On the record
The sense of justice in men is overloaded and fatigued with a long series of executions, or with such a carnage at once as rather resembles a massacre than a sober execution of the laws.
Said by
Edmund Burke
Source
gutenberg.orgEdmund Burke: “The sense of justice in men is overloaded and fatigued with a long series of executions, or with such a carnage at once…”
Editor's note · Context
Burke argues that a high number of executions diminishes the law's deterrent effect on both the wicked and the virtuous.
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They will become flatterers instead of legislators,--the instruments, not the guides of the people.
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Let us add, if we please, but let us preserve what they have left; and standing on the firm ground of the British Constitution, let us be satisfied to admire, rather than attempt to follow in their desperate flights, the aëronauts of…
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Let us imitate their caution, if we wish to deserve their fortune or to retain their bequests.
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