6.19. 19. Of the Punishment of Fathers for the Crimes of their Children.
In China, fathers are punished for the crimes of their children.
This was likewise the custom of Peru;
[62]
a custom derived from the
notion of despotic power. Little does it signify to say that in China
the father is punished for not having exerted that paternal authority
which nature has established, and the laws themselves have improved.
This still supposes that there is no honour among the Chinese. Amongst
us, parents whose children are condemned by the laws of their country,
and children
[63]
whose parents have undergone the like fate, are as severely punished by
shame, as they would be in China by the loss of their lives.
Footnotes
[62]
See Garcilasso, "History of the Civil Wars of the Spaniards in
the West Indies."
[63]
"Instead of punishing them," says Plato, "they ought to be
commended for not having followed their fathers' example." — "Laws," ix.
