It is not necessary that legislators should enact natural law in order that it may be known to the people, because that would be presuming that the legislators already understand it better than the people, a fact of which I am not aware that they have ever heretofore given any very satisfactory evidence.
He questions the assumption that legislators understand natural law better than the public.
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And yet these reasons, which are really no reasons at all, are the only ones, so far as I know, that have ever been offered for this absurd and brutal doctrine.
It is also sheer impudence, on their part, to assume that their commands are at all necessary to teach other men what is, and what is not, justice.
It would be a solecism and absurdity in government to allow such consequences as these.
Practically speaking, no government knows any limits to its power, except the endurance of the people.