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L A 



Law. 



Origin of 

 the various 

 sorts or spe- 

 cies of law. 



First, Reli- 

 gion, or the 

 divine law, 



natural, 



revealed. 



In morality, the reproaches of conscience, and the dis- 

 approbation of our species, amounting, in aggravated 

 cases, to direct hostility, constitute this sanction ; in 

 human institutions, it consists in the personal suffering 

 of the offender, or the diminution of his estate by 

 pecuniary penalties. Where the principle is less ap- 

 parent, or peculiarly liable to be misapprehended 

 or perverted, such superinduced sanction, it is ob- 

 vious, becomes still more requisite to secure sub- 

 mission to the rule. Yet it were absurd to regard 

 this sanction as the test, either of the superior's right 

 to command, or of the inferior's obligation to obey ; 

 since, where the principle in question, that is, the good 

 of the interior, is altogether absent from the rule, or it 

 may be his positive hurt plainly contemplated, super- 

 induced sanctions, and these of the severest sort, become 

 the most indispensably -necessary. Whilst, therefore, 

 on the one hand, these superaddeil sanctions are neces- 

 sary to secure obedience to the law, there is, on the 

 other, no principle but the good of the inferior, by 

 which we can measure its legitimate authority. Un- 

 doubtedly, where its enactments are on the whole be- 

 neficial, a wise people will, for the sake of the general 

 system, yield their obedience, even in those cases where 

 their good is obviously not contemplated ; nor, whether 

 prospective reasoning be consulted, or the actual expe- 

 rience of nations, will they withhold their submission, 

 until, by an honest and accurate estimate of all the tre- 

 mendous consequences of revolution, they plainly per- 

 ceive a preponderance of advantage as the result. 



4. From the various relations in which the human 

 species is placed, arise various classes or denominations 

 of law ; some more, others less general : As, 



First, From the relation in which man stands to the 

 Deity, arises religion, or the divine law, comprehending 

 those duties which, as a creature variously endowed, he 

 owes to the Creator, from whom these endowments 

 proceed. Possessing life, reason, moral perception, the 

 affections of the heart, and all the other sources of en- 

 joyment incident to his condition, he recognises the 

 duty of gratitude, as at once founded in natural senti- 

 ment, and demanded by its own reasonableness. Pos- 

 sessing intelligence, by which he derives a glimpse of 

 that infinite wisdom and power which appear to per- 

 vade creation, he in the same manner acknowledges at 

 once the sentiment and the duty of adoration. De- 

 pendent from day to day for every good he enjoys, and 

 conscious of the ennobling influence of communion with 

 a Being so holy, so beneficent, so powerful, he feels 

 his obligation to prayer, and delights in the exercise of 

 it. Perceiving, in fine, that what are usually called the 

 evils of life cannot, consistently with the notions of per- 

 fection which he is forced from every consideration to 

 form of the divine nature, be otherwise regarded than 

 as ultimately connected with a scheme of infinite be- 

 neficence ; and awaiting, upon grounds of the highest 

 reason, an immortality beyond the present existence, 

 where the perfect wisdom of that scheme shall be fully 

 disclosed, he recognises the duty of resignation, and de- 

 rives from the practice of it a support and satisfaction 

 infinitely beyond the reach of any philosophical pre- 

 cepts unconnected with that principle. Thus, from the 

 various points of relation between man and his Creator, 

 may be deduced the various duties of religion, or those 

 divine laws which the Deity has made it at once the duty 

 and the happiness of all his rational creatures to observe. 



But to these obligations, which are common to all 

 the species, being the duties of mere natural religion, 

 the doctrines and duties of revealed religion are to be 



superadded, which, as Christians, we are in like man- !* 

 ner bound to believe and practise. W "" v ~"" / 



Second, From the relation*in which, as partaking of Second, R- 

 one common nature, the different individuals of the thics.ormo 

 species, under whatever government or in whatever re- ral ' aw- 

 gion of the globe they may be placed, stand to one an- 

 other, arise the obligations of morality, or ethics. Hence 

 the duty of licnevotence, or an affectionate desire of the 

 happiness of all men, prompting us to the actual perfor- 

 mance of every kind office within our power. Hence 

 likewise the obligations of justice, truth, candour, and all 

 the other duties which form the proper subject of the 

 moralist. 



Third, From the relation subsisting between men as Third, In, 

 constituting different nations, communities, or bodies ternationai 

 politic, is derived international law, or as it is usually |^ w> or 

 though less accurately called, the law of nations ; of 

 which we are afterwards to treat more at large. 



Four//i,From the relation subsisting between the diffe- Fourth, Ci 

 rent individuals who compose one nation, or commu- vil.ormu- 

 nity, arises civil, or municipal law ; being that body n ' c 'P al law ~- 

 of rules which, issuing from a supreme authority duly 

 constituted by national consent, direct or implied, are 

 obligatory on each individual alike, for the good of all. 

 Thus, there are as many separate systems of civil or 

 municipal law as there are separate and independent 

 communities, for no people can exist in a state of union 

 without a system of rules of some sort or another, by 

 which their transactions and conduct may be more or 

 less regulated and controlled. 



5. Each of these general departments, or sorts of Subordinatt 

 law, may again be divided into distinct subordinate division, of 

 branches, according to the subject or class of circum- eacll . OTt * 

 stances to which they more immediately refer. Thus, *' >ecl 

 civil law may be divided into political law, which re- 

 lates to the principles of the constitution of the state, 



and the rights and duties of the governors and govern- 

 ed relatively to one another ; into criminal law, which 

 refers to the moral conduct of the citizens in cases of 

 such atrocity as are thought to affect the general peace 

 and welfare of the community ; into, ecclesiastical law, 

 which relates more immediately to the police of reli- 

 gion, and the rights of the church and its functionaries ; 

 into civil law, in a restricted sense of the word, or 

 those rules which, in contradistinction to ecclesiastical, 

 criminal, and other branches of the municipal code, 

 refer to contracts, succession, &c. ; into the lam of' 

 process, comprehending the structure of courts of law, 

 and the various modes, adapted to various circum- 

 stances, by which civil suits as well as criminal proce- 

 dure must be conducted. And so of the other general 

 departments of law. 



6. Like every other science, law has advanced gra- Outline of 

 dually to its present state. At first, laws regarded tlle history 

 only great inconveniences and concerns of highest im- of law- 

 portance. Criminal laws extended only to such crimes 



as were most dreaded, and in proportion as new and 

 more artful disorders arose, new remedies were applied; 

 whilst civil institutions, properly so called, regulated 

 the public worship of the gods, the distribution of 

 lands, marriage, succession. To detail the progress of 

 law in different countries, and to trace the successive im- 

 provements which one country derived from another in 

 this respect, would be sufficiently interesting and in- 

 structive. We here sketch only the outline. 



7. The earliest of all laws is that of nature, according Law of na- 

 to which, men, in their wildest state, originally lived, ture. 



As in such a state they had little need of law, so the 

 dictates of nature were comparatively few and simple 



