we have already alleged in treating of civil caufes, and which are of ftill greater weight in regard to thofe of a criminal nature,to appear in the character of a judge pronouncing fentence on a wretched criminal, would ill become the majesty of the fovereign, who ought in every thing to appear as the father of his people. It is a very wife maxim commonly received in France, that the prince ought to referve to himself all matters of favour, and leave it to the magiftrates to execute the rigour of justice. But then justice ought to be exercised in his name, and under his authority. A good prince will keep a watchful eye over the conduct of the magistrates; he will oblige them to obferve fcrupulously the established forms, and will himself take care never to break through them. Every fovereign who neglects or violates the forms of juftice in the profecution of criminals, makes large ftrides towards tyranny: and the liberty of the citizens is at an end, when once they ceafe to be certain that they cannot be condemned, except in purfuance of the laws, according to the established forms, and by their ordinary judges. The custom of committing the trial of the accufed party to commiffioners chofen at the pleasure of the court, was the tyrannical invention of fome minifters who abused the authority of their master. By this irregular and odious procedure, a famous minister always fucceeded in deftroying his enemies. A good prince will never give his confent to fuch a proceeding, if he has fufficient discernment to foresee the dreadful abuse his minifters may make of it. If the prince ought not to pass fentence himself,-for the fame reason, he ought not to aggravate the fentence paffed by the judges.

The very nature of government requires that the executor of § 173. the laws fhould have the power of difpenfing with them, when Right of this may be done without injury to any perfon, and in certain pardoning. particular cafes where the welfare of the ftate requires an exception. Hence the right of granting pardons is one of the attributes of fovereignty. But, in his whole conduct, in his seve rity as well as in his mercy, the fovereign ought to have no other object in view than the greater advantage of fociety. A wife prince knows how to reconcile juftice with clemency, the care of the public safety, with that pity which is due to the unfor

tunate.

The internal police confifts in the attention of the prince and magiftrates to preserve every thing in order. Wife regulations Internal ought to prescribe whatever will beft contribute to the public police. fafety, utility and convenience; and those who are invested with authority cannot be too attentive to enforce them. By a wife police, the fovereign accuftoms the people to order and obedience, and preserves peace, tranquillity, and concord among the citizens. The magiftrates of Holland are faid to poffefs extraordinary talents in this refpect:-a better police prevails in their cities, and even their establishments in the Indies, than in any other places in the known world.

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Laws

diforder.

Laws and the authority of the magiftrates having been fubftituted in the room of private war, the conductor of a nation ought not to fuffer individuals to attempt to do themselves juftice, when they can have recourfe to the magiftrates. Duelling-that fpecies of combat, in which the parties engage on account of a private quarrel-is a manifeft disorder, repugnant to the ends of civil fociety. This phrenzy was unknown to the ancient Greeks and Romans, who raised to fuch a height the glory of their arms: we received it from barbarous nations who knew no other law but the fword. Louis XIV. deferves the greatest praise for his endeavours to abolish this favage cuf

tom.

