On the record
Pecuniary punishments were the most common punishments at that day, and the foregoing provisions of Magna Carta show that the amount of those punishments was to be fixed by the jury.
Said by
Lysander Spooner
Source
gutenberg.orgLysander Spooner: “Pecuniary punishments were the most common punishments at that day, and the foregoing provisions of Magna Carta show…”
Editor's note · Context
Spooner notes that during his time, juries were responsible for determining the amount of pecuniary punishments.
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More from Lysander Spooner
In short, they acknowledge themselves hostes humani generis: enemies of the human race.
They do not attempt to deceive us, or mislead us, or reconcile us to their doings, by any such pretences, impostures, or insults as these.
They do not tell us that all liberty and order would be destroyed, that society itself would go to pieces, and man go back to barbarism, if it were not for the care, and supervision, and protection, they lavish upon us.
They neither ask, nor expect, any mercy, if they should ever fall into the hands of honest men.