CHAP. X.
Of the ancient French Laws.
Book VI.
Chap. 10. & 11.IN the ancient French laws we find the true spirit of monarchy. In cases relating to pecuniary punishments the common people are less severely punished than the nobility[1]. But in criminal[2] cases it is quite the reverse; the nobleman loses his honor and his voice in court, while the peasant, who has no honor to lose, undergoes a corporal punishment.
CHAP. XI.
That when People are virtuous, few Punishments are necessary.
THE people of Rome had some share of probity. Such was the force of this probity, that the legislator had frequently no farther occasion than to point out the right road, to induce them to follow it; one would imagine that instead of precepts it was sufficient to give them counsels.
The punishments of the regal laws and those of the twelve tables were almost all abolished in the time of the republic, in consequence either of the Valerian[3],
- ↑ Suppose for instance, to prevent the execution of a decree, the common people paid a fine of forty sous, and the nobility of sixty Livres: Somme Rule. Book 2. p. 198. edit. Got. of the year 1512.
- ↑ See the council of Peter Desontaines, c. 13. especially the 22d. art.
- ↑ It was made by Valerius Publicola soon after the expulsion of the kings, and was twice renewed, both times by magistrates of the same family, as Livy observes, 1. 10, the question was not to give it a greater force, but to render its injunctions more perfect. Diligentius sanctum, says Livy, ibid.
