But I pass by this as notorious enough, and also the points which I have
mentioned in Secs. 15-27 of the last chapter. For the main points have
been proved in this chapter, and the rest are self-evident.
21. That the judges ought to be too numerous for a large proportion of
them to be accessible to the bribes of a private man, and that they
should not vote openly, but secretly, and that they deserve payment for
their time, is known to everyone [11] But they everywhere have by custom
a yearly salary; and so they make no great haste to determine suits, and
there is often no end to trials. Next, where confiscations accrue to the
king, there frequently in trials not truth nor right, but the greatness
of a man's riches is regarded. Informers are ever at work, and everyone
who has money is snatched as a prey, which evils, though grievous and
intolerable, are excused by the necessity of warfare, and continue even
in time of peace. But the avarice of judges that are appointed but for
two or three years at most is moderated by fear of their successors, not
to mention, again, that they can have no fixed property, but must lend
their money at interest to their fellow-citizens. And so they are forced
rather to consult their welfare than to plot against them, especially if
the judges themselves, as we have said, are numerous.
22. But we have said, that no military pay is to be voted [12] For the
chief reward of military service is liberty.
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