Book VI.
Chap. 5.ced[1] ; and they ordained that the goods of those who were condemned should be sacred, to prevent their being confiscated to the people. We shall see in the XIth book the other limitations that were set to the power the people had of judging.
Solon knew how to prevent the abuse which the people might make of their power in criminal judgments. He ordained that the court of Areopagus should re-examine the affair; that if they believed the party accused was unjustly acquitted [2], they should accuse him again before the people; that if they believed him unjustly condemned[3], they should put a slop to the execution, and make them rejudge the proceeding. An admirable law that subjected the people to the censure of the magistracy which they most revered, and even to their own!
In affairs of this kind it is always proper to throw in some delays, especially when the party accused is under confinement; to the end that the people may grow calm and give their judgment cooly.
In despotic governments the prince himself may be judge. But in monarchies this cannot be; the constitution by such means would be subverted, and the dependent intermediate powers annihilated ; all set forms of judgment would cease; fear would take possession of the people's minds, and paleness spread itself over every countenance: the more confidence, honor, affection, and security is in the subject, the more widely extended is the power of the monarch.
We shall give here a few more reflections on this point. In monarchies the prince is the party that prosecutes the persons accused, and causes them to be pu-
