HISTORY OF MEXICO. 



361 



lature muft thofe people have had whom they called 

 barbarous ? What can be more inhuman and cruel than 

 that law of the Twelve Tables which permitted creditors 

 to divide the body of a debtor who did not pay, and 

 each creditor to take a portion of it in fatisfaclion of his 

 debt ? This law was not publiflied in the rude beginning 

 of that renowned city, but three hundred years after its 

 foundation. What could be more iniquitous than that 

 law of the famous legiflator Lycurgus, which permitted 

 theft to the Lacedemonians ? The Mexicans puniflied 

 this pernicious crime, but not capitally, except where 

 the thief was unable to pay for the olfence with his li- 

 berty or with his goods. But this law was not the fame 

 in cafes of robbery from the fields ; becaufe, thefe lying 

 more expofed to be plundered, required to be more 

 guarded by the laws : but this very law which preferr- 

 ed capital puniftiment againft the perfon who robbed a 

 certain quantity of fruit or maize, permitted neceffitous 

 travellers to eat as much as was neceffary to fupply pre- 

 fent want. How much more reafonable and juft was 

 this law than that of the Twelve Tables, which con- 

 demned without diftin&ion every perfon to be hanged 

 who dole any thing from the field of another. 



Lying, that pernicious crime to fociety, was left un- 

 puniflied in moil countries of the old continent, but in 

 Japan was frequently puniflied with death. The Mex- 

 icans kept at an equal diftance from both extremes. 

 Their legiflators, who difcerned the genius and turn of 

 the nation, perceived, that if they did not prefcribe a 

 heavy pain againft lying and drunkennefs, truth would 

 be wanting at trials of juftice, and faith difregarded in 

 contracts. Experience has (hewn how prejudicial impu- 

 nity in thofe two crimes has been to thofe nations. 



Vol. III. 3 A But 



