[44]
It is not only in these, but in all cases,
that the laws may be seen to be severe against premeditated outrages. For how is
it that if a man who has lost his case fails to pay, the law thereupon is not
content with a private suit for ejectment, but directs the imposition of a
further fine to the treasury? Or again, how is it that if a man takes from
another by mutual consent a sum of one, two, or ten talents, and then
fraudulently withholds it, the State has no concern with him; but if a man,
taking something that would merit only a trifling fine, keeps it back by force,
then the laws direct the jury to impose an additional fine for the treasury
equal to that paid to the private owner?
Demosthenes. Demosthenes with an English translation by A. T. Murray, Ph.D., LL.D. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1939.
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