[68]
For those
who argue in this way, if they mean that those who sit on the bench have given some wrong
decisions, should not say that we ought not to be guided by the civil law, but by stupid men.
If they admit that the lawyers give proper answers, and still say that different decisions
ought to be given, that is saying that wrong decisions ought to be given; for it is quite
impossible that a decision of the judge on a point of law should be correct when given one
way, and an answer of a counsel should be right too when given the other way. It is quite
clear that no one has any right to be accounted learned in the law, who decides that an
incorrect decision is conformable to law. But sometimes contrary decisions have been given.
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M. Tullius Cicero. The Orations of Marcus Tullius Cicero, literally translated by C. D. Yonge, B. A. London. Henry G. Bohn, York Street, Covent Garden. 1856.
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