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several parts one, declaratory; whereby the rights to be observed, and the wrongs to be eschewed, are clearly defined and laid down another, directory; whereby the subject is instructed and enjoined to observe those rights, and to abstain from the commission of those wrongs: a third, remedial; whereby a method is pointed out to recover a man's private rights, or redress his private wrongs: to which may be added a fourth, usually termed the sanction, or vindicatory branch of the law: whereby it is signified what evil or penalty shall be incurred by such as commit any public wrongs, and transgress or neglect their duty.

With regard to the first of these, the declaratory part of the municipal law, this depends not so much upon the law of revelation or nature, as upon the wisdom and will of the legislator. This doctrine, which before was slightly touched, deserves a more particular explication. Those rights, then, which God and nature have established, and are therefore called natural rights, such as are life and liberty, need not the aid of human laws to be more effectually invested in every man than they are; neither do they receive any additional strength when declared by the municipal laws to be inviolable. On the contrary, no human legislature has power to abridge or destroy them, unless the owner shall himself commit some act that amounts to a forfeiture. Neither do divine or natural duties, such as, for instance, the worship of God, the maintenance of children, and the like, receive any stronger sanction from being also declared to be duties by the law of the land. The case is the same as to crimes and misdemeanors that are forbidden by the superior laws, and therefore styled mala in se, such as murder, theft, and perjury; which contract no additional turpitude from being declared unlawful by the inferior legislature: for that legislature in all these cases acts only, as was before observed, in subordination to the great lawgiver, transcribing and publishing his precepts. So that, upon the whole, the declaratory part of the municipal law has no force or operation at all, with regard to actions that are naturally and intrinsically right or wrong.

But, with regard to things in themselves indifferent, the case is entirely altered. These become either right or wrong, just or unjust, duties or misdemeanors, according as the municipal legislator sees proper, for promoting the welfare of the society, and more effectually carrying on the pur

poses of civil life. Thus our common law has declared, that the goods of the wife do instantly, upon marriage, become the property and right of the husband; and our statute law has declared all monopolies a public offence; yet that right, and this offence, have no foundation in nature; but are merely created by the law for the purposes of civil society. And sometimes, where the thing itself has its rise from the law of nature, the particular circumstances and mode of doing it become right or wrong, as the laws of the land shall direct. Thus, for instance, in civil duties; obedience to superiors is the doctrine of revealed as well as natural religion: but who those superiors shall be, and in what circumstances, or to what degrees they shall be obeyed, it is the province of human laws to determine. And so, as to injuries or crimes, it must be left to our own legislature to decide, in what cases the seizing another's cattle shall amount to a trespass, or to a theft ; and where it shall be a justifiable action, as when a landlord takes them by way of distress for rent.

Thus much for the declaratory part of the municipal law; and the directory stands much upon the same footing; for this virtually includes the former, the declaration being usually collected from the direction. The law that says, "Thou shalt not steal," implies a declaration that stealing is a crime. And we have seen that, in things naturally indifferent, the very essence of right and wrong depends upon the direction of the laws to do or to omit them.

The remedial part of the law is so necessary a consequence of the former two, that laws must be very vague and imperfect without it. For in vain would rights be declared, in vain directed to be observed, if there were no method of recovering and asserting those rights, when wrongfully withheld or invaded. This is what we properly mean, when we speak of the protection of the law. When, for instance, the declaratory part of the law has said, "that the field or inheritance, which belonged to Titius's father, is vested by his death in Titius ;" and the directory part has "forbidden any one to enter on another's property, without the leave of the owner:" if Gaius, after this, will presume to take possession of the land, the remedial part of the law will then interpose its office: will make Gaius restore the possession to Titius, and also pay him damages for the invasion.

