Page:Montesquieu - The spirit of laws.djvu/182

130 Constantine changed the military government into a military and civil one, and drew nearer to Monarchy. There we may trace the different revolutions of this state, and see how they fell from rigor to indolence, and from indolence to impunity.

T is an essential point that there should be a certain proportion in punishments, because it is essential that a great crime should be avoided rather than a lesser, and that which is more pernicious to society rather than that which is less.

"An impostor, who called himself Constantine Ducas, raised a great insurrection at Constantinople. He was taken and condemned to be whipt; but upon informing against several persons of distinction, he was condemned to be burnt as a calumniator." It is very extraordinary that they should thus proportion the punishments betwixt the crime of high treason and that of calumny.

This puts me in mind of a saying of Charles II. king of Great Britain. He saw a man one day standing in the pillory; upon which he asked what crime the man had committed. He was answered, ''Please your majesty he has wrote a libel against your ministers. The fool! said the king, why did he not write against me? they would have done nothing to him.''

"Seventy persons having conspired against the emperor Basil ; he ordered them to be whipt, and the hair of their head and beards to be burnt. Rh