317 73 LOUIS XV. Life and Gallanıries - - full Exposition LYCIDAS, 154 - on the prelent State of Clergymen's Widows TA NAGHTON, authentic Par. Ogden's British Lion roused, IV. ticulars of the Life of, 76 MALAGUIDA, Father, Proceed. ORATORS, 475 22 ORNAMENTS of Churches con- 360 sidered, Postscript to, 75 MATRONS, con Orr's Theory of Religion, 442 475 DAPERS relative to the Rup- Britain, Efy on, 494 I ture with pain, 228 MEMOIS of Mrs. Catherine - Oblervations on ditto, Militia Bill, Observations on, Motives for purfuing a Spanish PARALLEL, 74 PATTEN's Vindication of King 150 Mystery of the Cock Lane PERSII Saturæ, cum notis, 512 157 PINDARIC Ode on Beauty, 320 157 PINDARICO PLAIN and easy Road to the Ature, de la 143, 3:6 Poetry, Art of, on a new Plan, 319 , Webb's Remarks on 282 149 68 PRESBYTERS and Deacons, not 387 commissioned to preach without 65 PRIESTLY's English Grammar, 27 PROCEEDINGS of the States of Holland, relating to the Dil- 76 against Father OBSERVATIONS on the new Mi 'Malagrida, On 'the Papers PRPER Object of the prelent 73 22 386 PROPERTY, plain Argument to Single Sermons, 80, 159, 399 Thew that we have no Law for Sketch of the present Times, PRUSIJA, King of, military In- , SLACK'S Address to , 154 structions by, 58, 15 SOBIESKI, John, King of Po. Jand, Coyer's History of, 161 Q. 232 of Selma, verfified, from 79 D ECRUITÉR for Germany, - Papers relative to the REMARKS on a Letter to a dis. - Causes of the War be. 78 tween Great Britain and, 382 REMISSION, Scripture Doctrine SPANISH War, Arguments a- Remontranies au Parliment de Motives for, ibid. 462 STACKHOUSE's Greek Grammar, 74 475 RIDICULOUS Stories, Collection 318 SYDENHAM's Plato, the Ban- Rocer's present State of Den- quet, 392 ROUSSEAU on the Inequality TAles from Fontaine, &c. RutherFORTH's Letter to Ken- TAYLOR's Scripture Account of 395 Prayer, second Edition, 343 Kennicoti's Chevalier John, Tra- SCRIPTURE Doctrine of Thoughts on the Times, 159 SCROPE on the Lord's Supper, dern Travel. 238 Tragi-Comic Memoirs of the Sharpe's second Argument in War, Defence of Christianity, 305 Tristram Shandy, Vol. V, 503 TUMULTS in Ireland considered, Walpole's Anecdotes of Paint. : 318 ing in England, 241 TURNER's Gauger's Infructor, War, Tragi-comic Memoirs of 118 TYRTÆUs, Elegies of, '52 Warner's Remarks on Fingal, .157 V. WATKINSON'S Esay on Economy, - 387 TTAILLANT'S Catalogue of Webe's Remarks on the Beauties V foreign Books, 238 of Poetry, 282 VINDICATION, full, of the E complete Annuitant, of 320 UNIVERSAL Restitution, a Scrip. Whitehead's Charge to the fure Doctrine, 181 Poets, 222 UNIVERSITY Education, De- ---- - School for Lo. fećts of, 234 vers, Y. · W. V EARLY Chronicle, 477 Alker's Introduction to Y Young's Resignation, a V Self-inow edge, 77 Poem, 388 157 462 MONTHLY REVIEW, For J A N U A R Y, 1762. Paapalaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa The Frederician Code : Or, A Body of Law for the Dominions of the King of Prusia. Founded on Reason, and the Conftitution of the Country. Translated from the French. - 8vo. 2 vols.' 12 s. boards. Edinburgh printed for Donaldson, and sold by Richardson in London.... TT was a saying of Solon's, that he had given the Athenians I the best Laws they were able to bear : and it is possible that the Author of the present Code may, upon this principle, justify his institutions. But they who ignorantly commend them as a fit model for this Kingdom,' do not' deserve to enjoy the superior advantages, to which the Laws of England eñtitle them. Indeed the chief, if not only excellence for which the admirers of this Code have extolled it, is its suppofed brevity ;. and they inconsiderately express their wifhes to reduce the Laws of this kingdom within the narrow dimensions they would prescribe : without reflecting, that they would thereby at the same time; render their property and personal liberties more precarious and insecure. : Lim "Plo · In the days of Alfred, the English Laws were much more fhort and compendious than the Pruffian Body, now under consideration. But the Alfredian Code would ill suit the nation, now that it has happily extended the wide circle of trade and commerce, and enlarged the basis of public liberty. As focial and commercial intercourse expand, a van.. riety of cases daily revolve, which must either be provided for by a particular and express Law, or referred to discretionary decision. A people however, jealous of liberty, will be cautious to entrust as little as possible to wbitrary discre“. rion. In a free kingdom, the Judges are but the mouths af VOL. XXVI. while vere penaw of the couen prerogative of his Refcripts. the Law, and the King, no more than the supreme minister to execute its decrees. In such a state, therefore, the Laws cannot be so simple and concise as in those governments, where much is left to the discretion of the judge without any other appeal, than to the absolute will of the Sovereign. It is true that, under a wise and good Monarch, little or no inconvenience may arise from such summary institutions; but it might be expected that a Prince who, like his Pruffian Majesty, is supposed to be no less a philosopher than a statelman, should have a juster sense of Legislation, than to institute, what is more properly a Government of Men, than of Laws. This Code, which copies, and, in some points, improves the Roman Law, docs nevertheless retain, and even multiply, its most capital defects. The King prohibits, under severe penalties, any Commentaries to be made, either on the whole Law of the country, or on any part of it. In short, he reserves to himself the prerogative of being the ultimate and fole Commentator on the Laws; and his Refcripts; like those of the Roman Emperors, can make that legal, which is not to be justified under the sanction either of Law or Reason. The consequence of such unbounded authority must be, thắt when a weak or vicious Prince succeeds to the throne, Juftice will not only be partially distributed, but openly bought and sold, as it was once in this Kingdom, especially in the time of the Norman Princes, when every thing appertaining to Judicature was so avowedly venal, that our Kings accepted bribes from the suitors, which were called by the soft name of presents, and that with so little sense of honour or decorum, that these shameful items are transmitted on record, with the scandalous purposes for which they were received. · But true wisdom and unaffected philosophy would have dictated a more liberal and benévolent system, than this of the Frederician Code. They would have directed our Royal Legislator to have consulted the future and permanent good of his people, by, endeavouring to secure them against those abuses in his fucceffors, from which his own personal virtues may perhaps protect them during his reign. A Prince, who instead of labouring to confirm and to extend arbitrary prerogatives, has the courage to limit his own power, displays the noblest proofs of greatness. All the pomp which awaits absolute dominion, all the triumphs of heroism, are little, compared io luch a philosophical facrifice, made on the principles of general benevolence and philanthropy. This is the true.: .. . Phi |