JB/027/044/002

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2 C Preface

but a phrase without a meaning. It is not a treatise a body
of a universal law: for universal law, if
there were such a thing, would be that which
is law every where: and thus, is not unless, by
accident, law any where. It is a discourse
which [in the way of hypothesis and] without being law purports upon the
face of it to be law, wanting nothing but the
sanction of authority to be so in reality.

It is not a mere body of instructions for the framing
a set of laws: it is besides this a composition designed as far as it goes to
represent what, if such in case of instructions were given being given
might constitute the tenor of the laws themselves.
It is not a work analogous to that
celebrated one which the Catherine 2d Empress of Russia presented to
the deputies assembled from all the several provinces
of that prodigious empire. It
is such a sort of work as it may be conceived
might have been presented in obedience to
those instructions. Every body knows the story
of the two antients who were candidates for the
post of preceptor to some great man's son: the
one who had the gift of eloquence at command made a

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3 Preface

It is in the design of it such a sort of work as
every body of laws is before it has received this
sanction of authority.

a brilliant speech in which he displayed in just
and forcible colours the duties of that station: when the
other less fluent though not less confident came to speak well
says he, what that man talks of, I will do.
For my part then, being passed and guided and encouraged by
the instructions given by the august personage
above mentioned I may say, that what she has commanded given
in charge, I as far as the natural strength of my
faculties and the circumstances of my situation
permit, have taken in hand & executed.

The work then as far as it goes is to be regarded as being (for the present work extends no further than the penal branch
such that a sort of a work in which every body of laws is
before it has received the sanction of authority:
such a work for example is the Frederician
code it fixed setting asidethose parts of it which
depend solely upon the local circumstances
of the Prussian Dominion, would have been
while lying in the closet of the Chancellor M. Cocceji , before
it had obtained the fiat of the sovereign great king by whose
name it is illustrated bears.

Identifier: | JB/027/044/002 "JB/" can not be assigned to a declared number type with value 27.
Date_1		Marginal Summary Numbering
Box	027	Main Headings	penal code
Folio number	044	Info in main headings field	preface
Image	002	Titles
Category	text sheet	Number of Pages	4
Recto/Verso	recto	Page Numbering	f1 / f2 / f3 / f4
Penner	jeremy bentham	Watermarks	[[watermarks::r williams [britannia with shield motif]]]
Marginals		Paper Producer	c. hamilton
Corrections		Paper Produced in Year
Notes public		ID Number	9134
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