another, directory; whereby the ſubject is inſtructed and enjoined to obſerve thoſe rights, and to abſtain from the commiſſion of thoſe wrongs: a third, remedial; whereby a method is pointed out to recover a man’s private rights, or redreſs his private wrongs: to which may be added a fourth, uſually termed the ſanction, or vindicatory branch of the law; whereby it is ſignified what evil or penalty ſhall be incurred by ſuch as commit any public wrongs, and tranſgreſs or neglect their duty.
With regard to the firſt of theſe, the declaratory part of the municipal law, this depends not ſo much upon the law of revelation or of nature, as upon the wiſdom and will of the legiſlator. This doctrine, which before was ſlightly touched, deſerves a more particular explication. Thoſe rights then which God and nature have eſtabliſhed, and are therefore called natural rights, ſuch as are life and liberty, need not the aid of human laws to be more effectually inveſted in every man than they are; neither do they receive any additional ſtrength when declared by the municipal laws to be inviolable. On the contrary, no human legiſlature has power to abridge or deſtroy them, unleſs the owner ſhall himſelf commit ſome act that amounts to a forfeiture. Neither do divine or natural duties (ſuch as, for inſtance, the worſhip of God, the maintenance of children, and the like) receive any ſtronger ſanction from being alſo declared to be duties by the law of the land. The caſe is the ſame as to crimes and miſdemeſnors, that are forbidden by the ſuperior laws, and therefore ſtiled mala in ſe, ſuch as murder, theft, and perjury; which contract no additional turpitude from being declared unlawful by the inferior legiſlature. For that legiſlature in all theſe caſes acts only, as was before obſerved, in ſubordination to the great lawgiver, tranſcribing and publiſhing his precepts. So that, upon the whole, the declaratory part of the municipal law has no force or operation at all, with regard to actions that are naturally and intrinſically right or wrong.
