"
"It may be questioned," continued Paul, noticing this compliment merely by
an inclination of the head, "if civilized people have not reasoned
themselves, under the influence of interest, into the commission of deeds
quite as much opposed to natural justice as anything done by these
barbarians. Perhaps no nation is perfectly free from the just imputation
of having adopted some policy quite as unjustifiable in itself as the
system of plunder maintained among the Arabs."
"Do you count the rights of hospitality as nothing?"
"Look at France, a nation distinguished for refinement, among its rulers,
at least. It was but the other day that the effects of the stranger who
died in her territory were appropriated to the use of a monarch wallowing
in luxury. Compare this law with the treaties that invited strangers to
repair to the country, and the wants of the monarch who exhibited the
rapacity, to the situation of the barbarians from whom we have escaped,
and the magnitude of the temptation we offered, and it does not appear
that the advantage is much with Christians. But the fate of shipwrecked
mariners all over the world is notorious. In countries the most advanced
in civilization they are plundered, if there is an opportunity, and, at
need, frequently murdered.
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