The code of Alfred would not fill twelve pages of the statute book of Massachusetts, and was little or nothing else than a compilation of the laws of Moses, and the Saxon customs, evidently collected from considerations of convenience, rather than enacted on the principle of authority.
Spooner critiques the brevity and simplicity of Massachusetts law compared to historical legal codes.
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They were even allowed to grant pardon to criminals, and to correct by their clemency the rigors of justice.
From the sale of that justice which every citizen has a right to demand, it was an easy transition to withhold or deny it.
Juries would refuse to enforce a tax against a man who had never agreed to pay it.
They are every day committing errors, which would be crimes, but for their ignorance of the law.