Page:Montesquieu - The spirit of laws.djvu/173

Rh or of the Porcian law. It was never observed that this step did any manner of prejudice to the civil administration.

This Valerian law which inhibited the magistrates from using any violent methods against a citizen that had appealed to the people, inflicted no other punishment on the person who infringed it, than that of being reputed a dishonest man.

XPERIENCE shews that in countries remarkable for the lenity of penal laws, the spirit of the inhabitants is as much affected by them, as in other countries by severer punihments.

If an inconveniency or abuse arises in the state, a violent government endeavours suddenly to redress it; and instead of putting the old laws in execution, it establishes some cruel punishment which instantly puts a stop to the evil. But the spring of government hereby loses its elasticity; the imagination grows accustomed to the severe as well as to the milder punishment; and as the fear of the latter diminishes, they are soon obliged in every case to have recourse to the other. Robberies on the high-way were grown common in some countries; in order to remedy this evil, they Rh