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Geneva, Nov<hi rend="superscript">r 19th 1778. </hi>256
Dear Jerry —
You will perhaps be somewhat surprized
to receive a letter from Geneva
— You may remember then that before I left England you expressed a desire to hear from me during my absence. If
you intended that merely as Compliment, I have unfortunately taken you too soon at your Word — if otherwise, as
I rather imagine, you will excuse this intrusion upon your time, and heed me patiently for a few minutes
and give me at your leisure the assistance of your advice.
Destined as you know for the Bar which I have always in view I have wished during my stay here to
turn my Reading to such Matters as might be useful to me in my future Profession - Civil Law & Modern
History, seem as essential objects of knowledge as any that have not an immediate connection with the Study of our own
Laws, they are both cited frequently in our own Courts & it appears almost shameful to be ignorant of the
common Elements of either the one or the other, With these ideas it is not the want of Materials for the
Study of either, but the Choice that perplexes me, the Multitude of different Books & Plans on both subjects makes
one doubt which routes I ought to take, and these are precisely the questions for which I here wish you
to give me some sort of solution. You yourself have already drudged through this business, and are best
able to chalk out some good Line for those who follow. — The Books which I have hitherto met with
and gone through with some degree of attention are Burlamaqui's very dull & heavy Treatise ds Droit Nat
Clarke's Logical System of Proofs of the Existence of the Deity, with his Natural Religion; and Puffendorff's Homo
& Civis. — I have Vattel in hand for the Law of Nations — & Justinian's Institutes for the Roman Civil
Law. — Beccaria's Book has entertained me very much & his principles of Penal Laws seem founded
on the strictest Justice — is it not then rather extraordinary that his concluding Proposition in which he defines
the true nature of Punishment should be contradicted in almost every article, by the custom of almost every
Country in Europe — Rousseau's Contract Social I have read also with some pleasure — his fundamental
principles appear perfectly true & evident, but surely many of his succeeding deductions are extremely chimerical
and sometimes absurd. I should be glad to know where he would have People find Legislators such as he wants;& how he would
have the Citizens of a free State govern themselves, without the means of an Elective Representation by which
they might be relieved from the Onus of public business, & have sufficient time to follow their private Occupations,
— a method of Governt which nevertheless he utterly rejects — or without an Established Slavery, such as existed
at Rome, by which they might have their whole time free for the discussion of State Affairs, & throw the exercise
of Manual Arts into the Hands of this inferior Class of beings —— expedient still more contradictory to
his own & every other System of Humanity. — What I have as yet read of Modern History amounts
to as little as my Civil Law reading — I have at different times gone through the detailed Histories of several
Different Epochs but what I wish to do now is to work upon some regular plan, the most concise
possible that would not be too Superficial. Robertson Hume & Hinault with the General Epistome
of Aillot contain all my Knowledge of this Matter & a great deal more too, as it has not been possible
for me to digest their Contents well, & in a good orderly succession. My grand desideratum on this head
seems to be some Good Outline well traced & be few of the principal traits laid down in stronger
colours. — You have here a pretty faithful Account of the State of My Ideas on Civil Law &
Modern History into which I thought it more necessary to enter, that in case you would vouchsafe to
favour me with a few Lines of Advice you might know how far they were wrong and understand better in what
respects I was particularly desirous of your assistance. This perhaps is not the only occasion on which
I shall be troublesome to you if you give me encouragement. Whenever I come to the Temple I shall perhaps
solicit a still more important favor which it will be in your power to grant easily & of which I shall undoubtedly
stand in need, namely — some plan of Study for own Municipal Laws of England. Of this however
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Identifier: | JB/538/256/001 "JB/" can not be assigned to a declared number type with value 538.
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1778-11-19 |
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538 |
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256 |
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001 |
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Correspondence |
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Charles Abbot |
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