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ROGER'S prefent State of Den-
mark,.

ROSCIAD of Covent Garden,

ROUSSEAU on the Inequality TAL

RUTHERFORTH's Letter to Ken-

nicott,

112

TAYLOR'S Scripture Account of

Prayer, fecond Edition, 343

Chevalier John, Tra-

vels of,
THEORY of Religion, by Orr,
442
THOMSON'S Works, new Edi-

CHOOL for Lovers,

tion,

157
298
SCRIPTURE Doctrine of THOUGHTS on the Times, 159
Remiffion,
-on ancient and mo.
dern Travel.
235

TRAGI-COMIC Memoirs of the

War,

148

TRISTRAM Shandy, Vol. V,

VI.

SCH

114

SCROPE on the Lord's Supper,

238

SHARPE'S fecond Argument in
Defence of Christianity, 305
SHEBBEARE'S History of the Su-

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TUMULTS

TUMULTS in Ireland confidered, WALPOLE'S Anecdotes of Paint.

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THE

MONTHLY REVIEW,

For JANUARY, 1762.

A Body of Law for the Dominions Founded on Reafon, and the ConftiTranflated from the French. 8vo. Edinburgh printed for Donaldson,

The Frederician Code: Or,
of the King of Pruffia.
tution of the Country.
2 vols. 12 s. boards.
and fold by Richardson in London.

IT

T was a faying of Solon's, that he had given the Athenians the best Laws they were able to bear: and it is poffible that the Author of the prefent Code may, upon this principle, juftify his inftitutions. But they who ignorantly commend them as a fit model for this Kingdom, do not deferve to enjoy the fuperior advantages, to which the Laws of England entitle them. Indeed the chief, if not only excellence for which the admirers of this Code have extolled it, is its fuppofed brevity; and they inconfiderately exprefs their wifhes to reduce the Laws of this kingdom within the narrow dimenfions they would prefcribe: without reflecting, that they would thereby at the fame time, render their property and perfonal liberties more precarious and infecure.

In the days of Alfred, the English Laws were much more fhort and compendious than the Pruffian Body now under confideration. But the Alfrédian Code would ill fuit the nation, now that it has happily extended the wide circle of trade and commerce, and enlarged the bafis of public liberty. As focial and commercial intercourfe expand, a váriety of cafes daily revolve, which muft either be provided for by a particular and exprefs Law, or referred to difcretionary decifion. A people however, jealous of liberty, will be cautious to entruft as little as poffible to arbitrary difcretion. In a free kingdom, the Judges are but the mouths of VOL. XXVI. the

B

1

the Law, and the King, no more than the fupreme minister to execute its decrees. In fuch a state, therefore, the Laws cannot be fo fimple and concife as in thofe governments, where much is left to the difcretion of the judge without any other appeal, than to the abfolute will of the Sovereign. It is true that, under a wife and good Monarch, little or no inconvenience may arife from fuch fummary inftitutions; but it might be expected that a Prince who, like his Pruffian Majefty, is supposed to be no less a philofopher than a statesman, fhould have a jufter fenfe of Legislation, than to inftitute, what is more properly a Government of Men, than of Laws.

This Code, which copies, and, in fome points, improves the Roman Law, docs nevertheless retain, and even multiply, its most capital defects. The King prohibits, under fevere penalties, any Commentaries to be made, either on the whole Law of the country, or on any part of it. In fhort, he referves to himself the prerogative of being the ultimate and fole Commentator on the Laws; and his Referipts, like those of the Roman Emperors, can make that legal, which is not to be juftified under the fanction either of Law or Reafon. The confequence of fuch unbounded authority must be, that when a weak or vicious Prince fucceeds to the throne, Juftice will not only be partially distributed, but openly bought and fold, as it was once in this Kingdom, efpecially in the time of the Norman Princes, when every thing appertaining to Judicature was fo avowedly venal, that our Kings accepted bribes from the fuitors, which were called by the foft name of prefents and that with fo little fenfe of honour or decorum, that these fhameful items are tranfmitted on record, with the fcandalous purposes for which they were received. . But true wisdom and unaffected philofophy would have dictated a more liberal and benevolent fyftem, than this of the Frederician Code. They would have directed our Royal Legiflator to have confulted the future and permanent good of his people, by endeavouring to fecure them against those abufes in his fucceffors, from which his own perfonal virtues may perhaps protect them during his reign. A Prince, who inftead of labouring to confirm and to extend arbitrary prerogatives, has the courage to limit his own power, difplays the nobleft proofs of greatnefs. All the pomp which awaits abfolute dominion, all the triumphs of heroifm, are little, compared to fuch a philofophical facrifice, made on the principles of general benevolence and philanthropy. This is the true

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