station among the powers of Europe; and, secondly, because of the increase of population, and the military services required in collecting the revenue and executing the laws." These reasons may serve as a guide to teach the people of England for what purposes an army ought not to be kept up. They afford a limit and a rule for the amount of our military force. As long as the numbers of the army can be proved to be indispensable for maintaining garrisons in fortified places, and preserving a nucleus for war, the nation may consider general harangues against a standing army as puerile declamation; but when they hear it urged, that it is necessary to assimilate our peace establishment to that of the continental powers, and that a large army is rendered necessary by the increase of our population, then it is time for them to rouse themselves, and shake off, before it is too late, the burden of a military government.

CHAP. XXXII.

OF THE INFLUENCE OF JURIES IN INTERPRETING AND MODIFYING THE LAWS.

Virtue without thee

There is no ruling eye, no nerve in states;
War has no vigour, and no safety peace;
Ev'n justice warps to party, laws oppress,

Wide through the land their weak protection fails,
First broke the balance, and then scorn'd the sword.

THOMSON.

THE proposition, that good laws, without virtue in the society where they are established, are of little or no avail, is one so generally admitted, that it seems useless to waste a word respecting it. Perhaps there is not a more comprehensive or a more humane code of laws, than that which was provided in Spain for the government of the Indians of Mexico and Peru; but, unfortunately, the legislators

were at Madrid, and the people to be protected working for their masters in America, without the power of enforcing their legal rights; so that the code was of no force or value whatsoever. The converse of the proposition I have selected, however, although perhaps not formally contradicted, is not so generally impressed upon our minds. Men are easily led to believe, that where liberty and wealth have flourished, there must be some very singular excellence, some unfailing virtue, inherent in the laws, by which the state has been governed. It would be an easy task to prove, that neither at Athens, nor at Rome, nor at Florence, nor in Holland, has the form of laws reached to any great perfection. But this would probably be admitted; and yet many would persevere in thinking that in England our ancestors had discovered some secret for making faultless laws. Blackstone has much contributed to spread this opinion. All that was established had, in his eye, a peculiar sanctity, and he praises the English constitution with

the enthusiasm of a scholar who is admitted to view the picture of a great master. The fault, indeed, was on the right side. If he refrained from pointing out many obvious improvements, he also kept alive that respect for our ancient liberties, which unprincipled statesmen find to be the greatest (would it were an efficient!) obstacle to their arbitrary innovations. It is impossible, however, to attempt any general view of the history of our government, and not to be struck with the modifications and forced interpretations, which have been accepted, in order to make law agree with the security of the state and the safety of the subject.

The first instance I shall mention is the treason law. For three centuries, we have been accustomed to appeal to the act of the 25 Edward III. as the perfection of wisdom and liberty on the subject of treason. Yet what is this law, when we come to examine it? The bold and spirited compact of a turbulent nobility with a feudal king, totally unfitted for a com

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mercial and civilized society. It provides, that the penalties of treason shall apply to those only who conspire against the life of the King, or actually levy war against him.* Such a law as this, it is evident, was well calculated to protect the barons from being arrested for disaffection, and to give them the power of holding their private councils for rebellion undisturbed. In the progress of society, however, it was discovered, that a conspiracy to levy war, far from being an ordinary or light offence, was a crime of the utmost magnitude, dangerous alike to the safety of the King and the tranquillity of the country. What was to be done? It was obvious, that a conspiracy to levy war was not treason by the act, for no men could have been so absurd as to have specified the actual levying of war as treason, when they had already included a conspiracy to levy war under the head of compassing the King's death. If a conspiracy to levy war amounted to compassing the King's death,

* Of the other offences made treason by the bill it is not necessary to take notice here.