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To be copied "to the community in general." When he adds
with a kind of timidity and reluctance
"that this it is rather a Sentence than a law."
[I could have wished he had spoken out in a
bolder stile, and as become a man and a
Citizen. Though this be an It certainly is an act of the Persons,
in whom the power of legislation is
vested: yet it is not a prop properly an act of the the
Legislature or at least not of the Legislature<lb>
alone. For in such an act, these persons <lb>
do, either lay aside their Legislative powers, <lb>
or do assume, and super add to them, the judicial
power. And, I think, our Author
should have carefully distinguished
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Is it done in their legislative capacity
or not? if it be, it must be a Law, for it is a declaration of the
will of the Legislature, is a Law. If it is not, if in this act <lb>
the legislative power is laid aside, & the judicial power only assumed <lb>
then it is a sentence. — But whether it be a Law, or a Sentence <lb>
it is a very bad thing. — <add>In the one case it is an abuse of the Legislative And if our Author has a mind for
power: in the other a Judgment pronounced by an incompetent court tribunal:
a new name he has any good Such an act does not deserve the name
If our Author will give it a new name
he has my free leave: leave to call it an extralegal Act let him call it if he will an extralegal Act
of a Law, , not because its operation is spent upon a single person, but
because the master is not a proper object of Legislation. It ought
not even to be called a Sentence, — because it is not, before cannot be before between
a competent Judge. It is an extra-legal Act, which no nothing
78)
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Identifier: | JB/096/031/001"JB/" can not be assigned to a declared number type with value 96. |
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096 |
comment on the commentaries |
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031 |
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001 |
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collectanea |
2 |
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recto |
c78 / c79 |
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168 |
[[watermarks::[quartered royal arms motif]]] |
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[[notes_public::"to be copied" [note not in bentham's hand]]] |
31035 |
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