PHI LOS 0 P H Y . - Classic Works of Apologetics Online

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dam~ge, when !be fault is mutual; or to a (0111pr,itit~
dmg of the diJ/)uJ,J, by accepting a compensation in the
gross, without entering into articles and items, which
it is often verj difficult to adjust separately.
As to the rest, the duty of the contending parties
may be expressed in the following directions:
Not by appeals to prolong a suit against your own
• •
convIctIon.
Not to undertake or defend a suit against a poor
advenary, or render it more dilatory or expensive
than necessary, with a hope of intimidating or wearyinu
him out by the expense.
°Not to influence evidence by authority or expecta ..
•
bon.
Nor to stifle any in your possession, although
it iilake against you.
Hitherto we have treated of civil actions.
In
criminal prosecutions the private injury should be
forgotten, and the prosecutor ploceed with the same
temper, and upon the same motives, as the magistrate;
the one being a necessary minister of justice
as well as the other, and both bound to direct their
conduct by a dispassionate care of the public welfare.
III \v hate,'er degree the punishrllent of an oHendel·
~ conducive, or his escape dangeleous, to the interest
of the community, in the same degree is the party .
against whom the crime was committed bound to·
prosecute, because such prosec~tions must in their
pature originate from the sufferer.
Therefore, great public crimes, as robberies, forgeries,
and the like, ought not to be spared, from an
apprehensbn of trouble or expense in carrying on
the prosecution, from false shame) or misplaced come
pa~ston.
There are many offences, such as nuisance~, neg­
!ect of public roads, forestalling, engrossing, smuggling,
sabbath.breaking, profaneness, drunkenness,
prostitution, the keeping of lewd or disorderly houses,
:hc writing, publishing, or exposing to sale Jasciv ..