Kings & rulers > History of the reign of the Emperor Charles V. > Volume 1

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PROOFS AND ILLUSTRATIONS,
with great attention and refpeft; and he is obliged to
make them prefents of confiderable value Id p. 218.
——5. Among the Americans, the magiftrate has
fcarcely any criminal jurifdiflion. Id. p 172. Upon
receiving any injury, the perfon or family offended
may inflidl what puniihment they pleafe on the perfon
who was the author of it. Id. p. 274. Their refent-
ment and defire of vengeance are exceffive and impla¬
cable. Time can neither extinguifh nor abate it. It
is the chief inheritance parents leave to their children ;
it is tranfmitted from generation to generation, until an
occafion be found of fatisfying it. Id. p 309. Some¬
times, however, the offended party is appeafed. A
compenfation is paid for a murder that has been com¬
mitted. The relations of the deceafed receive it ; and
it confifts moft commonly of a captive taken in war,
who, being fubftituted in place of the perfon who was
murdered, affumes his name, and is adopted into his
family. Id. p. *74. The refemblance holds in many
other particulars. It is fufficient for my purpofe to
have pointed out the fimilarity of thofe great features
which diftinguifh and charafterize both people. Bo-
ehart, and other philologifts of the laft century, who,
with more erudition than fcience, endeavoured to trace
the migrations of various nations, and who were apt,
upon the flighted appearance of refemblance, to find an
affinity between nations far removed from each other,
and to conclude that they were defcended from the fame
anceftors, would hardly have failed, on viewing fuch
an amazing fimilarity, to pronounce with confidence,
“ That the Germans and Americans muff be the fame
people.” But a philofopber will fatisfy himfelf with ob-
ferving, “ That the charaflers of nations depend on the
Bate of fociety in which they live, and on the political
inftitutions eftablifhed among them ; and that the hu¬
man mind, whenever it is placed in the fame fituation,
will, in ages the moft diftant, and in countries the moft
remote, affume the fame form, and be diftinguifhed by
the fame manners.”
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