The safety of society, which is the only object of the criminal law, requires only that those acts which are understood by mankind at large to be intrinsically criminal, should he punished as crimes.
He asserts that criminal law should only punish acts widely recognized as criminal.
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It was simply, that they would neither convict the innocent, nor acquit the guilty.
They cannot claim or expect that the whole people shall practise the folly of taking on trust their pretended superior knowledge, and of committing blindly into their hands all their own interests, liberties, and rights, to be disposed of…
All other laws, it is optional with each man to obey, or not, as he may choose.
From the sale of that justice which every citizen has a right to demand, it was an easy transition to withhold or deny it.