§ 176. But why was not that prince made fenfible that the moft Means of fevere punishments were incapable of curing the rage for duelputting a op to this ling? They did not reach the fource of the evil; and fince a ridiculous prejudice had perfuaded all the nobility and gentlemen of the army, that a man who wears a fword is bound in honour to avenge, with his own hand, the least injury he has received; this is the principle on which it is proper to proceed. We must deftroy this prejudice, or restrain it by a motive of the fame nature. While a nobleman, by obeying the law, fhall be regarded by his equals as a coward and as a man dishonoured,-while an officer in the fame cafe fhall be forced to quit the service,-can you hinder his fighting by threatening him with death? On the contrary, he will place a part of his bravery in doubly expofing his life, in order to wash away the affront. And certainly, while the prejudice fubfifts, while a nobleman or an officer cannot act in oppofition to it, without embittering the rest of his life, I do not know whether we can juftly punish him who is forced to fubmit to its tyranny, or whether he be very guilty with respect to morality. That worldly honour, be it as falfe and chimerical as you pleafe, is to him a fubftantial and neceffary poffeffion, fince without it, he can neither live with his equals, nor exercise a profession that is often his only refource. When therefore any infolent fellow would unjustly ravish from him that chimera fo efteemed and fo neceflary, why may he not defend it as he would his life and property against a robber? As the state does not permit an individual to purfue with arms in his hand the ufurper of his property, because he may obtain juftice from the magiftrate, fo, if the fovereign will not allow him to draw his fword against the man from whom he has received an infult, he ought neceffarily to take fuch measures that the patience and obedience of the citizen who has been infulted, fhall not prove prejudicial to him. Society cannot deprive man of his natural right of making war against an aggreffor, without furnishing him with fome other means of fecuring himself from the evil his enemy would do him. On all thofe occafions where the public authority cannot lend us its affilance, we refume our original and natural right of felf-defence. Thus a traveller may, without hesitation, kill the robber who attacks him on the highway;

becaufe

because it would, at that moment, be in vain for him to implore the protection of the laws and of the magiftrate. Thus a chafte virgin would be praised for taking away the life of a brutal ravither who attempted to force her to his defires.

Till men have got rid of this Gothic idea, that honour obliges them, even in contempt of the laws, to avenge their perfonal injuries with their own hands, the most effectual method of putting a stop to the effects of this prejudice would perhaps be to make a total diftinction between the offended and the aggreffor, -to pardon the former without difficulty, when it appears that his honour has been really attacked,-and to exercise justice without mercy on the party who has committed the outrage. And as to those who draw the fword for trifles and punctilios, for little piques or railleries in which honour is not concerned, I would have them feverely punished. By this means a restraint would be put on thofe pecvifh and infolent folks, who often reduce even the moft moderate men to a neceflity of chaflifing them. Every one would be on his guard, to avoid being confidered as the aggreffor; and with a view to gain the advantage of engaging in duel (if unavoidable) without incurring the penalties of the law, both parties would curb their paflions; by which means the quarrel would fall of itself, and be attended with no confequences. It frequently happens that a bully is at bottom a coward; he gives himself haughty airs, and offers infult, in hopes that the rigour of the law will oblige people to put up with his infolence. And what is the confequence?-A man of fpirit will run every risk, rather than fubmit to be infulted: the aggreffor dares not recede: and a combat enfues, which would not have taken place, if the latter could have once imagined that there was nothing to prevent the other from chaftifing him for his prefumption, the offended perfon being acquitted by the fame law that condemns the aggreffor.

To this first law, whofe efficacy would, I doubt not, be foon proved by experience, it would be proper to add the following regulations:-1. Since it is an established custom that the nobility and military men fhould appear armed even in time of peace, care should be taken to enforce a rigid obfervance of the laws which allow the privilege of wearing fwords to these two orders of men only. 2. It would be proper to establish a particular court, to determine, in a fummary manner, all affairs of honour between perfons of these two orders. The marshals' court in France is in poffeffion of this power; and it might be inverted with it in a more formal manner and to a greater extent. The governors of provinces and ftrong places, with their general officers, the colonels and captains of each regiment,might, in this particular, act as deputies to the marshals. Thefe courts, each in its own department, fhould alone confer the right of wearing a fword. Every nobleman at fixteen or eighteen years of age, and every foldier at his entrance into the regiment, fhould be obliged to appear before the court to receive

