L A W. 



611 



Uw- 



phcr., nun 

 nil; lint 



V. 



li- -.-re 



Omrn. 



c 



". 



a mere ray of that moral sentiment anil right reason 

 which God has intended should, in a more advanced 

 stage of the social progress, direct and regulate our 

 more frequent intercourse with one another. 



8. So far as regards human regulations, it is scarcely 

 to be doubted that the first were those domestic rules 

 which the father of a family would have occasion to ob- 

 serve in the control of it. Nor can these regulations, 

 or tirst principles of human laws, be regarded as unim- 

 portant, since, in the earliest condition of society, fami- 

 lies forui so many distinct communities. 



9. When men began to unite in villages and cities, 

 these more private regulations would be found inade- 

 quate to restrain a more numerous society ; and a body 

 of rules, as well as an authority accompanied with great- 

 er power than the merely paternal, became necessary. 

 Afterwards, when many towns and districts united for 

 their common convenience and defence, the judicial re- 

 gulations necessarily multiplied ; and the Supreme 

 Authority from which they emanated and were to be 

 enforced, issued, sooner or later, in the different states 

 thus formed, in a Monarchy, an Aristocracy, a Demo- 

 cracy, or a compound of two or more of these simpler 

 forms of magistracy. 



10. The conduct. of the justest and wisest individu- 

 als in all their transactions of a public nature, would na- 

 turally suggest a rule of behaviour to others, whilst 

 their counsels and advice would gradually acquire force, 

 and be adopted as a general regulation. Thus sages 

 and philosophers were the first authors of laws. 



1 1 . Motes, the most ancient of legislators, ordained 

 even! tort* of laws to the Jews. Besides those which, 

 as we are bound to believe, were dictated to him by the 

 Deity himself, commonly denominated the decalogue, as 

 being distributed into ten commandments, be insti- 

 tuted ceremonial laws for the regulation of their pub- 

 lic worship, and political laws for their civil govern- 

 ment 



12. The lawgivers of nations bordering on that of 

 the Jews, borrowed many of their institutions from the 

 laws of Mooes. 



IS. Osiris, one of the earliest of the kings of Egypt, 

 regulated the worship of the pod", the distribution of 

 lands, and the distinction of ranks. He abolished the 

 creditor's right to reduce his insolvent debtor to sla- 

 very in acquittance of the debt ; and, to insure a better 

 chance of sound decision in the courts of law, he pro- 

 hibited the use of rhetorical embellishment in public 

 pleadings. 



Amaais' annexed the punishment of death to murder, 

 calumny, and perjury ; and they who, having it in their 

 power to assist a fellow-subject in danger of losing his 

 life, allowed the fact to take place, became liable to the 

 same penalty. 



This extraordinary people used to deposit the em- 

 balmed corpses of their father* with their creditors in 

 security of their debts, and if the pledge was not re- 

 deemed some time before their own death, the deepest 

 . infamy was incurred. They had even a tribunal be- 

 fore which they tried men after their death, that the 

 jusxl of posthumous condemnation on the one hand, 

 and the hope of applause on the other, might impel 

 them to the practice of virtue. Their kings themselves 

 were subjected to certain exclusive regulations ; their 

 food, in particular, and occupations, were the objects of 

 certain fixed rules, from which they could make no de- 

 viation without responsibility to the laws. 



14. In Crt-tf, Mini. instituted a community of tables 

 and repast* ; he required all the children in the state to 



be brought up together, proscribed idleness and luxury, *' aw - 

 and enjoined the greatest reverence to be paid to the '*~*~Y~~*' 

 divinity and to the fundamental laws of the state. 



15. Lycurgus, the Lacedaemonian lawgiver, also in- I.ycurcus of 

 stituted, in imitation of Minos, a community of tables Lacette- 

 and a public education of the youth. He established a mon ' 

 senate which might temper the power of the kings by 

 an equipollent authority. He prohibited the use of 

 gold and silver money, that by thus obstructing com- 

 merce, he might the more effectually encourage the 

 military spirit. He forbade the exercise of any of the 

 superfluous arts ; ordained an equal distribution of the 

 lands among the citizens ; and confined agriculture ex- 

 clusively to the Helots, that the attention of the citi- 

 zens might not thus be withdrawn from their martial 

 exercises. He permitted a community of wives, wish- 

 ing, as it would seem, to people the state without af- 

 fording occasion for particular attachments, or the more 

 endearing affections, lest the aptitude of the men for 

 military occupations might be thereby impaired. With 

 the same martial jwlicy, unhealthy children were order- 

 ed to be destroyed ; for Lycurgus deemed the man un- 

 worthy to live who was incapable of bearing arms. In 

 the same spirit, the youth of both sexes had their ex- 

 ercises of amusement together, which they performed 

 naked, and in public ; and one of the severest punish- 

 ments to which the young men were subject, was that 

 for inexpert theft an extraordinary department of edu- 

 cation, in which they were carefully trained as the 

 means of rendering them enterprising, dexterous, and 

 bold. And, finally, to secure these martial institutions 

 from all mixture of foreign and less hardy manners, 

 strangers were strictly prohibited from settling at 

 Sparta. 



l(j. Draco, the first lawgiver of Athens, introduced Athenian 

 laws of such extraordinary severity that they were said l w g' T r - 

 to l)e written in blood. He visited the most inconsider- " co> 

 able offences with death ; and even things inanimate 

 did not escape his terrific enactments ; a statue, for 

 example, having bruised a citizen by its fall, was 

 banished the city. Institutions so ridiculous and dia- 

 proportioned to offences, could not long be enforced ; 

 and accordingly they enjoyed not the same immortali- 

 ty to which the enactments of other early legislators 

 were destined, being quickly superseded by the milder 

 and more equitable institutions of Solon. 



This celebrated lawgiver had no difficulty in cancel- and Solon. 

 ling the institutions of Draco, which had necessarily 

 bi-come altogether unpopular. The law against mur- 

 der was almost the only part of this sanguinary code 

 which was retained; and every punishment was pro- 

 portioned to the crime to which it was annexed. He 

 made no law against parricide, because such a crime* 

 he said, was so horrible, that he would not, even by 

 the mention of it, have his countrymen suppose human 

 nature capable of it. They who died in the service of 

 the state were ordered to be buried with great pomp, 

 and their families were maintained at the public ex- 

 pence ; and such as refused to bear arms in defence of 

 their country were declared infamous. The institutions 

 regarding marriage were improved ; the childless were 

 permitted lo dispose of their estates as they pleased ; 

 and the adulterer was thought a fit object for capital 

 punishment. The associate of le wdness and debauchery 

 was prohibited from speaking in public ; " for," said 

 Solon, " a man who has no shame is not capable to be 

 entrusted with the people." To speak ill of the dead, 

 as well as of the living, was declared a crime ; nor was 

 the character of the worthy, even after their decease, 



