In countries where liberty is most esteemed, there are laws by which a
single person is deprived of it, in order to preserve it for the whole
community. Such are in England what they call Bills of Attainder.
[54]
These are in relation to those Athenian laws by which a private
person was condemned,
[55]
provided they were made by the unanimous
suffrage of six thousand citizens. They are in relation also to those
laws which were made at Rome against private citizens, and were called
privilege.
[56]
These were never passed except in the great meetings of
the people. But in what manner soever they were enacted, Cicero was for
having them abolished, because the force of a law consists in its being
made for the whole community.
[57]
I must own, notwithstanding, that the
practice of the freest nation that ever existed induces me to think that
there are cases in which a veil should be drawn for a while over
liberty, as it was customary to cover the statues of the gods.
