triots have an intereft to fupport them; and when patriotifm is banifhed by corruption, there is no remaining spring in government to make them effectual. The ftatutes made against gaming, and against bribery and corruption in elections, have no authority over a degenerate people. Nothing is ftudied, but how to evade the penalties; and fuppofing statutes to be made without end for preventing known evafions, new evafions will fpring up in their ftead. The mifery is, that fuch laws, if they prove abortive, are never innocent with regard to confequences; for nothing is more fubverfive of morality as well as of patriotifm, than a habit of difregarding the laws of our country But pride fometimes happily interpofes to stem the tide of corruption. The poor are not ashamed to take a bribe from the rich; nor weak states from those that are powerful, disguised only under the name of fubfidy or penfion. Both France and England have been in the practice of fecuring the alliance of neighbouring princes by penfions; and it is natural in the minifters of a penfioned prince, to receive a gratification for keeping their mafter to his engagement. England never was at any time fo inferior to France, as to fuffer her * Lying and perjury are not in every cafe equally criminal; at least are not commonly reckoned fo. Lying or perjury, in order to injure a man, is held highly criminal; and the greater the hurt, the greater the crime, To relieve from punishment, few boggle at a lie or at perjury: fincerity is not even expected; and hence the practice of torture. Many men are not fcrupulous about oaths, when they have no view but to obtain juftice to themselves: the Jacobites, that they might not be deprived of their privileges as British fubjects, made no great difficulty to fwallow oaths to the prefent government, though in them it was perjury. It is dangerous to withdraw the smallest peg in the moral edifice; for the whole will totter and tumble. Men creep on to vice by degrees. Perjury, in order to fupport a friend, has become customary of late years; witnefs fictitious qualifications in the electors of parliament-men, which are made effectual by perjury: yet fuch is the degeneracy of the prefent times, that no man is the worse thought of upon that account. We must not flatter ourselves that the poifon will reach no farther a man who boggles not at perjury to serve a friend, will in time become fuch an adept, as to commit perjury in order to ruin a friend when he becomes an enemy. : king openly to accept a penfion from the French king, whatever private tranfactions might be between the kings themfelves. But the minifters of England thought it no difparagement, to receive penfions from France. Every minister of Edward IV. of England received a penfion from Louis XI.; and they made no difficulty of granting a receipt for the fum. The old Earl of Warwick, fays Commines, was the only exception: he took the money, but refufed a receipt. Cardinal Wolfey had a penfion both from the Emperor and from the King of France: and his mafter Henry was vain to find his minifter fo much regarded by the first powers in Europe. During the reigns of Charles II. and of his brother James, England nade fo despicable a figure, that the minifters accepted penfions from Louis XIV. A king deficient in virtue, is never well ferved. King Charles, moft difgracefully, accepted a penfion from France what fcruple could his minifters have? Britain, governed by a king eminently virtuous and patriotic, makes at prefent fo great a figure, that even the loweft minister would disdain a penfion from any foreign prince. Men formerly were fo blind, as not to fee that a penfion creates a bias in a minifter, against his mafter and his country. At prefent men clearly fee, that a foreign penfion to a minifter is no better than a bribe: and it would be held fo by all the world. 1 In a nation enriched by conqueft or commerce, where felfish paffions always prevail, it is difficult to ftem the tide of immorality: the decline of virtue may be retarded by wholesome regulations; but no regulations will ever reftore it to its meridian vigour. Marcus Aurelius, Emperor of Rome, caused ftatues to be made of all the brave men who figured in the Germanic war. It has long been a practice in China, to honour perfons eminent for virtue, by feafting them anually at the VOL. II. Emperor's B b Emperor's expence. A late Emperor made an improvement he ordered reports to be fent him annually, of men and women who when alive had been remarkable for public fpirit or private vir tue, in order that monuments might be erected to their memory. The following report is one of many that were fent