It would be an act of despotism, or what in England is called arbitrary power, to make a law to prohibit investigating the principles, good or bad, on which such a law, or any other is founded.
In "Rights of Man, Part Two," Paine asserts that prohibiting the examination of legal or governmental principles constitutes arbitrary power.
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Discussion and the general will arbitrates the question, and to this, private opinion yields with a good grace, and order is preserved uninterrupted.
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