[92]
yet in spite of this the business never
comes to an end. Our laws are no better than so many decrees; nay, you will find
that the laws which have to be observed in drafting the decrees are later1 than the decrees themselves. Not to be content, then,
with a bare assertion, but to show you the actual law to which I refer, please
take and read the law constituting the original legislative commission. “
Law
”
1 νεώτεροι has been misunderstood and variously emended. Laws ought to be general and permanent, decrees particular and occasional; but there has been such a glut of hasty legislation, since the restoration of the democracy in 403, that many decrees still stand unrepealed after the laws on which they were based have been superseded. For the legislative commission see Introduction.
Demosthenes. Demosthenes with an English translation by C. A. Vince, M. A. and J. H. Vince, M.A. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1926.
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