DIGITISED MANUSCRIPTS

ole) to the extension of our political liberties and the establishment of religious equality. It has entered into every phase of our social life. Cruelty was the natural accompaniment of the occupations of the upper classes in former times. That it was not civilisation only that stamped out this state of affairs can be seen if we refer to the history of now decayed countries, which were as highly civilised as ours is, but where public opinion did not exist. You are well aware that in times of antiquity Rome was the capital of an empire which embraced the greater portion of the known globe. The refine- ment, the culture, the art, and the literature of Rome have not been surpassed, and yet in the first century of the Christian era customs prevailed in Rome which are revolting in their barbarity. A temple was dedi- cated to the goddess of fire, Vesta. It was served by priestesses called Vestals, who took vows of chastity of the most stringent kind. If they broke these vows they incurred the penalty of being buried alive a penalty which was still actually enforced in the first century. Another instance of the inhumanity of those days was afforded by the law, that for a murder committed by a slave every slave in the establishment of his master might suffer death. It is recorded that about the year 50 a slave murdered, in a fit of jealousy, one of his fellow-slaves, who was his rival in love. The wealthy master sent to execu-