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CRIMES AND PUNISHMENTS.
lxxvii
conſtitute a full proof. Upon this principle it was, that poor Calas was condemned to the wheel.
CHAP. XXIII.
The Idea of Reformation.
MAGISTRATES are in themſelves ſo reſpectable, that the inhabitants of the only country in which they are venal, ſincerely pray to be delivered from this cuſtom: they wiſh that the civilian may by his merit eſtabliſh that juſtice, which in his writings he hath ſo nobly defended. We may then poſſibly hope to ſee a regular and uniform ſyſtem of laws.
Shall the law of the provinces be always at variance with the law in the capital? Shall a man be right in Brittany, and wrong in Languedoc? Nay, there are as many laws as there are towns; and even in the ſame parliament, the maxims of