G 3

the

the fword. 3. On its being there delivered to him, he should be informed, that it is intrufted to him only for the defence of his country; and care might be taken to inspire him with true ideas of honour. 4. It appears to me of great importance, to eftablish, for different cafes, punishments of a different nature. Whoever should fo far forget himself, as, either by word or deed, to infult a man who wears a fword, might be degraded from the rank of nobility, deprived of the privilege of carrying arms, and fubjected to corporal punishment,-even the punishment of death, according to the groffnefs of the infult: and, as I before obferved, no favour fhould be fhewn to the offender in cafe a duel was the confequence, while at the fame time the other party fhould ftand fully acquitted. Those who fight on flight occafions, I would not have condemned to death, unless in fuch cafes where the author of the quarrel,-he, I mean, who carried it so far as to draw his fword, or to give the challenge,-has killed his adverfary. People hope to escape punishment, when it is too fevere; and, befides, a capital punishment, in such cafes, is not confidered as infamous. But let them be ignominiously degraded from the rank of nobility and the ufe of arms, and for ever deprived of the right of wearing a fword, without the leaft hope of pardon: this would be the moft proper method to restrain men of fpirit, provided that due care was taken to make a diftinction between different offenders, according to the degree of the offence. As to perfons below the rank of nobility, and who do not belong to the army, their quarrels fhould be left to the cognisance of the ordinary courts, which, in cafe of bloodfhed, fhould punish the offenders according to the common laws against violence and murder. It should be the fame with refpect to any quarrel that might arife between a commoner and a man entitled to carry arms: it is the business of the ordinary magiftrate to preserve order and peace between those two claffes of men, who cannot have any points of honour to fettle, the one with the other. To protect the people against the violence of thofe who wear the fword, and to punish the former feverely, if they fhould dare to infult the latter, should further be, as it is at prefent, the bufinefs of the magistrate.

I am fanguine enough to believe that these regulations, and this method of proceeding, if strictly adhered to, would extirpate that monster, duelling, which the most severe laws have been unable to reftrain. They go to the fource of the evil by preventing quarrels, and oppofe a lively fenfation of true and real honour to that falfe and punctilious honour which occafions the fpilling of fo much blood. It would be worthy a great monarch to make a trial of it: its fuccefs would immortalife his name; and by the bare attempt he would merit the love and gratitude of his people.

СНАР.

CHA P. XIV.

The third Object of a good Government,-to fortify itself against external Attacks.

§ 177.

ought to

tacks.

WE have treated at large of what relates to the felicity of a nation: the fubject is equally copious and complicated. A nation Let us now proceed to a third divifion of the duties which a fortify itself nation owes to itself, -a third object of good government. One against exof the ends of political fociety is to defend itfelf with its com- ternal atbined strength against all external infult or violence (§ 15). If the fociety is not in a condition to repulfe an aggreffor, it is very imperfect,-it is unequal to the principal object of its deftination, and cannot long fubfift. The nation ought to put itself in fuch a state as to be able to repel and humble an unjust enemy: this is an important duty, which the care of its own per fection, and even of its preservation, imposes both on the state and its conductor.

National

It is its ftrength alone that can enable a nation to repulfe all§ 178. aggreffors, to fecure its rights, and render itself every where re- ftrength. fpectable. It is called upon by every poffible motive, to neglect no circumftance that can tend to place it in this happy fituation. The strength of a state confifts in three things,-the number of the citizens, their military virtues, and their riches. Under this last article we may comprehend fortreffes, artillery, arms, horfes, ammunition, and, in general, all that immenfe apparatus at prefent neceffary in war, fince they can all be procured with money.

To increase the number of the citizens as far as it is poffible or § 179. convenient, is then one of the first objects that claim the attentive Increase of population. care of the state or its conductor: and this will be fuccefsfully effected by complying with the obligation to procure the country a plenty of the neceffaries of life,--by enabling the people to fupport their families with the fruits of their labour,-by giving proper directions that the poorer claffes, and efpecially the husbandmen, be not haraffed and oppreffed by the levying of taxes,-by governing with mildness, and in a manner, which, instead of difgufting and difperfing the prefent fubjects of the state, shall rather attract new ones, and, finally, by encouraging mar riage, after the example of the Romans. That nation, fo attentive to every thing capable of increasing and fupporting their power, made wife laws against celibacy (as we have already obferved in § 149), and granted privileges and exemptions to married men, particularly to thofe who had numerous families: laws that were equally wife and just, since a citizen who rears

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fubjects