Dr. PercivuPs Notes and Illujirations. 6^-j 



" Spanifli duty for French wine, is found more beneficial 

 ** to the revenue than the rigour of the law. The oath how- 

 " ever mufl be taken, that the wine, we import, is Spanifli, to 

 " entitle us to the eafe of the Spanifli duty. Such oaths, at 

 ** firft, were highly criminal, becaufe dire£Uy a fraud againft 

 " the public ; but now, that the oath is only exafted for form's 

 *' fake, without any faith intended to be given or received, it 

 " becomes very little different from faying, in the way of 

 ** civility, I am, Sir, your friend, or your obedient /errant. And 

 ** in faft, we every day fee merchants, dealing in fuch oaths, 

 " whom no man fcruples to rely upon, in the moft material 

 " affairs. " 



Such Machiavelian fentiments, offered by a learned judge, 

 muft furprize and Ihock every well-informed and well-principled 

 mind. But I Ihall make no other comment on them, than that 

 they irrefragably evince the corrupting influence of the prefent 

 multiplication of oaths, on the moral opinions as well as praftices 

 of mankind. 



Addidonal Note, page 19, line 16. 



TURPITUDE MARKED BY THE GROSS DEFECT OF GOOD 

 PRINCIPLES, &c. 



The difKndion of pofiti've and negati've turpitude is of con- 

 ^rable importance in ethics. Yet there may fubfifl: great 

 apathy, or defeft of good principle, in a mind virtuous, as to its 

 general conflitution. The people of Hindoftan are remarkable 

 for the gentlenefs of their difpofitions, the foftnefs of their man- 

 ners, and the force of their attachments in love. Yet they feem 

 to be devoid of compaflion and generofity. They are faid to be 

 unafFedled by the diftreflTes, the dangers, or even the death of a 

 fellow-creature. " An Englifti Gendeman was Handing by a 

 '* Hindoo, when a fierce and ravenous tiger leaped from a 

 T t 4 " thicket. 



