him,* sometimes to explain and sometimes to alter; and expecting also, that to the good sense of his countrymen during this period, his laws would be familiarized by use, and endeared too by experience. Such restraints upon a want or love of novelty were necessary in the primary formation even of free states, and I have to add, that in such states, whether mixed or pure, when formed, the strictest obedience is due to the laws, because under such governments even private crimes have a tendency to public ones, and attack the constitution itself, while they injure private persons.

If further arguments be necessary, there is one upon which I should most strenuously insist, as pointing out the importance of preserving a system of laws when it has been arranged into principles, and disciplined by a long series of experiments. In philosophical discoveries, in military skill, in political regulations, much is often effected in a short time by a favourable concurrence of circumstances, by the splendid genius of individuals, or by the invigorated and concentrated exertions of a people. But in the fair administration of public justice-in the nice adaptation of general rules to particular

* See Plutarch, in vita Solonis.

Lucius Flamininus cum esset Consul, in Gallia exoratus in convivio a scorto est, ut securi feriret aliquem eorum, qui in vinculis essent damnati rei capitalis. Hic Tito, fratre suo, censore, qui proximus ante me fuerat, elapsus est mihi vero et Flacco neutiquam probari potuit tam flagitiosa et tam perdita libido, quæ cum probro privato conjungeret imperii dedecus.— Cato Major, in M. T. Cic. de Senectute. Parag. 12.

cases, diversified as they severally are by endless varieties through the operations of collateral causes and effects, and in the aggregate of their inherent merits or demerits-in the arduous task of proportioning decision to evidence, and punishment to crimes in the entire subjugation of every untoward passion and every lurking prejudice, to the public will as expressed by law, and the public welfare as promoted by it-the advances even of polished and enlightened nations are unsteady and slow.

In thus enforcing observations which more particularly call for the notice, and affect the happiness

of

my own countrymen, I hope not to be misunderstood. No wish have I to justify the blind and superstitious veneration we all of us are apt to feel for the profession in which we have been educated, and in the study of which we have made successful trials of our intellectual vigour. I mean not to apologize for that dastardly caution which is ever ready to start at the lion in the way-for that sullen or supercilious indolence which often serves as a veil to our apathy to the interests of our fellow creatures-for the abject timidity which shrinks from giving offence to the corrupt or the imperious-or for the narrow policy which misconstrues exemplary failure into indiscrimate and insuperable objections to all experiments, though warily conducted, and though urgently called for by the evident and well-considered exigencies of a kingdom. On the other hand, it becomes us seriously to weigh the mischiefs which may result from lifting up private opinion too hardily against the public wisdom of the state-from

changes, which accidentally meeting or directly producing new and unforeseen occurrences, may lead to new and unforeseen inconveniences-from measures, which though undertaken from honest motives, and decorated with plausible names, may introduce unsteadiness into a system which derives so much of its authority over opinion, and so much of its usefulness in practice from the very circumstance of stability, but which must be deprived of that authority and that usefulness where changes indiscreetly made call for further changes in rapid and incalculable succession-upon this awful subject it becomes every prudent and honest man carefully to lay to heart the deep and salutary observations with which I am happy to close this first part of my discourse. "In truth," said a great writer," ancient laws, especially that have a common concern, are not the issues of the prudence of this or that council and senate; but they are the production of the various experiences and applications of the wisest thing in the inferior world; to wit, time, which, as it discovers day after day new inconveniences, so it does successively apply new remedies, and indeed it is a kind of aggregation of the discoveries, results, and applications of ages and events; so that it is a great adventure to go about to alter without very great necessity, and under the greatest demonstration of safety and convenience imaginable."*

These are the words of a Judge who to legal

* See Sir Matthew Hale's considerations touching the amendment of Laws, Hargrave's tracts, p. 254.

knowledge and legal experience, such as have rarely fallen to the lot of man, united the most various erudition, and the most exemplary probity. His opinions are confirmed too, if confirmation they need, by the measured and impartial language of another celebrated writer, in whom we have the genuine spirit of philosophy without the superficial and fallacious jargon of that which usurps its name, and whose researches upon ethics were not less profound nor less instructive, than his matchless investigations into the works of nature.* "Time," he tells us, "is the greatest innovator, and if time of course alter things to the worse, and wisdom and council shall not alter them to the better, what shall be the end? It is true, that what is settled by custom though it be not good, yet at least it is fit, and that things which have long gone together are as it were confederate within themselves, whereas new things piece not so well. All this is true, if time stood still, which contrariwise moveth so round that a froward retention of custom is as turbulent a thing as an innovation, and they that revere too much old times are but a scorn to the new. It were good therefore that man in his innovations would follow the example of time itself, which indeed innovateth greatly, but quietly, and by degrees scarce to be perceived."

With propriety then may we extend to law that emphatical language of the prophet, which the same illustrious writer has applied to governments; that

* See Bacon's Essay, 24th, upon Innovation.

if ever we make a stand upon the old paths, we should be careful "to look about us and discover what is the straight and right way, and so to walk therein, and find rest for our souls.”*

Now, after these general, but I hope pertinent and instructive observations resulting from the history recorded in my text, I proceed, in the second place, to shew how far it affords a proof, that the gospel does not exclude its followers from the protection which laws may afford them against capricious, insolent, or vindictive oppression.

Christianity is a religion intended for general use; it appeals to the common feelings of our nature, and never clashes with the unbiassed dictates of our reason. We may therefore rank it among the beneficial tendencies, as well as the peculiar evidences of such a religion, that the author of it abstained from all abstruse speculations, and all controversial discussions upon topics either of politics or of philosophy. With simplicity and with dignity he inculcated the purest and most enlarged principles of virtue; and happy is it for mankind that the energies of those principles have so slight a connection with the intricate and fluctuating opinions of men, whether upon metaphysical abstractions, which tend oftener to perplex than convince, or upon modes of Government, in the comparison of which we are too prone to be guided by our passions and our prejudices, rather than by our sober judgment.

Much then is it to be lamented, that zeal without

* Jeremiah, chap. vi. verse 16.