concluding, that in the infancy of the jurifprudence of all nations, promifes, pactions, covenants, and agreements of every denomination, were rendered effectual merely by the efficacy of motives of private convenience and interest. If either of thefe confiderations fhould, by any of the contracting parties, be found to be wanting, he might refile, or depart from the agreement; which confifting in words, without the intervention of things, was held to be ineffectual, or not deemed worthy of legal compulfion.

THE accounts given by antient authors with regard to the love of justice obferved among early focieties of mankind, ought to be viewed with caution. For a confiderable time after private property is acknowledged, and rights of exclufive use established; a mere regard to the virtues of faith, honefty, and veracity, in civil tranfactions, has little influence on the minds of rude men. The beauty of thofe virtues, which are so much cherished, and made the objects of

eulogy,

eulogy, in civilized times, does not outweigh, in that state of society which is denominated barbarous, confiderations of immediate convenience or profit. The barbarian being improvident with regard to futurity, distant prospects of advantage make but a faint impreffion upon his mind. Unable or unwilling to carry his reasonings beyond the immediate occurrence, he readily feizes the gratification of the moment, and confiders himfelf as bound by no tie which contributes not to a visible and nearly approaching benefit..

IN civilized fociety, a promife is as binding upon a man of honour and refpectability of character, as an obligation guarded by the most formal folemnities. A. faithful adherence to engagements figures fo powerfully in the minds of all men who feel in their just extent the relative duties which one citizen owes to another, that a departure from confenfual engagements is held to be an unequivocal test of a depraved

character,

character, the contamination of which is ftudioufly avoided by every man of fair reputation. The beauties of the virtues of fidelity, integrity, and veracity, can give delight, and be relished as a pure sentimental enjoyment by men of nice perceptions and delicate fentiments, who can fympathife with the self-approved feelings of confcious worth. The dull, the cold, and the phlegmatic confirm, by expreffions of approbation, the utility of those moral qualities which constitute rectitude of conduct. Perfons of every defcription combine in bestowing praise on the poffeffor of thofe virtues which merit the confidence of men. Whatever qualities mankind, from the natural manners of the particular flate of society in which they exift, are difpofed to exalt as objects of praise, will in the first degree gain the attention of men of the most valuable characters. The motives which excite a rude man, in the first stages of barbarism, to acquire the reputation of the most distinguished thief and robber, would,

in refined fociety, operate upon the fame mind as incitements to the practice of the most approved virtues..

WHILE men lived in fmall communities, enjoying in common the produce of a definite portion of the ground which they poffeffed, the nature of their condition could give little occafion to any fort of traffic. As foon as fubjects of use came to be confidered as the property of individuals, that fpecies of commerce which confifted in barter or exchange of commodities. took place. This mode of negotiation made the agreement efficacious at the time it was entered into, as the reciprocal caufes of the contract were immediately attended with their designed effect. But a contract which confifted in barely a mutual promife, and amounted only to a verbal agreement, was destitute of the efficacy of what the civilians term a real contract. The utility of enforcing verbal covenants appeared

not

not to be of fufficient magnitude to engage the

attention.

THE fenfe of thofe fo much and fo juftly prized moral qualities, which preferve civilized fociety from anarchy and confusion, was inadequate to procure performance of verbal obligations. The Galic language furnishes a curious proof of this propofition. The word used to denote pledge, depofite, wager, and promife, is Geall. When expreffed to fignify promife, it is pronounced with an aspiration, as if written Gealla. The verb Geall, which fignifies to promise, is pronounced without any afpiration. Hence it is evident, that among the antient Celts a promife was not held to be a binding obligation, and that verbal contracts were deemed ineffectual without the intervention of a pledge; fo that the obligatory sense of words derived its fole efficacy from the fubject pledged in fecurity of performance.

This

notion