Page:A Vindication of Natural Society - Burke (1756).djvu/71

 plundered these unfortunate Wretches of all their Substance; and to crown this Masterpiece of Violence and Tyranny, they actually sold every Man of the five thousand as Slaves in the publick Market. Observe, my, that the five thousand we here speak of, were cut off from a Body of no more than nineteen thousand; for the entire Number of Citizens was no greater at that Time. Could the Tyrant who wished the Roman People but one Neck, could the Tyrant himself have done, nay, he could scarcely wish for a greater Mischief, than to have cut off, at one Stroke, a fourth of his People? Or has the Cruelty of that Series of sanguine Tyrants, the Cæsars, ever presented such a Piece of flagrant and extensive Wickedness? The whole History of this celebrated Republick is but one Tissue of Rashness, Folly, Ingratitude, Injustice, Tumult, Violence, and Tyranny, and indeed of every Species of Wickedness that can well be imagined. This was a City of Wisemen, in which a Minister