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How often are we told by the lawyers, in a saying handed down from antiquity, that “a wretched servitude exists where the law is uncertain”!
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gutenberg.orgEditor's note · Context
Sumner cites a legal principle about the consequences of uncertain laws, emphasizing its historical significance.
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The most distant are not without a present influence on our daily lives.
Their existence is a disgrace to civilization; for it implies the common consent of nations to the Arbitrament of War, as regulated by these laws.
Controlled by such a code, employing such representatives, sustained by such agencies, animated by such Furies, and producing such fruits of tears and bitterness, it must be open to question.
The devices of party can no longer stave it off.
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