not necessarily included; & supposing the definition to

matter: on the obligation of unconscious

have been just (which it is not) supposing it not to being: on

acts of superiority exercised, and

have mistaken the foundation of Law, for

inferiority allowed, by one, and the same

the Law itself what followed would have been being to himself?

On the free agency of a

consistent enough. But it was a strange attempt being, who is

confined by absolute necessity?

indeed to tack these inferences to our Author's definition of Law.

— To make God for instance +

+ Vol. 1 p. 39

prescribe

Laws to himself: that is, be at once

his own

Superior & Inferior: Master & Man: To make

Stones feel obligation; or to make man choose without

choice: will without volition.

The professed design of

our Author is to

methodise & explain" a science which had been hitherto but little

cultivated. — Quod dedit principium

adveniens? I shall leave the reader to answer this question.

Horace too of old talked much about

the

lucidus ordo

. And yet it was reserved to a great Genius

of our own to discover

1800 years afterwards that there was any order at all, in the

very book where this phrase occurs. The

he recommends it. Perhaps our learned Commentator may one day

meet with as able a friend.

At He seems to be a great Admirer of the Ancients

truth

and

9
Similar Items
  • Title: [To be copied and, as a witty albeit a wicked]
    Description: To be copied and, as a witty albeit a wicked

    Book x xpreface to the translation of the white Bull printed for Bew. 12: 1774. observes, "though the Ancients

    "had ten Gods & Goddesses for verse,

    "they had not one for method." —

    Our learned Author is a great admirer Then as

    of the Ancients. —

    10
  • Title: [16 April 1804 Evidence Forthcomingness]
    Description: 16 April 1804

    Evidence

    Forthcomingness

    Ch.4. Misprision

    §.2. Rules

    Rule 9. In the list of offences, the non-delation of which is made penal, no offence ought to be [...?] of the number of those, the mischievousness of which is constituted solely or principally by their publicity. Examples.

    1. Irregularities of the venereal appetite.

    2. Defamation unless /except/ it be where by writing or otherwise the imputation is already public - diffused through the body of the community, and nothing remains to be known but the personal description of the author or criminally-conscious propagator. N.B. In this case however, the obligation of giving information should not be extended to any individual case, until in that individual judgment pronouncing the criminality of the imputation had been pronounced and publicised for this purpose. Why? 1. because in no system of established law is any tolerably precise definition of the offence of defamation to be found. 2. Because, supposing such definition established, it would in many instances be matter of great doubt whether the individual imputation in question the supposed libel (in the case where the defamatory discourse is in writing) comes within the definition so laid down.
  • Title: [1818 June 18 Parl. Reform Bill]
    Description: 1818 June 18

    Parl. Reform Bill

    Abregé

    VIII Penal Securities

    5

    Included in the task of proposing /furnishing/ /providing/ a definition of

    defamation as applied to this purpose would be that of providing a definition of

    defamation at large defamation considered as applied to any purpose: that is /and in

    so doing/ of giving a solution to what seems to be the most difficult problem

    afforded /that is to be found/ in the whole field of legislation.

    {According to some men, the solution is not only difficult but impossible: in other

    words to distinguish by any pre-appointed description in this case him who is /the/

    criminal from him who is innoxious, the guilty from the not guilty is plainly

    impossible. Supposing this to be the case, the practical consequence seems to be –

    punish neither.}

    Punish no man till you yourself know what it is you punish him for: punish no man as

    for one offence till by the description you have given of the offence, you have put

    it in every man’s power to avoid your punishment. Such are the rules which seem to be

    /present themselves as being/ prescribed by common honesty and common sense: {but}

    widely different from both is common law.