F.

I see the wickedness more plainly than the folly; the consequence staring one in the face: for, certainly, if men can claim no RIGHTS, they cannot justly complain of any

WRONGS.

H.

Most assuredly. But your last is almost an identical proposition; and you are not accustomed to make such. What do you mean by the words RIGHT and WRONG?

F.

What do I mean by those words? What every other person means by them.

And what is that?

H.

F.

Nay, you know that as well as I do.

H.

Yes. But not better: and therefore not at all.

F.

Must we always be seeking after the meaning of words?

H.

Of important words we must, if we wish to avoid important error. The meaning of these words especially is of the greatest consequence to mankind; and seems to have been strangely neglected by those who have made the most use of them.

F.

The meaning of the word RIGHT?-Why-It is used so variously, as substantive, adjective, and adverb; and has such apparently different significations (I think they reckon between thirty and forty), that I should hardly

imagine any one single explanation of the term would be applicable to all its uses.

We say-A man's RIGHT.

A RIGHT Conduct.

A RIGHT reckoning.
A RIGHT line.

The RIGHT road.

To do RIGHT.

To be in the RIGHT.

To have the RIGHT on one's side.

The RIGHT hand.

RIGHT itself is an abstract idea: and, not referring to any sensible objects, the terms which are the representatives of abstract ideas are sometimes very difficult to define or explain.

H.

Oh! Then you are for returning again to your convenient abstract ideas; and so getting rid of the question.

F.

No. I think it worth consideration. Let us see how Johnson handles it. He did not indeed acknowledge any RIGHTS of the people; but he was very clear concerning Ghosts and Witches, all the mysteries of divinity, and the sacred, indefeasible, inherent, hereditary RIGHTS of Monarchy. Let us see how he explains the term.

RIGHT-
RIGHT-

RIGHT

No. He gives no explanation*:-Except of RIGHT hand.

*Johnson is as bold and profuse in assertion, as he is shy and

H.

How does he explain that?

F.

He says, RIGHT hand means" Not the Left."

H.

You must look then for LEFT hand. What says he there?

F.

He says LEFT- -" sinistrous, Not right."

H.

Aye. So he tells us again that RIGHT is-" Not wrong," and WRONG is" Not right*."

But seek no further for intelligence in that quarter; where nothing but fraud, and cant, and folly is to be found

sparing in explanation. He says that RIGHT means—“ True.” Again, that it means—" passing true judgment,” and-" passing a judgment according to the truth of things." Again, that it means -"Happy.” And again, that it means—“ Perpendicular.” And again, that it means—“ In a great degree.”

All false, absurd, and impossible.

* Our lawyers give us equal satisfaction. Say they—“ DROIT est, ou lun ad chose que fuit tolle d'auter per Tort; le challenge ou le claim de luy que doit aver ceo, est terme DROIT."

"RIGHT is, where one hath a thing that was taken from another wrongfully; the challenge or claim of him that ought to have it, is called RIGHT."-Termes de la Ley.

[See how Dr. Taylor sweats, in his chapter of LAW and RIGHT, in his Elements of Civil Law.

"JUS is an equivocal word, and stands for many senses according to its different use and acceptation. Some lawyers reckon up near forty. From whence it follows that the Emperor and his

-misleading, mischievous folly; because it has a sham appearance of labour, learning, and piety.

RIGHT is no other than RECT-um (Regitum), the past participle of the Latin verb Regere*. Whence in Italian you have RITTO; and from Dirigere, DIRITTO, DRITTO:

lawyers, who begin their works with definition, would have done better, if they had proceeded more philosophico, and distinguished before they had defined.

"Therefore in this great ambiguity of signification, what relief can be expected, must be had from the most simple and natural distribution; and this is what I am endeavouring."

Taylor's Elements of Civil Law, page 40. "JURI operam daturam, prius nosse oportet, unde nomen JURIS descendat."-Ib. pag. 55.

"Jus generale est: sed Lex juris est species. Jus ad non scripta etiam pertinet, Leges ad Jus scriptum." So says Servius, ad Virg. 1. En. 511. In this Dr. Taylor thinks Servius mistaking. I think the Doctor greatly mistaking, and Servius a good expositor.]

* It cannot be repeated too often, that, in Latin, G should always be pronounced as the Greek I'; and C as the Greek K. If Regere had been pronounced in our manner, i. e. Redjere; its past participle would have been Redjitum, Retchtum, not Rectum. And if Facere, instead of Fakere, had been pronounced Fassere; its past participle would have been Fassitum, Fastum ; not Fakitum, Fak

tum.

[XEIP, MANUS. Xeip-ev-Xesp-epe, i. e. Ger-ere. Rem, or Res-gerere, Re-gerere Re-gere. So Gerere-Gessi-Re-gessi, Regsi, Rexi.

"Et quidem, initio civitatis nostræ, populus, sine Lege certa, sine Jure certo, primum agere instituit; omniaque MANU a regibus gubernabantur." Dis. lib. 1. Tit. 2. lex 2. § 1.

"MANUS (says Dr. Taylor) is generally taken for power or authority, for an absolute, despotic, or unlimited controul. So Cicero (pro Quintio) Omnes quorum in alterius MANU vita posita est, sæpius illud cogitant, quod possit is, cujus in DITIONE et POTES

whence the French have their antient DROICT, and their modern DROIT. The Italian DRITTO and the French DROIT being no other than the past participle Direct-um *.

TATE sunt, quam quid debeat, facere.' And Seneca (iii Controv.) —' Nemo potest alium in sua MANU habere, qui ipse in aliena est.' To bring home the word therefore, and to our purpose, MANUS, when applied to government, is that arbitrary kind of administration, which depends rather upon the will of one, than the consent of many."-Taylor's Elements of Civil Law, pag. 6.]

*This important word RECTUM is unnoticed by Vossius. And of the etymology of JUSTUM he himself hazards no opinion. What he collects from others concerning Rego and Jus, will serve to let the reader know what sort of etymology he may expect from them on other occasions.

"REGO, et Rex (quod ex Regis contractum) quibusdam placet esse a few, id est, facio. Isidorus Regem ait dici a recte agendo. Sed hæc Stoica est allusio. Nam planum est esse a Rego. Hoc Caninius et Nunnesius non absurde pro Rago dici putant: esseque id ab αρχω, κατα μεταθεσιν. Sed imprimis assentio doctissimo Francisco Junio, qui suspicatur REGO, omniaque ejus conjugata, venire a nomine RAC, quod Babyloniis Regem notabat. &c.

"JUS forense a juvando aut jubendo dici putant. Alii jus quidem culinarium a juvando deducunt; forense autem a jubendo. Recentiores quidam mirificas originationes commenti sunt. Sane Franciscus Conanus jus civile dici ait a juxta; quia juxta legem sit, et ei adæquetur et accommodetur, veluti suæ regulæ : quod etiam etymon adfert Jod. de Salas. At Galeotus Martius et Franciscus Sanctius tradunt, JUS prima sua significatione signare olera aut pultem: sed quia in conviviis pares unicuique partes dabantur, ideo metaphorice JUS vocatum, quod suum unicuique tribuit. Scipio Gentilis scribit-cum prisci in agris viverent, sæpeque infirmiores opprimerentur a potentioribus, eos qui afficerentur, ad misericordiam excitandam o solitos exclamare. Vult igitur ab 100, JOUS (ut veteres loquebantur) dictum esse; quia infirmiores nil nisi JUS cupiant atque expostulent.