Conclusion

Abstract

Writing in the early 1770s, John Millar wrote the following:

When we contemplate the amazing diversity to be found in the laws of different countries, and even of the same country at different periods, our curiosity is naturally excited to enquire in what manner mankind have been led to embrace such different rules of conduct … In searching for the causes of those peculiar systems of law and government which have appeared in the world, we must undoubtedly resort, first of all, to the differences of situation which have suggested different views and motives of action to the inhabitants of particular countries … The variety that frequently occurs in these and such other particulars, must have a prodigious influence upon the great body of a people; as, by giving a peculiar direction to their inclinations and pursuits, it must be productive of correspondent habits, dispositions, and ways of thinking. (Millar, in Lehmann 1960: 175)