[81]
The proposals of the
defendant are quite different: the accuser is to prosecute without risk, the
culprit to be given up incontinently and without trial; and if any person, or
indeed any entire city, shall intervene to prevent the destruction of all those
usages which I have described and the overthrow of all the tribunals I have
mentioned; tribunals introduced by the gods and frequented by mankind from that
day to this,—and to rescue the victims of outrage and lawless
violence, he proposes that any such person shall be banned; for him also he
allows no hearing and no trial, but punishes him instantly and without trial.
Could any decree be more monstrous and more unconstitutional?
Demosthenes. Demosthenes with an English translation by A. T. Murray, Ph.D., LL.D. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1939.
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