THE PELEW ISLANDS, 
293 
As thefe people had but little property to create diffen- 
lion, and no lawyers to foment anifnofity, it is probable that 
the immutable boundaries of right and wrong were per¬ 
fectly underftood, and not often violated; whenever they 
were, the offending party received the King’s cenfure, which 
expofed them to general fhame ; a fentence, to uncorrupted 
minds, far more fevere than any penal inftitution.—'They 
could not recur to the dubious conftruction of five hun¬ 
dred laws, vaguely conceived, ^and worfe underflood ; under 
the obfcurity of which, in civilized countries, the artful vil¬ 
lain too often takes fhelter, and the injured fit down more op- 
preffed.—Happy for them, they were ignorant of that cafuif- 
try and refinement which can argue vice into virtue! nor 
were acquainted with the laudanum of rhetoric, whofe pro¬ 
perty will occafionally benumb and lay dormant the power 
of common underftandings !—They had no conception that 
there exifted poliflied nations, where it was infinitely more 
expenfive to fue for juifice than to fubmit to fraud and op- 
1 
preflion !—nations where men’s oaths only, not men’s words * 
were credited ! and where there were found wretches who 
dared attack the properties and lives of their fellow-citizens*, 
by affertions of falfloood , whilft they folemnly and impioufly 
invoked the God of Heaven to atteft their truth /-—Born the 
children of Nature, and fecluded from the corruption of the 
world, her laws were their general guide.—Their real wants 
were few, and they faw nothing to excite artificial ones.— 
4 Every 
