10.8. 8. The same Subject continued.
When a republic, therefore, keeps
another nation in subjection, it should endeavour to repair the
inconveniences arising from the nature of its situation by giving it
good laws both for the political and civil government of the people.
We have an instance of an island in the Mediterranean, subject to an
Italian republic, whose political and civil laws with regard to the
inhabitants of that island were extremely defective. The act of
indemnity,
[7]
by which it ordained that no one should be condemned to
bodily punishment in consequence of the private knowledge of the
governor, ex informata conscientia, is still recent in everybody's
memory. There have been frequent instances of the people's petitioning
for privileges; here the sovereign grants only the common right of all
nations.
Footnotes
[7]
Of the 18th of October, 1738, printed at Genoa by Franchelli. See
also the Amsterdam Gazette, Dec. 23, 1738.
