The papers which they cannot confute, and which they
have not yet been able to obtain the power of suppressing, are
asserted to _border_ upon treason; and the authors are threatened with
punishments, when they have nothing to fear from a reply.
Treason is happily denned by our laws, and, therefore, every man may
know when he is about to commit it, and avoid the danger of
punishment, by avoiding the act which will expose him to it; but with
regard to the _borders_ of treason, I believe no man will yet pretend
to say how far they extend, or how soon, or with how little intention
he may tread upon them. Unhappy would be the man who should be
punished for _bordering_ upon guilt, of which those fatal _borders_
are to be dilated at pleasure by his judges. The law has hitherto
supposed every man, who is not _guilty_, to be _innocent_; but now we
find that there is a kind of medium, in which a man may be in danger
without guilt, and that in order to security, a new degree of caution
is become necessary; for not only crimes, but the borders of crimes
are to be avoided.
What improvements may be made upon this new system, how far the
borders of treason may reach, or what pains and penalties are designed
for the _borderers_, no degree of human sagacity can enable us to
foresee.
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