Page:Montesquieu - The spirit of laws.djvu/303

Rh to judge him; on the other hand, the plebeians also, contrary to the spirit of that very same law, pretended that none but themselves had a power to judge him, and they judged him accordingly.

This was moderated by the law of the twelve tables; whereby it was ordained that none but the great assemblies of the people should pronounce sentence against a citizen in capital cases. Hence the body of the plebeians, or which amounts to the very same, the comitia by tribes, had no longer any power of judging crimes, except such as were punished with a pecuniary mulct. To inflict a capital punishment a law was requisite; but to condemn to a pecuniary fine, there was occasion only for a Plebiscitum.

This regulation of the law of the twelve tables was very prudent. It produced an admirable reconciliation between the body of the plebeians and the senate. For as the full judiciary power of both depended on the greatness of the punishment and the nature of the crime, it was necessary they should both agree.

The Valerian law abolished all the remains of the Roman government, which were any way relative to that of the kings of the heroic times of Greece. The consuls were divested of the power to punish crimes. Though all crimes are public, yet we must distinguish between those which more nearly concern the mutual communication of citizens, and those which more nearly interest the state in the relation it has to its subjects. The first are called private, the second public. The latter were judged Rh