Page:Montesquieu - The spirit of laws.djvu/332

280

F 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, entire thee secretly, saying, Let us go and serve other gods, thou shalt surely kill him, thou shalt stone him. 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, but 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 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. Rh