

on the eiti 



morality, and religion which nothing but the poison 

 f bigotry could have so entirely stifled in the breast of 

 the tyrant who dared to publish the reward 

 ** 21. (;>.) Nothing should be so dear to a people as 

 len intended to be a rampart against despotism, 

 the substance and safe-guard of a rational liberty and 

 means, in short, of rendering them good, wise, and 

 The great difference," says Xenophon, 

 which Lycurgus created between Laceda-mon and 

 state., consists in this that he has, as a primary 

 iciple secured the submission of the citizens to the 

 They fly to yield obedience at the call of the 

 tes; but at Athens, a rich man would go frantic 

 think that his conduct depended upon the authority 

 iy magistrate." The first act of the Ephori on en- 

 mng upon their office was to issue a proclamation in- 

 iting tl e citizens to love, rather than enjoining them 

 to oAry the laws, that their submission to them might 

 hus be natural and easy. In truth, among the Spar- 

 M, as well at among the earlier Romans, laws and 

 r appear to have been so intimately blended as 

 formed, so to speak, but one body. Luxury, 

 immense, and the love of gain, seem to be inconsistent 

 with such a state of public sentiment. 



2*. (3.) All new laws which it may be proposed to 

 introduce, should boar reference to the state ofcircum- 

 i in which the people may at the time be actual- 

 ly pUced ; to the nature of the government already es- 

 ned; to the climate; the character of the soil ; 

 r>t and local situation of the territory ; the man- 

 fe of the inhabitants, as consisting in agricul- 

 unl, commercial, or other pursuits ; their customs ; 

 r prejudices; their superstitions. Yet laws may 

 utemuch to form the morals, manners, and cha- 

 racter of a nation. All that is meant is, that we ought 

 not to attempt a direct change, in any of these respects 

 by nolent enactments. This were the highest impoli- 

 CT, if not rather species of tyranny. Following ra- 

 ttar the example of SoJon, legislator* should impose 

 uch laws only as the people are fit to receive, not 

 uch as are most perfect in the abstract ; since it is bet- 

 ter to leave disorders altogether untouched than to or- 

 dain laws which will either be imperfectly obeyed, or 

 altogether neglected ; and thus the whole body of the 

 law incur disrespect. 



33. (4.) They who enact and who administer law, 

 should themselves, of course, be bound by it indi-cn. 

 - minately with the rest of the people. It is the law, 

 it men, who ought to rule. This constitutes the 

 essential difference between a free and an arbitrary go- 

 vern Law," says Plutarch, is queen over 

 mortals and immort.ik" The c-lict, 1+99, of Louis 

 Ml is a rare instance of magnanimity in a prince pos- 

 nnjr the absolute dispom) of the laws ; " the law 

 **J7'" i *J ri **' obeyed, notwithstanding any 

 Ofdert to the contrary which importunity may elicit 

 from the monarch." 



(5.) In the bct system of laws tome are found 



L A W. 



613 



Ui.u. 



oun 



which relate to matters beneath the dignity of law 

 and Kwne which are altogether useless. Such laws are 



. e 



r unwise, because, treating of things trifling or 

 !^.1" t> fh *J r '**' ">"' minds to regard as trifling 

 or indiffrrmt what is essentially important 



85. (6.) The ttyle of laws should be simple, de- 

 lite, concite burdened as little as possible with ex- 

 CeptiaiM, limitation*, modifications without subtlety, 

 wue they are not a system of dialectic! without 

 fice, because their prime intention being to advance 

 the public morals, prosperity, and happiness, they 



should speak in the purest spirit of innocence and can- Law. 

 dour. w-y^^ 



26. (7.) Perhaps laws ought always to commence 7 Prea 

 at once with the enactment. Preambles, originally in- bl'es itnnro 

 troduced no doubt for the justification of. the legisla- per. 

 ture and the satisfaction of the people, are often unsa- 

 tisfactory, because not containing a sufficiently strong 

 and explicit reason for the enactment ; often imperfect, 

 because not reaching to the whole of the enactment 

 always superfluous, because if the law is bad, that is, 

 contrary to the general welfare, it ought not to be en. 

 acted ; if good, there is no occasion for an apology. 

 But if a reason be at any time thought necessary, e'i. 

 ther in the enactment itself, or in the writings of those 

 who are authorised to expound it, that reason ought 

 1st, to be worthy of the law : A law of Rome de- 

 clares, that no blind man shall exercise the office of 

 advocate, because, says the law, he cannot see the de- 

 corations of the magistrate a paltry reason when so 

 many better were obvious. 2d, The reason alleged 

 should be true : Charles IX. of France was declared 

 major at the commencement of his 14th year, in place 

 of its termination, ; because, says the Chancellor Ho- 

 pital, the law respects the begun year as finished, where 

 the acquisition of honours is in question as if the go- 

 vernment of a people included nothing but the honour 

 of him who was to govern. Finally, It should be de- 

 duced by reasoning from what is real to what is real, 

 and not from what is figurative to what is real, or from 

 what is real to what is figurative. A law of the Lom- 

 bards, 1. ii. tit. 37. prohibits ever}' woman from marry- 

 ing who turns nun ; " for," says this law, " if the 

 man who, by the ceremony of the ring, has merely 

 contractl, without consummating, a marriage, cannot 

 without a crime marry any other woman than her with 

 whom he has contracted, afortiore she who has become 

 the spouse of God, cannot." 



27. (8.) Laws, to be obeyed, must be known. Hence 8. Promul- 

 ic absurdity, once so prevalent in some countries of gation of 

 Europe, of expressing laws in a language of which the laws. 

 people are ignorant. The English acts of parliament 

 were at one time written in Latin, at another in French 

 a proceeding equivalent to a concealment of the very 

 rules to which obedience was required. Among some 

 nations of early antiquity, laws were composed in verse 

 and sung to popular airs, that they might be the more 

 generally known as well as easily retained on the me- 

 mory. The Athenians engraved their laws on plates 

 of brass, which they fixed up in public places ; and, 

 among the Romans, to commit to memory the Twelve 

 Tables was an indispensable branch of the education of 

 children. 



28. (9.) The laws which are borrowed from other 9. A i aw , 

 countries, sometimes appear to be the same with those equitable' 

 of the countries from which they have been derived, f" one 

 when, in truth, they are materially different. The coun 'ry, 

 Greeks and Romans punished the receiver of stolen may cease 

 goods with the same pains as the thief himself, and some ^ h ^ ". 

 modern nations follow the example. In the former graued'into 

 case, this state of the law was just, in the latter it is the code of 

 otherwise ; for among the Greeks and Romans, a pe- another. 

 cuniary penalty was the only punishment of theft, and 

 it is just that every man concerned in occasioning da- 

 mage to another, should be obliged to repair it ; but in 

 England, in Scotland, and in France, (at least before the 

 Revolution,) the thief being punished with death, it is 

 impossible in most instances, without confounding 

 crimes, to punish the receiver with the same severity. 

 The receiver may often be altogether ignorant of the 



