Hastings has laid
down good, sound doctrine upon this subject. There is his own book, a
compilation of their laws, which has in it not only good and excellent
positive rules, but a system of as enlightened jurisprudence, with
regard to the body and substance of it, as perhaps any nation ever
possessed,--a system which must have been composed by men of highly
cultivated understandings.
As to the travellers that have been quoted, absurd as they are in the
ground of their argument, they are not less absurd in their reasonings.
For, having first laid it down that there is no property, and that the
government is the proprietor of everything, they argue, inferentially,
that they have no laws. But if ever there were a people that seem to be
protected with care and circumspection from all arbitrary power, both in
the executive and judicial department, these are the people that seem to
be so protected.
I could show your Lordships that they are so sensible of honor, that
fines are levied and punishment inflicted according to the rank of the
culprit, and that the very authority of the magistrate is dependent on
their rank. That the learned counsel should be ignorant of these things
is natural enough. They are concerned in the gainful part of their
profession.
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