213

A PROPOSAL for a New DIGEST

I.

"A

of the LAWS.

MONG the Degrees and Acts of heroical Honour, the firft Kings to peror fecond is the Perfon and Merit of a Law-giver. Princes, petuate their who govern well, are Fathers of the People: but if a Fa-People's Good by Laws. ther educate his Son well, or allow him liberally while he lives; yet leaves him nothing at his Death, whereby both he and his Defcendants may be the better; the Care and Piety of a Father is not here compleat. So Kings, who make a Portion of an Age happy by their good Government; yet, if they do not make Teftaments, whereby a Perpetuity of Good may defcend to their Country, they are but mortal, and tranfitory Benefactors.

Princes.

2. If any of the meaner Politicians, whofe Talent it is to fee the worst The Use of of things, fhall think, that Laws are but Cobwebs; that good Princes may Laws, with do well without them; and that bad ones will not value them much; they regard to judge neither well nor wifely. For certainly, good Laws are fome Bridle to bad Princes; and as a Wall about Government. And if Tyrants fometimes make a Breach into them, yet they mollify even Tyranny itfelf; as Solon's Laws did the Tyranny of Pififtratus: and befides, they commonly rife again, upon the firft Advantage of better times.

Memory of

3. Other Means to perpetuate the Memory, and Merits of Sovereign Laws the best Princes, are inferior to this. The Building of Temples, Tombs, Palaces, Means of perTheatres, and the like, are honourable things; and look big upon Pofte-petuating the rity but Conftantine the Great gave a proper Appellation to fuch Works, Princes. when he call'd Trajan, who was a great Builder, by the Name of Parietaria, or Wall-Flower; because his Name was upon fo many Walls. Adrian's Vein was better; for he determined to wrestle a Fall with Time: and going frequent Progreffes over all his Empire; whenever he found any Decays of Bridges, or Highways, or Cuts of Rivers and Sewers, or Walls, or Banks, or the like, he gave fubftantial Orders for their Repair. He alfo granted Multitudes of Charters and Liberties for the Comfort of decay'd Companies and Corporations: fo that his Bounty ftrove with the Ruins of Time. Yet tho this was an excellent Difpofition, it reached, in effect, but to the Shell and Outfide of a Commonwealth it avail'd nothing to Virtue or Vice. A bad Man might take the Benefit and Ease

:

of

• See below, §. 20.

Examples of the Thing in Hiftory.

The Kings of
Rome.

The Decemvirs.

Cæfar.

of the Ways and Bridges, as well as a good one; and a bad People might purchafe good Charters. The better Works of Perpetuity in Princes, are doubtlefs thofe that wash the Infide of the Cup: fuch as Foundations of Colleges, and Lectures for Learning, and the Education of Youth; Foundations and Inftitutions of Orders, and Fraternities, for Nobleness, Enterprize, Obedience, and the like. Yet thefe too are but like. Plantations of Orchards and Gardens, in Spots of Ground, here and there; they do not Till the whole Kingdom, and make it fruitful, like the establishing of good Laws and Ordinances; which renders a whole Nation as a well regulated College or Foundation.

4. This kind of Work is rare enough in Hiftory, to fhew it excellent; yet not fo rare as to make it fufpected for impoffible, inconvenient, or unfafe. Mofes, who gave Laws to the Hebrews, being the Scribe of God, is fitter to be mentioned for Honour to other Law-givers, than to be rank'd among them. Minos, Lycurgus, and Solon, are Examples for the Themes of Grammar-Scholars. For ancient Perfonages and Characters, as Times go now, become Children again; tho the Parable of Pindar is true, that the beft of things is Water: for common and trivial Things are the beft, and are rather defpifed thro Pride, because they are vulgar, than for any just Cause. Certainly, the Laws of thofe three Legiflators had great Prerogatives: first, the Prerogative of Fame; becaufe they were a Pattern among the Grecians; fecondly, that of lafting; for they continued longest without Alteration; and thirdly, that of a Spirit of Revival, to be often oppreffed, and often restored.

5. Among the feven Kings of Rome, four were Law-givers: for it is juftly obferved, that never State was fo well fwaddled in its Infancy, as the Roman, by virtue of their first Kings; which was a principal Caufe of the wonderful Growth it afterwards received.

6. The Decemvir's Laws were Laws upon Laws, and not Originals; for they grafted Laws of Greece upon a Roman Stock of Laws and Cuftoms; but fuch was their Succefs, that the twelve Tables they compiled, were the main Body of the Laws, which framed and wielded the great Body of that State. Thefe lafted long, with fome Supplementals, and the Pretorian Edicts in Albo; which were, in refpect of Laws, as WritingTables in refpect of Brafs; the one to be put in and out, whilft the other is permanent. Lucius Cornelius Sylla reformed the Laws of Rome: for he had three Singularities, which never Tyrant had besides; viz. (1.) that he was a Lawgiver; (2.) that he fided with the Nobility; and, (3.) that he turned private Man, not thro Fear, but Confidence.

7. Cæfar, long after, defired to imitate him only in the firft; for otherwife he relied upon new Men; and for refigning his Power, Seneca defcribes him right: Cafar foon fheathed his Sword, but never laid it afided. And himfelf took it upon him, faying in Scorn of Sylla's Refignation; Sylla knew no Letters, he could not dictate. But for the Part of a Law-giver,

Cicero gives him the Attribute; If you had ask'd Cæfar what he did in the Gown, he would have anfwered, that he made many excellent Laws. His Nephew Auguftus trod the fame Steps, but with deeper Print, because of his long and peaceful Reign; whereof one of the Poets of his Age fays; That when he had given Peace to the Earth, he bent his Mind to the Confideration of Rights and Privileges, and the enacting of just Laws 8.

