LEGISLATOR. One who makes laws.
     2. In order to make good laws, it is necessary to understand those 
which are in force; the legislator ought therefore, to be thoroughly imbued 
with a knowledge of the laws of his country, their advantages and defects; 
to legislate without this previous knowledge is to attempt to make a 
beautiful piece of machinery with one's eye shut. There is unfortunately too 
strong a propensity to multiply our laws and to change them. Laws must be 
yearly made, for the legislatures meet yearly but whether they are always 
for the better may be well questioned. A mutable legislation is always 
attended with evil. It renders the law uncertain, weakens its effects, hurts 
credit, lessens the value of property, and as they are made frequently, in 
consequence of some extraordinary case, laws sometimes operate very 
unequally. Vide 1 Kent, Com. 227 and Le Magazin Universel, tome ii. p. 227, 
for a good article against excessive legislation; Matter, De l'Influence des 
Lois sur les Moeurs, et de l'Influence des Moeurs sur les Lois.