I say it, and methinks I have
undertaken this work with no other view than to prove it, the spirit of
a legislator ought to be that of moderation; political, like moral good,
lying always between two extremes.
[1]
Let us produce an example.
The set forms of justice are necessary to liberty, but the number of
them might be so great as to be contrary to the end of the very laws
that established them; processes would have no end; property would be
uncertain; the goods of one of the parties would be adjudged to the
other without examining, or they would both be ruined by examining too
much.
The citizens would lose their liberty and security, the accusers
would no longer have any means to convict, nor the accused to justify
themselves.