to the Emperor. "Ac"cording to the order of your Majefty, for erect"ing monuments to the honour of women, who "have been celebrated for continence, for filial piety, or for purity of manners, the viceroy "of Canton reports, that in the town of Sinhoei, "a beautiful young woman, named Leang, facrificed her life to fave her chastity. In the σε fifteenth year of our Emperor Canghi, fhe was "dragged by pirates into their fhip; and ha"ving no other way to efcape their brutal luft, "fhe threw herfelf headlong into the fea. Be "ing of opinion, that to prefer honour before "life is an example worthy of imitation, we "purpose, according to your Majefty's order, to erect a triumphal arch for that young woman, "and to engrave her ftory upon a large stone, "that it may be preferved in perpetual remem"brance." At the foot of the report is written, The Emperor approves. Pity it is, that fuch regulations fhould ever prove abortive, for their purpose is excellent. But they would need angels to carry them on. Every deviation from a juft felection enervates them; and frequent deviations render them a fubject of ridicule. how are deviations to be prevented, when men are the judges? Those who diftribute the rewards have friends or flatterers; and thofe of greater merit will be neglected. Like the cenforian power in Rome, fuch regulations, after many abuses, will fink into contempt. But Two errors, which infefted morality in dark times, have occafioned much injustice: and I am .not not certain, that they are yet entirely eradicated. The firft is an opinion, That an action derives its quality of right and wrong from the event, without regard to intention. The other is, That the end juftifies the means; or, in other words, That means otherwise unlawful, may be lawfully employed to bring about a good end. With an account of these two errors, I fhall close the present hiftorical sketch. That inattention is the circumftance which qualifies an action and its author, to be criminal or innocent, is made evident in the first part of the present sketch; and is now admitted to be fo by every moral writer. But rude and barbarous nations feldom carry their thoughts beyond what falls under their external fenfes: they conclude an action to be wrong that happens to do harm; without ever thinking of motives, of Will, of intention, or of any circumftance that is not obvious to eye-fight. From many paffages in the Old Teftament it appears, that the external act only, with its confequences, was regarded. Ifaac, imitating his father Abraham, made his wife Rebecca pafs for his fifter. Abimelech, King of the Philiftines, having difcovered the impofture, faid to Ifaac, "What is this thou haft done unto "us? One of the people might have lien with thy wife, and thou shouldst have brought guil"tiness upon us (a)." Jonathan was condemned to die for tranfgreffing a prohibition he had never heard of (b). A fin of ignorance, i. e. an action done without ill intention, required a facrifice of expiation (c). Saul defeated by the Philiftines, fell on his own fword: the wound not being mortal, he prevailed on a young Amalekite to pull out the fword, and to dispatch him Bb 2 (a) Genefis, chap. 26. (b) 1 Samuel, xiv. 44. with with it. Jofephus (a) fays, that David ordered the criminal to be delivered up to juftice as a regicide. The Greeks appear to have wavered greatly about intention, fometimes holding it effential to a crime, and fometimes difregarding it as a circumftance of no moment. Of these contradictory opinions, we have pregnant evidence in the two tragedies of Oedipus; the first taking it for granted, that a crime confifts entirely in the external act and its confequences; the other holding intention to be indifpenfable.. Oedipus had killed his father Laius, and married his mother Jocafta; but without any criminal intention, being ignorant of his relation to them. And yet hiftory informs us, that the gods punished the Thebans with peftilence, for fuffering a wretch fo grofsly criminal to live. Sophocles author of both tragedies, puts the following words in the mouth of Tirefias the prophet. Know then, That Oedipus, in fhameful bonds united, And that doctrine is efpoufed by Ariftotle in a later period; who holding Oedipus to have been deeply criminal, though without intention, is of opinion, that a more proper fubject for tragedy never was brought upon the ftage. Nay as a philofopher he talks currently of an involuntary crime. Oreftes, in Euripides, acknowledges him felf to be guilty in killing his mother; yet afferts with the fame breath, that his crime was inevitable, a neceffary crime, a crime commanded by religion. (4) Book 3. of Antiquities. |