Book VI.
Chap. 13.they become hardened to punishment; that their slaves must not be too roughly used, because they immediately put themselves in a posture of defence. Would not one imagine that they might easily have judged of the spirit which ought to reign in their political and civil government, from that which should prevail in their domestic concerns?
A wise legislator would have endeavoured to reclaim people s minds by a just temperature of punishments and rewards; by maxims of philosophy, morality, and religion, adapted to these characters; by a just application of the rules of honor, and by the enjoyment of a constant happiness and soft tranquillity of life. But these are springs to which despotic power is a stranger; it may abuse itself, and that is all it can do: in Japan it has made its utmost effort, and has surpassed even itself in cruelty.
As the minds of the people by this means grew wild and intractable, they were obliged to have recourse to the most horrid severity. This is the origin, this the spirit of the laws of Japan. They had more fury however than force. They succeeded in the extirpation of Christianity; but such unaccountable efforts are a proof of their impotence. They wanted to establish a good polity, and they have shewn greater marks of their weakness.
We have only to read the relation of the interview between the emperor and the Deyro at Meaco[1]. The number of those who were suffocated or murdered in that city by ruffians, is incredible; young maids and boys were carried off by force, and found afterwards exposed in public places, at unseasonable hours, quite naked and sown in
- ↑ Collection of voyages that contributed to the establishment of the East India Company. Tom. 5. p.2.
