LAURENTA'LIA, in antiquity, a fes tival kept by the Romans on the 23d of December, in memory of Aces Laurentia, the nurse of Romulus and Remus. She was called Lupa by way of nick-name ; hence the story of the wolf that suckled the royal twins.
LAW, an established or permanent rule, prescribed by the supreme power of a state to its subjects, for regulating their social actions. Laws may be divided into the following classes : declaratory laws; directory laws; remedial laws ; and pro hibitory and penal laws. Declaratory laws only declare what the law shall he, not what it has been, or is. Directory laws are those which prescribe rules of conduct, or limit or enlarge rights, or point out modes of remedy. Remedial laws are those whose object it is to redress some private injury, or some public in convenience. Prohibitory and penal laws are those which forbid certain things to be done or omitted, under a penalty, or vindicatory sanction. The legislation of no country, probably, ever gave origin to its whole body of laws. In the very for mation of society, the principles of nat ural justice, and the obligations of good faith, must have been recognized before any common legislature was acknowl edged. Debts were contracted, obliga tions created, personal property acquired, and lands cultivated, before any positive rules were fixed as to the rights of posses sion and enjoyment growing out of them. The first rudiments of jurisprudence re sulted from general consent or acquies eence ; and when legislation began to act upon it, it was rather to confirm, alter, or add to, than to supersede, the primitive principles adopted into it. The forma tion of codes, or systems of general law, for the government of a people, and adapted to their wants, takes place only in advanced stages of society, when knowl edge is considerably diffused, and legisla tors have the means of ascertaining the best principles of policy and the best rules Sur justice, not by mere speculation and theory, but by the results of experience, and the reasoning of the learned and the wise.—We shall now proceed to give sep arate definitions of the word law, as it is variously applied.—Manicipa/ or civil
law, is a rule of civil conduct prescribed by the supreme power of a state, com manding what its subjects are to do, and prohibiting what they arc to forbear.— The law of nature, otherwise called ethics, or morals, comprehends those rules of right and wrong, of which the sentiment is in every man's breast, and of the jus tice of which reflection affords sufficient conviction. Tho divine law is that which, not being naturally felt, nor discovered by reflection, is found only in inspired writings.—The law of nations is that rule of conduct which nations are to observe toward each other. This is founded upon the law of nature ; but either ascertained or modified by usage, or by mutual com pacts.—The written law, those laws or rules of action prescribed or enacted by a sovereign or state, and promulgated and recorded in writing. Unwritten or WM 117071 law, a rule of action which derives its authority from long usage, or estab lished custom, which has been immemori ally received and recognized by judicial t ribunals.—Ecclesiast lea/ or canon law, a rule of action prescribed for the govern ment of a ehurch.-31artial law, the rules ordained for the government of an army or military force.—Marine laws, rules for the regulation of navigation, and the commercial intercourse of nations.— Physical lairs, the invariable tendency or determination of any species of matter to a particular form with definite proper ties, and the determination of a body to certain motions, changes, and relations, which uniformly take place in the same eireumstances.—The Mosaic law, the in stitutions of Moses, or the code of preSCribed 10 the Jews, as recorded in the Old Testament. That part which relates to the mere external rites and ceremo ni•?,s to be observed by them, as distinct from the moral 1 reeepts, is called the ceremonial law.
LAY. the lyric poems of the old French minstrels, or trotzveres, were termed la is ; but the title appears, in modern usage, to be peculiarly appropriate to narrative poems, or serious subjects of moderato length in simple style and light metre.