[120]
Now I expect that
another argument of Leptines will be that his law does not deprive the
recipients of their inscriptions and their free maintenance, nor the State of
the right to confer honor on those who deserve it, but that it will still be in
your power to set up statues and grant maintenance and anything else you wish,
except this one privilege. But with respect to the powers that he will pretend
to leave to the State, I have just this to say. As soon as you take away one of
the privileges you have already granted, you will shake the credit of all the
rest. For how can the grant of a statue or of free maintenance be more
indefeasible than that of an immunity, which you will seem to have first given
and then taken away?
Demosthenes. Demosthenes with an English translation by C. A. Vince, M. A. and J. H. Vince, M.A. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1926.
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