic eye of Moses had foreseen, and his prophetic voice forewarned, it proved the ruin of his country. It became a golden weight, which ground its free institutions to the dust.
But, although Moses made no laws favoring foreign commerce, his legislation was far from being chargeable with the illiberality of the Greek and Roman laws, or the bigotry of the early canonists. The profession of a shopkeeper was infamous among the Greeks, as it obliged a citizen to wait on a slave or a stranger. This was more than the haughty spirit of Grecian liberty could brook. Hence Plato, in his laws, makes it a criminal offense in a citizen to concern himself with trade, and orders such a one to be punished. The civil law treated commerce as a dishonorable occupation, and forbade the exercise of it to persons of birth, rank, or fortune. The Claudian law forbade the senators to have any ship at sea, which held more than forty bushels. The canon law went farther still, and declared commerce inconsistent with Christianity. At the council of Melfi, under Pope Urban II, in the year 1090, the canonists decreed that it was impossible, with a safe conscience, to exercise the trade of a merchant. The decree was to the effect that a merchant could rarely, if ever, pursue a conduct pleasing to God; that no Christian ought to become a merchant; and that if any of the faithful meddled with merchandise, he should be excluded from the pale of the church.
