[94]
Moreover the question is not so simple as some suppose. If
there were no other man likely to propose decrees like his without regard to
your interests, the matter might, perhaps, be a simple one. But in fact there
are many such; and that is why it is not right that you should refuse to annul
this decree. If it is pronounced flawless, who will not move decrees in future
without misgiving? Who will refuse to put them to the vote? Who will impeach
them? What you have to take into account is, not that this decree has become
invalid by lapse of time, but that, if you now give judgement for the defendant,
by that verdict you will be offering impunity to every man who may hereafter
wish to do you a mischief.
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