LAW AND POLITICS. 197 



done, and why we cannot do it. The first enables us 

 to attain a positive good ; the second saves us from 

 the mortification of fruitless attempts. 



History. 



History transmits to us the memory of great poli- 

 tical revolutions, wars, conquests, and other scourges 

 of humanity ; but it furnishes no information of the 

 more or less deplorable lot of the poorest and most 

 numerous class of society. 



Circumspection. 



No greater mistake in legislation can be committed, 

 than to treat the labouring or any other class of society 

 as incapable of the superintendence of their own con- 

 cerns ; for they, as well as their superiors, when 

 guilty of thoughtlessness or vice, ought to be left to 

 feel the consequences of their own misconduct. We 

 ought never, therefore, by redundance of care, to 

 destroy that circumspection which every person 

 should be obliged to exercise in the management of 

 his own affairs. 



Punishment. 



The law commonly enhances the punishment in 

 proportion to the greatness of the circumstance, (the 

 temptation to commit the crime,) which apparently 

 ought to alleviate the penalty. 



National Ambition. 



" Les Remains etaient ambitieux par orgueil, et les 

 Carthaginois par avarice. Les uns voulaient com- 

 mander, les autres voulaient acquerir ; et ces derniers, 

 calculant sans cesse la recette et la depense, firent 

 toujours la guerre sans 1'aimer. Mais lorsqu'une 

 nation est venu au point qu'on ne peut plus s'em- 