8. From that time there was fuch a Race of Wit and Authority, be- Juftinian. tween the Commentaries and Decifions of the Lawyers, and the Edicts of the Emperors, that both Laws and Lawyers were out of Breath. Whereupon Juftinian in the End recompiled the whole, and made a Body of fuch Laws as might be wielded; which himself gloriously and truly calls, the raifing of a Temple facred to Justice; built indeed on the former Ruins of Books, as Materials, and fome new Conftitutions of his own.

9. In Athens they had Sexviri, as fchines obferves, or Standing-Com- The Sexviri of miffioners, who watched to fee what Laws grew improper for the Times, Athens. and what new Law in any Branch croffed a former; and fo ex officio propofed their Repeal.

10. King Edgar collected the Laws of this Kingdom; and gave them King Edgar. the Strength of a Faggot bound; whereas they formerly were difperfed. And that was more Glory to him, than his failing about this Ifland, with a potent Fleet which was, as the Scripture fays; the way of a Ship in the Sea; it vanifhed, but this lasts.

11. Alphonfo the Wife, the Ninth of that Name, King of Caftile, Alphonfo of compiled the Digeft of the Laws of Spain, entitled the Siete Partidas; Caftile. an excellent Work, which he finished in feven Years. And as Tacitus well obferves, that the Capitol, tho built in the Beginnings of Rome, was yet fit for the great Monarchy that came after; fo that Building of Laws fuffices for the Greatnefs of the Spanish Empire, which has fince enfued.

12. Lewis XI. had it at heart to have made one conftant Law of France, Lewis XI. of extracted out of the Civil Roman Law, and the Customs of the Provinces, France. which are various, and the King's Edits, which, with the French, are Statutes. Surely he might have done well, if, as he brought the Crown from Page, which is his own Expreffion, so he had brought his People from Lackey; that they might not run up and down for their Laws to the Civil Law, the Ordinances, the Cuftoms, the Discretions of Courts, and the Difcourfes of Philofophers, as they do.

13. King Henry VIII. in the twenty-feventh Year of his Reign, was Henry VIII. authorized by Parliament, to nominate thirty-two Commiffioners, part of England. ecclefiaftical, and part temporal, to purge the Canon Law, and make it agreeable to the Law of God, and the Law of the Land; but it took no effect for the Acts of that King were commonly rather Proffers and Rumours, than well grounded, or well purfued. But I may err in producing

fo

f Cafar, fi ab eo quereretur, quid egiffet in Toga, Leges refpondiffet multas & præclaras tulisse.

& Pace data Terris, animum ad civilia vertit

Jura fuum; Legefque tulit juftiffimus author.

The Laws of England characterized.

Require Amendment.

The Work recommended to

fo many Examples. For as Cicero faid to Cæfar, fo may I fay to your Majefty, Nil vulgare te dignum videri poffith. And indeed, the thing well understood, is far from vulgar: for the Laws of moft Kingdoms and States, have been like Buildings of many Pieces; and patch'd up from time to time, according to Occafions, without Frame or Model.

14. For the Laws of England; to fpeak my Opinion, without Partiality either to my Profeffion or Country; as to the Matter and Nature of them, I hold them wife, just, and moderate: they give to God; they give to Cæfar; they give to the Subject what appertains. True, they are as mix'd as our Language; compounded of British, Roman, Saxon, Danish, and Norman Customs: And furely as our Language is thereby fo much the richer; our Laws are likewife by that Mixture the more compleat.

15. Nor does this attribute lefs to them, than those who would have them to have stood the fame in all Mutations: for no Tree is fo good first fet, as by tranfplanting and grafting. But tho the Matter of them be excellent, they certainly require Amendment in point of Form; which to reduce and perfect, I hold as one of the greatest Dowries that can be conferred upon this Kingdom.

16. This Work, as for its Excellency, it is worthy of your Majefty's King James, Act and Times; fo it has fome Circumftance of Propriety agreeable to on account of your Perfon. God has bleffed your Majefty with Pofterity; and I am not his Iffue. of the Opinion, that childlefs Kings are fitteft to fupply Perpetuity of Generations, by Perpetuity of noble Acts; but contrarywife, that they who leave Pofterity, are the more interested in the Care of future Times; that as well their Offspring, as their People, may participate of their Merit.

And learned Times.

The Author's Proposal to affift therein.

17. Your Majefty is a great Mafter in Juftice and Judicature; and it were a Pity the Fruit of that your Virtue fhould not be transmitted to fucceeding Ages. Your Majefty alfo reigns in learned Times; the more, no doubt, in regard of your own Perfection in Learning; and by your Patronage thereof. And it has been the Misfortune of Works of this Nature, that the lefs learned Times have wrought upon the more learned; which now will not be the Cafe.

18. As for myself, the Law was my Profeffion; to which I am a Debtor fome little Helps I have of other Arts; which may give Form to Matter. And I have now, by God's merciful Chaftizement, and by his fpecial Providence, Time and Leifure, to put my Talent, or half Talent, or what it is, to fuch Exchanges, as may perhaps exceed the Interest of an active Life. Therefore, as in the beginning of my Troubles, I offered your Majefty to take pains in the Hiftory of England; and in compiling a Method and Digeft of your Laws; I have, in fome measure, performed the firft, which refted only upon myfelf; and now, in all Humility, renew the Offer of this latter, which will require Help and Affiftance; if it fhall stand with your Majefty's good Pleasure to employ my Service therein.

That nothing vulgar feems worthy of you.

As having now publifhed his Hiftory of King Henry VII.

19. To