agent. Death is the greatest evil which one man can inflict upon another, and excites the highest degree of resentment in those who are immediately connected with the slain. Murder, therefore, is the most atrocious of all crimes which affect indivi|duals only, in the sight both of mankind, and of the person who has committed it. To be deprived of that which we are pos|sessed of, is a greater evil than to be disap|pointed of what we have only the expecta|tion. Breach of property, therefore, theft and robbery, which take from us what we are possessed of, are greater crimes than breach of contract, which only disappoints us of what we expected. The most sacred laws of justice, therefore, those whose vio|lation seems to call loudest for vengeance and punishment, are the laws which guard the life and person of our neighbour; the next are those which guard his property and possessions; and last of all come those which guard what are called his personal rights, or what is due to him from the pro|mi••es of others.
The violator of the more sacred laws of justice can never reflect on the sentiments which mankind must entertain with re|gard
