Page:Montesquieu - The spirit of laws.djvu/325

Rh It was determined by a senatus-consultum, that whosoever melted down any of the emperor's statues which should happen to be rejected, should not be deemed guilty of high treason. The emperors Severus and Antoninus wrote to Pontius ; that those who sold unconsecrated statues of the emperor, should not be charged with high treason. The same princes wrote to Julius Cassianus, that if any person when slinging a stone should by chance strike one of the emperor's statues, he should not be liable to a prosecution of high treason. The Julian law requires this sort of limitations; for in virtue of this law the crime of high treason was charged not only upon those who melted down the emperor's statues, but likewise on those who committed any such like action, which made it an arbitrary crime. When a number of crimes of high treason had been established, they were obliged to distinguish the several sorts. Hence Ulpian the civilian, after saying that the accusation of high treason did not die with the criminal, he adds, that this does not relate to all the treasonable acts established by the Julian law, but only to that which implies an attempt against the empire or against the emperor's life.

HERE was a law passed in England under Henry VIII. by which whosoever predicted the king's death, was declared guilty of high treason. This law was very indeterminate; the terror of despotic power is so great, that it even turns against those who exercise it. In this king's Rh