ore jealousy in the other sovereign, than the title of King
of France, assumed by our sovereign, did in his most Christian Majesty.

In a government so rude, it cannot be expected that distributive justice
should be regularly administered, and indeed, where there is so little
opposition of interest, in consequence of the facility with which every
appetite and passion is gratified, there can be but few crimes.[36]
There is nothing like money, the common medium by which every want and
every wish is supposed to be gratified by those who do not possess it;
there is no apparently permanent good which either fraud or force can
unlawfully obtain; and when all the crimes that are committed by the
inhabitants of civilized countries, to get money, are set out of the
account, not many will remain: Add to this, that where the commerce with
women is restrained by no law, men will seldom be under any temptation
to commit adultery, especially as one woman is always less preferred to
another, where they are less distinguished by personal decorations, and
the adventitious circumstances which are produced by the varieties of
art, and the refinements of sentiment. That they are thieves is true;
but as among these people no man can be much injured or benefited by
theft, it is not necessary to restrain it by such punishments, as in
other countries are absolutely necessary to the very existence of civil
society. Tupia, however, tells us, that adultery is sometimes committed
as well as theft. In all cases where an injury has been committed, the
punishment of the offender lies with the sufferer: Adultery, if the
parties are caught in the fact, is sometimes punished with death in the
first ardour of resentment; but without circumstances of immediate
provocation, the female sinner seldom suffers more than a beating. As
punishment, however, is enforced by no law, nor taken into the hand of
any magistrate, it is not often inflicted, except the injured party is
the strongest; though the chiefs do sometimes punish their immediate
dependants for faults committed against each other, and even the
dependants of others, if they are accused of any offence committed in
their district.[37]

[Footnote 36: It is impossible not to censure so gross a blunder, if
blunder that may be called, which is alike abhorrent to the truth of
facts and to the validity of all good principle. The language indeed is
so vague, as to admit something like a defence, under the sha