The fact, then, that his laws were not authoritative with the people, is proof that they were not authoritative with the tribunals in other words, that they were not, as matter of course, enforced by the tribunals.
Spooner claims that the lack of enforcement of the king's laws by tribunals indicates their lack of authority over the people.
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Therefore all their laws, as they call them,--that is, all the laws of their own making,--have no color of authority or obligation.
If the authority be vested in the government, the governmnt is absolute, and the people have no liberties except such as the government sees fit to indulge them with.
That the legislation of the king was of no authority over a jury, is further proved by the oath taken by the kings at their coronation.
The people are no more arrayed against themselves, when a jury puts its veto upon a statute, which the other tribunals have sanctioned, than they are when the same veto is exercised by the representatives, the senate, the executive, or the…