to be
'_sufficiently obvious_.'

"This exception of the British law was _infectious_; it spread into
France, whose government adopted the same provision by way of
_reprisal_."

Mr. Adams then read from Emerigon, the principal authority of French
lawyers on insurance, who denies the principles of the English statute;
and M. Pothier, not a mere lawyer, but a philosopher and moralist, who
protests against this doctrine, and appeals to the eternal laws of
morality. He then cites the second volume _Term Reports_, p. 164, in
which Judge Buller states, "I have heard Lord Mansfield say that the
reason of that allowance was to favor the smuggling of bullion from
those countries." On which Mr. Adams remarks:

"This is the sum of the whole matter. Judge Buller heard Lord
Mansfield say that the object of the exception in regard to Spain
and Portugal was to encourage--yes, to _encourage_--the smuggling
trade. The object was that smugglers should not only escape the
effect of their villany, but should be actually encouraged by
government in its perpetration.

"I think I have now established the position which I assumed, that
the lawfulness of violating the revenue laws of other nations is a
principle of English law,--a principle sanctioned by the Legislature
and the judicial courts of Great Britain,--but one which the best
elementary writers, proceeding on the great and eternal principles
of morality, have condemned as a false principle; and I have thought
it necessary to do this with a view to trace these frauds upon our
revenue, committed by British subjects, to what I believe to be
their original source in the false morality in the English
Parliament and English judges. What is the natural effect of the
promulgation of such principles by such authority? What can it be
but to encourage frauds on the revenue of other nations? When a
principle like this goes out, sanctioned with the legislative
authority, it will have its effect on the nation.

"'_Quid leges sine moribus._' The whole moral principle of a nation
is contaminated by the legislative authorization and judicial
sanction of a practice dishonest in itself, which necessarily
includes not merely a permission, but a stimulant, to perjury.
If an English merchant, subscribing to this principle, goes to
establish himself in a foreign country, he goes as an