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THE RELATIVE DUTIES OF MANKIND. [Part III.

prisoner, though a specious apology for concealment, is no justexcuse ; for, if it were so, it would take the administration ofpenal justice out of the hands of judges and juries, and make itdepend upon the temper of prosecutors and witnesses.

Questions may be asked, which are irrelative to the cause,which affect the witness himself, or some third person ; in which,and in all cases where the witness doubts concerning the perti-nency and propriety of the question, he ought to refer his doubtsto the court. The answer of the court in explanation, or evenin relaxation, of the oath, is authority enough to the witness ; forthe law which imposes the oath may remit what it will of theobligation, and it belongs to the court to declare what the mindof the law is. Moreover, as oaths are designed for the securityof the imposer, (the rule is, Jurare in animum imponentis ,) it ismanifest that they must be understood in the sense in which theimposer intends them; otherwise they afford no security to him.*

4. The efficacy of oaths, as securities for truth and integrity.Every one who has in mind the observations of Cicero on theoath of Regulus,f by which he bound himself to return to theCarthaginians, unless he should effect an exchange of prisoners,must be satisfied, that oaths were highly efficacious among theRomans during the best days of their commonwealth. AndCicero says, that the conduct of Regulus, in adhering to his oath,which must ever call forth the highest admiration, did not somuch spring from his individual virtue , as from the virtue ofthe times in which he lived.| The spirit of those times wouldnot have permitted him to do otherwise than observe his oath,cruel as was the punishment which awaited him on his return.If, then, oaths were thus efficacious under a system of falsereligion, ought a Christian to doubt their efficacy as securitiesfor truth and integrity, when administered under the sanctions ofthe true religion ?

The administration of an oath will make even a good manmore circumspect in giving his testimony ; and the number ofmen must be very small, who are hardened enough to stand up

* Paley’s Moral and Political Philosophy, pp. 115-117.t De Officiis, Lib. III. c. 36-33. { Idem, c. 31.