a bastard be good, it is mostly by accident, or special grace; if wicked, it is but his nature. An unlawful brood is thought to derive a corruption and stain from the transgression of the parent, without any concurrent fault of his own. So all of us have contracted a very great corruption from the sin of our first parents, though not of so opprobrious a nature : the blemish with which bastards are affected, is widely different from that of legitimate children. The mutual culpable lust of the parents affects their offspring, which does not give itself such a loose in the lawful chaste embraces of the matrimonial life. The sin of fornicators is mutual, and in common; and as it bears a near resemblance therefore with the first sin, it leaves a worse impression on the issue than that of any other sin which men commit in private without any accomplice. So that a child so born, may rather be called the offspring of sin itself, than of the guilty persons. Wherefore the wisdom of Solomon, distinguishing between a spurious and a legitimate offspring, of the latter says, "How beautiful is the offspring of the chaste and nuptial bed? The memory of it is immortal, being acknowledged both by GoD and man." Whereas the other is not so much as acknowledged amongst men; for which reason they are called the children of the people, or community: and of these the same book of Wisdom says, "children begotten of unlawful beds, are witnesses of wickedness against their parents in their trial." For being asked about their parents, they reveal their imperfections, as the wicked son of Noah did his father's nakedness. It is therefore thought that the man who was born blind, concerning whom the Pharisee said," Thou wast altogether born in sins," that he was a bastard, and so, in that sense, born in sin and when they add immediately, "and dost thou teach us?" They seem to intimate as if a bastard were not qualified by nature, like the issue of a lawful bed, either for knowledge, or for teaching others. Therefore that law does not rightly determine, which equals bastards with children lawfully begotten in the succession to the inheritance of their parents, when the Church judges them not duly qualified for Orders, or fit to preside in GoD's inheritance. The Scriptures The Scriptures likewise put a wide distinction between them, as we have above observed: And nature itself makes a difference in her gifts, by setting as it were a natural mark or blemish on the natural children, though secretly impressed upon the mind. Which now of those two laws, in the case before you, do you hold with and give the preference to? CHAP. XLI. Prince. INDEED I give the preference to that law which does most effectually cast out sin, and establish virtue. I am also of opinion, that such are least entitled to the benefit of human laws, whom the Law of GOD judges unworthy, and whom the Church excludes from her orders and dignities, as being by nature more prone to wickedness. Chancellor. I think you judge in the case very rightly. I will now recollect some other cases, wherein the Civil and our Laws disagree. a The provisions of the Civil Law, in favor of legitimation by a subsequent marriage, were enacted by Constantine and his successors. The principle on which they were introduced, is thus expressed in the Code: "Cum gratias agere fratribus suis posteriores debeant, quorum beneficio ipsi sunt justi filii, et nomen et ordinem consecuti." The import and effect of the rule cannot be understood, without regarding it in connection with the regulations of Justinian, respecting concubines. (Hienecc. Elem. Jur. Civ. Inst. 1. 10. §. 165. et seq. Taylor's Civil Law, p. 273; and see further respecting the Rule, Hargr. Co. Litt. 245 a. n. 1. Doctor and Student, Dial. i. c. 25.) It may not be thought uninteresting to advert to a few circumstances, which may serve to exhibit the sentiments of the people of this Country, upon the subject of bastardy at different periods. The British allowed bastards to inherit. (Hale's Common Law, p. 306.) The epithet Bastard was assumed by William the Conquerer, and was applied to him, by writers who were his encomiasts. (Appendix to the Second Report of the Commissioners for the Public Records, upon the Authenticity of the Charter of William, to the Earl of Britanny: where the Passages from the Ancient Authors are collected. Sir J. Hayward's History of the Norman Kings.) The privileges of the bastard Eigne, are in unison with the principles of the Civil Law. (See also the Ground of the Decision Tem. Edw. III, cited in Sir M. Finch's Case, 6 Rep.) Selden observes, that notwithstanding the famous dissent of the Barons at the Parliament of Merton, to the proposal for adopting the rule of subsequent legitimation, the children of John a Gaunt, by his wife Catherine, before marriage, were in another reign made legitimate, by Act of Parliament. (Diss ad Fletam. For a Commentary upon this Act, and for Coke's Remarks on the Title of Henry VII. to the Crown, 4 Inst. 36, 37. See also the Act for the Legitimation of Sir R. Sadler's Children, Tem. Henry VIII. Petyt. Manuscript, Vol. VI. p. 336.) Blackstone has elucidated some obscure and extraordinary clauses in a sentence of excommunication, which was denounced with great solemnity, on the occasion of the republication of the Charters, A. D. 1253, by reference to the transactions of the Parliament of Merton, respecting special bastardy. (Blackstone on the Charters, p. 79. et seq. Concerning Special Bastardy, as regarded by the Law of England, before the Statute of Merton, and the Clause in that Statute upon the Subject. Mirror, p. 10. Glanville, lib. vii. c. 13, 14, 15. 2 Inst. p. 96. et seq. Hurd's Dialogue on the Constitution.) Richard III, took great pains to propagate a belief of the bastardy of the children of Edward IV, and accordingly employed a preacher to deliver a sermon at Paul's Cross, upon one of the passages of Scripture, cited by Fortescue in the text, bastard-slips shall never take deep roots." (See an Account of this Sermon. Sir T. More's Pitiful Life of Edward V.) The same King thought it politic to proclaim the bastard descent of Henry Tudor, in order to prejudice the Country against his pretensions to the Throne. (Letter to Sheriffs of Kent, Paston Letters, Vol. II.) The imputation of a spurious birth attached to Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth; and the different conduct of these two Sovereigns, in respect of this circumstance, after their accession, are matters of historical notoriety. But less attention has been given by writers to the measures adopted by king James and his predecessor, for establishing the illegitimacy of the Suffolk family. (Much valuable Information on this Subject, is collected in Mr. Luder's Tract on the Succession.) Sheffield Duke of Buckingham, mentions a difficulty in which the delicacy of the Parliament of Queen Elizabeth involved them, when they were proceeding to pass an Act, establishing the title of her issue; the usual language in her father's time, being "issue lawfully begotten." On debate the House considered, that it would be more consistent with decorum, to alter the phrase to that of "natural born issue:" the circumstance, however, created a suspicion among the people, who apprehended that the Queen's great favourite Leicester, intended to set up for King some bastard of his own, after the death of Elizabeth, pretending that it was born of her, and bred up privately. 66 (Duke -War (Duke of Buckingham's Works " On Treasons.") James II, wher No mother's care Shielded my infant innocence with prayer: No father's guardian hand my youth maintained, From ties maternal, moral and divine Discharged my grasping soul.-pushed me from shore, (And see Edmund's Soliloquy in Lear. The Character of Absalom For a Mine of Historical this Note, see Tiraquell de |