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For the Monthly Magazine. 
HEADS oF an ESSAY on CIVIL - 
JURISPRUDENCE. 
; Read before a learned Socicty. 
7 At a period when the public attention 
has been fo much direéted to poiiti- 
cal inveftigation, and when we can even 
venture to pronounce that a very liberal 
file of thinking has prevailed upon thefe 
fubjects, it could not fail to excite fome 
degree of furprize, if we thould find upon 
enquiry, that the moft important of po- 
litical topics had been, (both practically 
and theoretically) almoft totally negleét- 
ed; andthe moft pernicious errors incau- 
tiouflly countenanced, on matters, the moft 
affecting to human happinefs. 
The majority of kings and ftatefmen 
(1 include even thofe who have been in 
general elevated abeve mean and felfifh 
views) have imagined that they confulted 
bef the welfare of their refpettive ftates, 
when they increafed their territory ; when 
they formed treaties of alliance, calcu- 
lated to enlarge the power, and, what they 
are pleafed to confider as the glory of the 
nation; and above all, when they have 
extended and improved its commerce, and 
jncreaied its wealth. ; 
Even fpeculative politicians have fallen 
into an error almoit equally prejudicial. 
‘They have in general been engaged in 
coniefts concerning the form which the 
executive power of a nation cught to af- 
fume---they have not confidered, that in 
every country where public liberty is for- 
tified by the ftrong barrier of a popular le- 
gillature, it is almoft impoffible that op- 
preffion, or defpotic authority fhovld be 
exercifed, and that the reft is a mere quef- 
tion of expediency, whether the executive 
authority of a flate fhalldefcend in a chain 
of fubordination from -one chief magif- 
trate, or fhall be radically divided. into 
different departments: a queftion which, 
im my opinion, might be difcuffed in 
much fewer words than have been beftowed 
upon it: a qneftion, the folution of which 
is really of much lefs importance than 
many other political. topics that have at- 
tracted lefs attention. . 
While fuch have been the ufual em- 
loyments of ftateimen and philofephers, 
they have almoft entirely overlooked a 
fubje& of inflant importance to the hap- 
pinets of fociety ; a fubje&t in which every 
individual is deeply intereited, a fubject 
which gives, asit were, the very charaéter 
to every Society---Jt is in fatt,“THE AD- 
MINISTRATION OF JUSTICE in every 
Heads of an Effay on Civil Fur ifprudence. 
f Sup. 
country, which renders that country more 
or lefs defirable. Fis it is that famps a 
value on the political eftablifhment when 
it happens to be good, and above every 
other circumftance 2ffects the welfare of a 
people. : 
A few authors indeed have latterly 
arifen ; among whom, one of the mott re- 
fpectable, is the Marquis Beccaria, who 
have treated of criminal law in a philofo- 
phical manner; but I do not recollect a 
fingle writer who has arifen to pomt out 
the defeéts in Civil Juriiprudence ; though 
_ Tam perfuaded that in mo countries of 
Europe the civil is much more defective 
than the criminal code, and produétive of 
much more oppreflion, jnjuftice, and un- 
happinefs. 
In the narrow limits of a literary me- 
moir it would be abfurd, were the writer 
poffeffed of every neceflary qualification, 
to enter into the minutenefs of legal dii- 
quifition ; and all that can poilibly be 
attempted is to exhibit a flight fketch of 
what apparently ought to be the leading 
principles in a rational code of Civil 
Jurifprudence. 
' The First principle which I fhould 
infift upon as effential to a good code of 
Jaws is, that they be harmonious and con- 
Jiftent.---The whole of the laws ought to 
branch out from a few principles, and 
thefe as confiftent as pofiible with na- 
tural juftice ; and though the cafes ought 
to be as numerous as poflible, in order to 
afford a fpecific remedy for every wrong, 
yet the {pirit fhould be the fame in all, 
and the fame chain of reafoning fhould 
univerfally apply.---But with which of 
the European codes is this the cafe? In 
moit of them; in our own for initance, the 
principle of the law is. directly at war 
with the pragtice.---The principle is 
mofily feudal, and is only to be raked out 
of obfolete volumes by the indefatigable 
labour of the antiquarians, The judg 
who fits upon the bench is fometimes at a 
lofs’ far the reafor and principle of the 
law which he adminifters. The Ad- 
vocate often mifunderftands and fill 
more commonly perverts it; and the 
jury and the fuitors all remain in the moft 
perfe€k ignorance. It is a myftery, 4 
juggle, only for the initiated, and even 
they are frequently loft in its mazes, and 
unable to fay where the influence of feur 
dality fhould end, and where the modern 
fyftem fhould begin, 
Hence proceeds the abfurd.difcrepancy 
between what is called real and perfonal 
property, Hence, an effate in land “ 
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