12.17. 17. Of the revealing of Conspiracies.
"If thy brother, the son of
thy mother, or thy son, or thy daughter, or the wife of thy bosom, or
thy friend, which is as thine own soul, entice thee secretly, saying,
'Let us go and serve other gods,' thou shalt surely kill him, thou shalt
stone him."
[48]
This law of Deuteronomy cannot be a civil law among most
of the nations known to us, because it would pave the way for all manner
of wickedness.
No less severe is the law of several countries which commands the
subjects, on pain of death, to disclose conspiracies in which they are
not even so much as concerned. When such a law is established in a
monarchical government, it is very proper it should be under some
restrictions.
It ought not to be applied in its full severity save to the
strongest cases of high treason. In those countries it is of the utmost
importance not to confound the different degrees of this crime. In
Japan, where the laws subvert every idea of human reason, the crime of
concealment is applied even to the most ordinary cases.
A certain relation
[49]
makes mention of two young ladies who were
shut up for life in a box thick set with pointed nails, one for having
had a love intrigue, and the other for not disclosing it.
Footnotes
[49]
"Collection of Voyages that Contributed to the Establishment of
the East India Company," Book v, part II, p. 423.
