we have deviated from the plain Rule of our Nature and turned our Reafon againft itself, in that Proportion have we increafed the Follies and Miseries of Mankind. The more deeply we penetrate into the Labyrinth of Art, the further we find ourselves from thofe Ends for which we entered it. This has happened in almost every Species of Artificial Society, and in all Times. We found, or we thought we found, an Inconvenience in having every Man the Judge of his own Caufe. Therefore Judges were fet up, at firft with difcretionary Powers. But it was foon found a miferable Slavery to have our Lives and Properties precarious, and hanging upon the arbitary Determination of any one Man, or Sett of Men. We flew to Laws as a Remedy for this Evil. By thefe we perfuaded ourselves we might know with fome Certainty upon what Ground we stood. But lo! Differences arose upon the Senfe and Interpretation of these Laws, Thus we were brought back to our old Incertitude. New Laws were made to expound the old ; and new Difficulties arofe upon the new Laws; as Words multiplied,Opportunities of cavilling upon them multiplied alfo. Then Recourfe was had to Notes, Comments, Gloffes, Reports, Refponfa Prudentum, learned Readings: Eagle ftood against Eagle: Authority was fet up against Authority. Some were allured by the modern, others reverenced the ancient. The new were more enlightened, the old were more venerable. Some adopted the Comment, others ftuck to the Text. The Confufion increased, the Mift thickened, until it could be difcovered no longer what was allowed or forbidden, what Things

were

were in Property, and what common. In this Uncertainty (uncertain even to the Profeffors, an Egyptian Darkness to the rest of Mankind) the contending Parties felt themselves more effectually ruined by the Delay than they could have been by the Injuftice of any Decifion. Our Inheritances are become a Prize for Disputation; and Difputes and Litigations are become an Inheritance.

The Profeffors of Artificial Law have always walked hand in hand with the Profeffors of Artificial Theology. As their End in confounding the Reason of Man, and abridging his natural Freedom, is exactly the fame, they have adjusted the Means to that End in a Way entirely fimilar. The Divine thunders out his Anathemas with more Noise and Terror against the Breach of one of his positive Institutions, or the Neglect or fome of his trivial Forms, than against the Neglect or Breach of thofe Duties and Commandments of natural Religion, which, by these Forms and Inftitutions, he pretends to enforce. The Lawyer has his Forms, and his pofitive Inftitutions too, and he adheres to them with a Veneration altogether as religious. The worst Cause cannot be fo prejudicial to the Litigant, as his Advocate's or Attorney's Ignorance or Neglect of these Forms. A Law-fuit is like an ill-managed Dispute, in which the first Object is foon out of Sight, and the Parties end upon a Matter wholly foreign to that on which they began. In a Law-fuit the Queftion is, who has a Right to a certain House or Farm? And this Question daily determined, not upon the Evi

dences

dences of the Right, but upon the Obfervance or Neglect of fome Forms of Words in ufe with the Gentlemen of the Robe, about which there is even amongst themselves such a Disagreement, that the moft experienced Veterans in the Profeffion can never be pofitively affured that they are not mistaken.

Let us expoftulate with thefe learned Sages, thefe Priests of the facred Temple of Juftice. Are we Judges of our own Property? By no means. You then, who are initiated into the Mysteries of the blindfold Goddefs, inform me whether I have a Right to eat the Bread I have earned by the Hazard of my Life, or the Sweat of my Brow? The grave Doctor answers me in the Affirmative: The reverend Serjeant replies in the Negative: The learned Barrifter reafons upon one fide and upon the other, and concludes nothing. What shall I do? An Antagonift ftarts up and preffes me hard. I enter the Field, and retain these three Perfons to defend my Cause. My Caufe, which two Farmers from the Plough could have decided in half an Hour, takes the Court twenty Years. I am, however, at the End of my Labour; and have, in Reward for all my Toil and Vexation, a Judgment in my Favour. But holda fagacious Commander, in the Adverfary's Army has found a Flaw in the Proceeding. My Triumph is turned into Mourning. I have used or, instead of and, or fome Mistake, small in Appearance, but dreadful in its Confequences, and have the whole of my Succefs quafhed in a Writ of Error. I remove my Suit; I fhift from Court to Court; I fly from

Equity to Law, and from Law to Equity; equal Uncertainty attends me every where: And a Miftake, in which I had no Share, decides at once upon my Liberty and Property, fending me from the Court to the Prison, and adjudging my Family to Beggary and Famine. I am innocent, Gentlemen, of the Darkness and Uncertainty of your Science. I never darkened it with abfurd and contradictory Notions, nor confounded it with Chicane and Sophiftry. You have excluded me from any Share in the Conduct of my own Cause; the Science was too deep for me; I acknowledged it; but it was too deep even for yourselves: You have made the Way fo intricate, that you are yourselves loft in it: You err, and you punish me for your Errors.

The Delay of the Law is, your Lordship will tell me, a trite Topic, and which of its Abuses have not been too feverely felt not to be often complained of? A Man's Property is to serve for the Purposes of his Support; and therefore to delay a Determination. concerning that, is the worft Injuftice, because it cuts off the very End and Purpose for which I applied to the Judicature for Relief. Quite contrary in Case of a Man's Life, there the Determination can hardly be too much protracted. Miftakes in this Cafe are as often fallen into as in any other; and if the Judgment is fudden, the Miftakes are the most irretrievable of all others. Of this the Gentlemen of the Robe are themfelves fenfible, and they have brought it into a Maxim: De morte hominis nulla eft eunctatio longa. But what could have induced them

to

to reverfe the Rules and to contradict that Reafon which dictated them, I am utterly unable to guefs. A Point concerning Property, which ought, for the Reafons I juft mentioned, to be most speedily decided, frequently exercifes the Wit of Succeffions of Lawers, for. many Generations. Multa virûm volvens durando fæcula vincit. But the Queftion concerning a Man's Life, that great Question in which no Delay ought to be counted tedious, is commonly determined in twenty-four Hours at the utmoft. It is not to be wondered at, that Injuftice and Abfurdity should be infeparable Companions.

Afk of Politicians the End for which Laws were originally defigned; and they will answer, that the Laws were defigned as a Protection for the Poor and Weak, against the Oppreffion of the Rich and Powerful. But furely no Pretence can be fo ridiculous; a Man might as well tell me he has taken off my Load, because he has changed the Burthen. If the Poor Man is not able to fupport his Suit, according to the vexatious and expenfive Manner eftablished in civilized Countries, has not the Rich as great an Advantage over him as the Strong has over the Weak in a State of Nature? But we will not place the State of Nature, which is the Reign of God, in Competition with Political Society, which is the abfurd Ufurpation of Man. In a State of Nature, it is true, that a Man of fuperior Force may beat or rob me; but then it is true, that I am at full Liberty to defend myself, or make Reprifal by Surprize or by Cunning, or by any other way in which I may be fuperior