and pederasty became the crime of those to whom no crime could
be imputed. A French philosopher[38] has dared to remark that whatever
is secret must be doubtful, and that our natural horror of vice may be
abused as an engine of tyranny. But the favorable persuasion of the same
writer, that a legislator may confide in the taste and reason of
mankind, is impeached by the unwelcome discovery of the antiquity and
extent of the disease.

V. The free citizens of Athens and Rome enjoyed in all criminal cases
the invaluable privilege of being tried by their country.

1. The administration of justice is the most ancient office of a prince:
it was exercised by the Roman kings and abused by Tarquin, who alone,
without law or council, pronounced his arbitrary judgments. The first
consuls succeeded to this regal prerogative; but the sacred right of
appeal soon abolished the jurisdiction of the magistrates, and all
public causes were decided by the supreme tribunal of the people. But a
wild democracy, superior to the forms, too often disdains the essential
principles of justice: the pride of despotism was envenomed by plebeian
envy, and the heroes of Athens might sometimes applaud the happiness of
the Persian, whose fate depended on the caprice of a _single_ tyrant.
Some salutary restraints, imposed by the people on their own passions,
were at once the cause and effect of the gravity and temperance of the
Romans. The right of accusation was confined to the magistrates. A vote
of the thirty-five tribes could inflict a fine; but the cognizance of
all capital crimes was reserved by a fundamental law to the assembly of
the centuries, in which the weight of influence and property was sure to
preponderate. Repeated proclamations and adjournments were interposed to
allow time for prejudice and resentment to subside: the whole proceeding
might be annulled by a seasonable omen or the opposition of a tribune;
and such popular trials were commonly less formidable to innocence than
they were favorable to guilt. But this union of the judicial and
legislative powers left it doubtful whether the accused party was
pardoned or acquitted; and in the defence of an illustrious client the
orators of Rome and Athens address their arguments to the policy and
benevolence, as well as to the justice, of their sovereign.

2. The task of convening the citizens for the trial of each offender
became more difficult as the citizens and the offenders continually
m