[59]
Read another statute.“LawNor shall it be
lawful to propose a law applying to a particular man, unless the same be
applicable to all Athenian citizens, except by the votes of not less than
six thousand citizens voting in the affirmative by ballot.”It forbids the introduction of any law that does not
affect all citizens alike,—an injunction conceived in the true spirit
of democracy. As every man has an equal share in the constitution generally, so
this statute asserts his equal share in the laws. You know as well as I do for
whose sake Timocrates introduced his law; but, leaving those names out of the
question, we have his own admission that his law is not of universal
application, for he added a clause excepting from its operation tax-farmers,
lessees, and their sureties.—When, sir, there are certain persons whom
you have put outside your law, you cannot claim that you have made the same law
for all alike.
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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