Judges and Magistrates
group · 1 work · 3 mentions · 10 anchored passages
judge · judges · magistrate · magistrates · grave ministers of justice · the judge
spoken of as
1 expressionMagistrates and Judges1 mention
An Essay on Crimes and Punishments (English)
What must men think, when they see wise magistrates and grave ministers of justice, with indifference and tranquillity, dragging a criminal to death, and whilst a wretch trembles with agony, expecting the fatal stroke, the judge, who has condemned him, with the coldest insensibility, and perhaps with no small gratification from the exertion of his authority, quits his tribunal to enjoy the comfort …
in the texts
An Essay on Crimes and Punishments
The officials charged with applying, but not making or interpreting, the penal laws in individual criminal cases.
Judges, in criminal cases, have no right to interpret the penal laws, because they are not legislators.
The disorders that may arise from a rigorous observance of the letter of penal laws, are not to be compared with those produced by the interpretation of them.
who mistakes the vague result of his own confused reasoning, for the just interpretation of the laws.