26.19. 19. That we should not decide those Things by the civil Law which
ought to be decided by domestic Laws.
The law of the Visigoths enjoins
that the slaves of the house shall be obliged to bind the man and woman
they surprise in adultery, and to present them to the husband and to the
judge:
[50]
a terrible law, which puts into the hands of such mean
persons, the care of public, domestic, and private vengeance!
This law can be nowhere proper but in the seraglios of the East,
where the slave who has the charge of the enclosure is deemed an
accomplice upon the discovery of the least infidelity. He seizes the
criminals, not so much with a view to bring them to justice, as to do
justice to himself, and to obtain a scrutiny into the circumstances of
the action, in order to remove the suspicion of his negligence.
But, in countries where women are not guarded, it is ridiculous to
subject those who govern the family to the inquisition of their slaves.
This inquisition may, in certain cases, be at the most a particular
domestic regulation, but never a civil law.
Footnotes
[50]
"Law of the Visigoths," lib. iii, tit. 4, section 6.
