To settle property, to suppress false claims, and to regulate the
administration of civil and criminal justice are attempts so difficult
and so useful, that I shall willingly suspend or contract the history
of battles and sieges, to give a larger account of this pacifick
enterprise.

That the king of Prussia has considered the nature and the reasons of
laws, with more attention than is common to princes, appears from his
dissertation on the Reasons for enacting and repealing Laws: a piece
which yet deserves notice, rather as a proof of good inclination than
of great ability; for there is nothing to be found in it more than the
most obvious books may supply, or the weakest intellect discover. Some
of his observations are just and useful; but upon such a subject who
can think without often thinking right? It is, however, not to be
omitted, that he appears always propense towards the side of mercy.
"If a poor man," says he, "steals in his want a watch, or a few
pieces, from one to whom the loss is inconsiderable, is this a reason
for condemning him to death?"

He regrets that the laws against duels have been ineffectual; and is
of opinion, that they can never attain their end, unless the princes
of Europe shall agree not to afford an asylum to duellists, and to
punish all who shall insult their equals, either by word, deed, or
writing. He seems to suspect this scheme of being chimerical. "Yet
why," says he, "should not personal quarrels be submitted to judges,
as well as questions of possession? and why should not a congress be
appointed for the general good of mankind, as well as for so many
purposes of less importance?"

He declares himself with great ardour against the use of torture, and
by some misinformation charges the English that they still retain it.

It is, perhaps, impossible to review the laws of any country without
discovering many defects and many superfluities. Laws often continue,
when their reasons have ceased. Laws made for the first state of the
society continue unabolished, when the general form of life is
changed. Parts of the judicial procedure, which were, at first, only
accidental, become, in time, essential; and formalities are
accumulated on each other, till the art of litigation requires more
study than the discovery of right.

The king of Prussia, examining the institutions of his own country,
thought them such as could only be amended by a general abrogation,
and the establishment of a