With regard to the sanction of laws, or the evil that may attend the breach of public duties; it is observed, that human legislators have, for the most part, chosen to make the sanction of their laws rather vindicatory than remuneratory, or to consist rather in punishments than in actual particular rewards. Because, in the first place, the quiet enjoyment and protection of all our civil rights and liberties, which are the sure and general consequence of obedience to the municipal law, are in themselves the best and most valuable of all rewards. Because also, were the exercise of every virtue to be enforced by the proposal of particular rewards, it were impossible for any state to furnish stock enough for so profuse a bounty. And farther, because the dread of evil is a much more forcible principle of human actions than the prospect of good. For which reasons, though a prudent bestowing of rewards is sometimes of exquisite use, yet we find that those civil laws, which enforce and enjoin our duty, do seldom, if ever, propose any privilege or gift to such as obey the law; but do constantly come armed with a penalty denounced against transgressors, either expressly defining the nature and quantity of the punishment, or else leaving it to the discretion of the judges, and those who are entrusted with the care of putting the laws in execution.

Of all the parts of a law the most effectual is the vindicatory. "For it is but lost labour to say, "do this, or avoid that," unless we also declare, "this shall be the consequence of your non-compliance." We must, therefore, observe, that the main strength and force of a law consists in the penalty annexed to it. Herein is to be found the principal obligation of human laws.

QUESTIONS.

What do you mean by the word “ Municipal law?” State the definition as given in the text.

Why is it called a rule of civil conduct? From what does this word "rule" distinguish it?

What is the distinction between municipal, natural, and revealed law?

What is meant by "prescribed" in the above definition?

C

What do you understand by an ex post facto law?

Why should all laws be made to commence in futuro?

Why ought not ignorance of a law to be allowed as an excuse? What do you mean by the expression " supreme power in a state ? What are the only true and natural foundations of society?

What keeps mankind together, and is the cement of civil society? What is meant by the original contract of society?

What are the three grand requisites of every well constituted government?

What is meant by the sovereign power?

What are the three forms of government recognised by the ancients?

Define democracy—aristocracy—monarchy.

What are the respective advantages and disadvantage of these three forms of government?

Had the ancients any idea of a mixed government?

What did Cicero and Tacitus say on this subject?

What is the nature and form of the British government?

Is it the duty of the supreme power in a state to make laws?

What is a state?

What is imported by the latter part of the definition of municipal law-" commands what is right, and prohibits what is wrong" ?

What are the four parts of which every law consists ?

What do you mean by the declaratory part of the law?

What do you understand by "malum in se,” and “malum prokibitum "?

What is the directory part of the law?

What is the remedial part of the law?

What is meant by the sanction of laws?—and explain the word "vindicatory sanction."

Which is the most important of these four parts of a law ?

Why have legislators chosen to make the sanction of their laws consist in punishment, rather than reward?

ON THE LAWS OF ENGLAND.

THE municipal law of England, or "the rule of civil conduct prescribed" to the inhabitants of this kingdom, may with sufficient propriety be divided into two kinds: the lex non scripta, (the unwritten, or common law ;) and the lex scripta, (the written, or statute law.)

The lex non scripta, or unwritten law, includes not only general customs, or the common law, properly so called; but also the particular customs of certain parts of the kingdom; and likewise those particular laws that are, by custom, observed only in certain courts and jurisdictions.

When I call these parts of our law leges non scriptæ, I would not be understood as if all those laws were at present merely oral, or communicated from the former ages to the present solely by word of mouth. It is true indeed that, in the profound ignorance of letters which formerly overspread the whole western world, all laws were entirely traditional; for this plain reason, because the nations among which they prevailed had but little idea of writing. Thus the British as well as the Gallic Druids committed all their laws as well as learning to memory; and it is said of the primitive Saxons, here, as well as of their brethren on the continent, that leges sola memoria et usu retinebant. But with us at present, the monuments and evidences of our legal customs are contained in the records of the several courts of justice, in books of reports and judicial decisions, and in the treatises of learned sages of the profession, preserved and handed down to us from the times of highest antiquity. However, I therefore style these parts of our law leges non scripta, because their original institution and authority are not set down in writing, as acts of parliament are, but they receive their