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[139]
I should like, gentlemen of
the jury, to give you a description of the method of legislation among the
Locrians. It will do you no harm to hear an example, especially one set by a
well-governed community. In that country the people are so strongly of opinion
that it is right to observe old-established laws, to preserve the institutions
of their forefathers, and never to legislate for the gratification of whims, or
for a compromise with transgression, that if a man wishes to propose a new law,
he legislates with a halter round his neck. If the law is accepted as good and
beneficial, the proposer departs with his life, but, if not, the halter is drawn
tight, and he is a dead man.
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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