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 chap, xliv] OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 537 principle of justice, he stretched to past as well as future offences the operations of his edicts, with the previous allowance of a short respite for confession and pardon. A painful death was inflicted by the amputation of the sinful instrument, or the insertion of sharp reeds into the pores and tubes of most ex- quisite sensibility ; and Justinian defended the propriety of the execution, since the criminals would have lost their hands, had they been convicted of sacrilege. In this state of disgrace and agony, two bishops, Isaiah of Ehodes and Alexander of Diospolis, were dragged through the streets of Constantinople, while their brethren were admonished, by the voice of a crier, to observe this awful lesson, and not to pollute the sanctity of their character. Perhaps these prelates were innocent. A sentence of death and infamy was often founded on the slight and sus- picious evidence of a child or a servant ; the guilt of the green faction, of the rich, and of the enemies of Theodora, was pre- sumed by the judges, and paederasty became the crime of those to whom no crime could be imputed. A French philosopher 204 has dared to remark that whatever is secret must be doubtful, and that our natural horror of vice may be abused as an engine of tyranny. But the favourable persuasion of the same writer, that a legislator may confide in the taste and reason of mankind, is impeached by the unwelcome discovery of the antiquity and extent of the disease. 205 The free citizens of Athens and Rome enjoyed, in all criminal judgments cases, the invaluable privilege of being tried by their country. 206 pie 1. The administration of justice is the most ancient office of a of the peo- 204 Montesquieu, Esprit des Loix, 1. xii. c. 6. That eloquent philosopher concili- ates the rights of liberty and of nature, which should never be placed in opposition to each other. 205 For the corruption of Palestine, 2000 years before the Christian aera, see the history and laws of Moses. Ancient Gaul is stigmatized by Diodorus Siculus (torn, i. 1. v. p. 356 [c. 32]), China by the Mahometan and Christian travellers (Ancient Eelations of India and China, p. 34), translated by Eenaudot, and his bitter critic the Pere Premare, Lettres Edifiantes (torn. xix. p. 435), and native America by the Spanish historians (Garcilasso de la Vega, 1. iii. c. 13, Rycaut's translation; and Dictionnaire de Bayle, torn. iii. p. 88). I believe, and hope, "that the negroes, in their own country, were exempt from this moral pestilence. 206 The important subject of the public questions and judgments at Eome is ex- plained with much learning, and in a classic style, by Charles Sigonius (1. iii. de Judiciis, in Opp. torn. iii. 679-864) ; and a good abridgment may be found in the B^publique Eomaine of Beaufort (torn. ii. 1. v. p. 1-121). Those who wish for more abstruse law may study Noodt (de Jurisdictione et Imperio Libri duo, torn. i. p. 93-134), Heineccius (ad Pandect. 1. i. et ii. ad Institut. 1. iv. tit. xvii. Element, ad Antiquitat.), and Gravina (Opp. 230-251).