ADVERTISEMENT.

It is usual to treat law, manners, and govern-ment , as if they had no connexion with history,or with each other. Law and manners are com-monly understood to be nothing more thancollections of ordinances and matters of fact;and government is too often a foundation formere speculation and metaphysical refinements.Yet law is only a science, when observed inits spirit and history ; government cannot becomprehended but by attending to the minutesteps of its rife and progression ; and the systemsof manners , which characterize man in all theperiods of society which pass from rudeness tocivility , cannot be displayed without the dis-crimination of these different situations. It is inthe records of history , in the scene of real life,not in the conceits and the abstractions offancy and philosophy , that human nature is tobe studied.

But , while it is in the historical manner thatlaws, customs, and government, are to be in-quired into , it is obvious, that their dependanceand connexion are close and intimate. They alltend to the lame point , and to the illustration

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