CHAP. VII.
Of the Crime of high Treason.
Book XII.
Chap. 7, & 8.IT is determined by the laws of China, that whosoever shews any disrespect to the emperor, is to be punished with death. As they do not mention in what this disrespect consists, every thing may furnish a pretext to take away a man's life, and to exterminate any family whatsoever.
Two persons of that country, who were employed to the court gazette, having inserted some circumstances relating to a certain fact, that were not true; it was pretended that to tell a lye in the court gazette, was a disrespect shewn to the court, in consequence of which they were put to death[1]. A prince of the blood having inadvertently made some mark on a memorial signed with the red pencil by the emperor, it was determined that he had behaved disrespectfully to that prince; which was the cause of one of the most terrible persecutions against that family that ever was recorded in history[2].
If the crime of high treason be indeterminate, this alone is sufficient to make the government degenerate into arbitrary power. I shall descant more largely on this subject, when I come to treat[3] of the composition of laws.
CHAP. VIII.
Of the bad Application of the Name of Sacrilege and high Treason.
IT is likewise a shocking abuse to give the appellation of high treason to an action that does
