14 Nov 1804

Evidence

Circumstantial

Ch. Supernatural

§.3 Ordeal

§ 3. Trial by Ordeal - i.e. by fraud.

Come us now to /next comes/ the ordeal class. Walking blindfold or with the appearance of being blindfold in a labyrinth of red hot ploughshares: drawing a ring out of the bottom of a cauldron of water which boils with or without heat: drinking red water with or without poison in it. In these ways and a thousand others you prove adultery or chastity, bloody hands or clean ones, witchcraft or non-witchcraft - anything you please.

How many superior /neater/ modes of [...?] the dirty[?] /doing justice/ would have been invoked and [...?] by [...?] or [...?]!

Duels and Ordeals together out of the ... close printed paper of the Esprit des Lois. Montesquieu employs dull ones upon these murders and [...?]. He forgets not to find names: [...?] in on the ground of law the boundaries between right and wrong should fall[?] in any point of of being as indistinct as possible.

1) and of the few [...?] that have any thing to do with law

2) He describes, reflects [...?].