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[193]
Now
it is to the advantage of the common people that laws of the former category,
laws of private intercourse, shall be distinguished by clemency and humanity. On
the other hand it is to your common advantage that laws of the second class, the
laws that govern our relations to the State, shall be trenchant and peremptory,
because, if they are so, politicians will not do so much harm to the commonalty.
Therefore, when he makes use of this plea, refute it by telling him that he is
introducing clemency, not into the laws that benefit you, but into the laws that
intimidate politicians.
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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