when we commit injury and when we suffer it. It fixes certain marks
upon actions, by which we are admonished to do or to forbear them. "Qui
sibi bene temperat in licitis," says one of the fathers, "nunquam cadet
in illicita:" he who never intromits at all, will never intromit with
fraudulent intentions.

The relaxation of the law against vitious intromission has been very
favourably represented by a great master of jurisprudence[1], whose
words have been exhibited with unnecessary pomp, and seem to be
considered as irresistibly decisive. The great moment of his authority
makes it necessary to examine his position: 'Some ages ago,' says he,
'before the ferocity of the inhabitants of this part of the island was
subdued, the utmost severity of the civil law was necessary, to restrain
individuals from plundering each other. Thus, the man who intermeddled
irregularly with the moveables of a person deceased, was subjected to
all the debts of the deceased, without limitation. This makes a branch
of the law of Scotland, known by the name of vitious intromission: and
so rigidly was this regulation applied in our courts of law, that the
most trifling moveable abstracted mala fide, subjected the intermeddler
to the foregoing consequences, which proved, in many instances, a most
rigorous punishment. But this severity was necessary, in order to subdue
the undisciplined nature of our people. It is extremely remarkable,
that, in proportion to our improvement in manners, this regulation has
been gradually softened, and applied by our sovereign court with a
sparing hand.'

I find myself under the necessity of observing, that this learned and
judicious writer has not accurately distinguished the deficiencies and
demands of the different conditions of human life, which, from a degree
of savageness and independence, in which all laws are vain, passes, or
may pass, by innumerable gradations, to a state of reciprocal benignity,
in which laws shall be no longer necessary. Men are first wild and
unsocial, living each man to himself, taking from the weak, and losing
to the strong. In their first coalitions of society, much of this
original savageness is retained. Of general happiness, the product of
general confidence, there is yet no thought. Men continue to prosecute
their own advantages by the nearest way; and the utmost severity of the
civil law is necessary to restrain individuals from plundering each
other. The restraints then necessary