Punishments Of Unreasonable Severity, Especially Where Indiscriminately

Punishments Of Unreasonable Severity, Especially Where Indiscriminately Afflicted, Have Less Effect In Preventing Crimes, And Amending The Manners Of A People, Than Such As Are More Merciful In General, Yet Properly Intermixed With Due Distinctions Of Severity.

Gaming Is A Kind Of Tacit Confession That The Company Engaged Therein Do In General Exceed The Bounds Of Their Respective Fortunes, And Therefore They Cast Lots To Determine Upon Whom The Ruin Shall At Present Fall, That The Rest May Be Saved A Little Longer.

The Liberty Of The Press Is Indeed Essential To The Nature Of A Free State: But This Consists In Laying No Previous Restraints Upon Publications, And Not In Freedom From Censure For Criminal Matter When Published. Every Freeman Has An Undoubted Right To Lay What Sentiments He Pleases Before The Public: To Forbid This, Is To Destroy The Freedom Of The Press: But If He Publishes What Is Improper, Mischievous, Or Illegal, He Must Take The Consequence Of His Own Temerity.

Upon These Two Foundations, The Law Of Nature And The Law Of Revelation, Depend All Human Laws.

The Most Universal And Effectual Way Of Discovering The True Meaning Of Law, When The Words Are Dubious, Is By Considering The Reason And Spirit Of It; Or The Cause Which Moved The Legislator To Enact It. For When This Reason Ceased, The Law Itself Ought Likewise To Cease With It.