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Spooner, Lysander, 1808-1887

"Essay on the Trial By Jury"

Legislation, instead of removing, only
increases them; This it does by innovating upon natural truths and
principles, and introducing jargon and contradiction, in the place
of order, analogy, consistency, and uniformity.
Further than this; legislation does not even profess to remove the
obscurity of natural law. That is no part of its object. It only
professes to substitute something arbitrary in the place of
natural law. Legislators generally have the sense to see that
legislation will not make natural law any clearer than it is.
Neither is it the object of legislation to establish the authority
of natural law. Legislators have the sense to see that they can
add nothing to the authority of natural law, and that it will
stand on its own authority, unless they overturn it.
The whole object of legislation, excepting that legislation which
merely makes regulations, and provides instrumentalities for
carrying other laws into effect, is to overturn natural law, and
substitute for it the arbitrary will of power.


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