The law of treason neither could nor ought to be enforced against an act which was an error of judgment, not of intention--which was in good faith intended not to impair the well-being of the State, but to promote and augment it.
Bagehot discusses the legal limitations on prosecuting acts of treason that stem from honest mistakes rather than malicious intent.
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Subject to this saving remark, however, I not only admit, but maintain, that our Constitution is full of curious oddities, which are impeding and mischievous, and ought to be struck out.
The casual line was traced according to the strength of deceased combatants; succeeding generations fought elsewhere; and the hesitating line of a half-drawn battle was left to stand for a perpetual limit.
These anomalies, in a hundred instances, mark the old boundaries of a constitutional struggle.
But it is natural also that persons used to analyse political institutions should look at these anomalies with a little tenderness and a little interest.
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