is a lighter one than that which he
himself committed; in the next place, we ought to employ some portion
of a demurrer, and to show by whom, and through whose agency, and
how, and when that matter ought to have been tried, or adjudged, or
decided. And at the same time, we ought to show that it was not proper
that punishment should have been inflicted before any judgment was
pronounced. Then we must also point out the laws and the course of
judicial proceeding by which that offence which the accused person
punished of his own accord, might have been chastised according to
precedent, and by the regular course of justice. In the next place, it
will be right to deny that it is proper to listen to the charge which
is brought by the accused person against his victim, when he who
brings it did not choose to submit it to the decision of the judges,
and it may be urged that one ought to consider that on which no
decision has been pronounced, as if it had not been done, and after
that to point out the impudence of those men who are now before
the judges accusing the man whom they themselves condemned without
consulting the judges, and are now bringing him to trial on whom they
have already inflicted punishment. After this we may say that it is
bringing irregularity into the courts of justice, and that the judges
will be advancing further than their power authorizes them, if they
pronounce judgment at the same time in the case of the accused person,
and of him whom the accused person impeaches. And in the next place,
we may point out if this rule is established, and if men avenge one
offence by another offence, and one injury by another injury, what
vast inconvenience will ensue from such conduct, and that if the
person who is now the prosecutor had chosen to do so too, there would
have been no need of this trial at all, and that if every one else
were to do so, there would be an end of all courts of justice.

After that it may be pointed out, that even if the maiden who is now
accused by him of this crime had been convicted, he would not himself
have had any right to inflict punishment on her, so that it is a
shameful thing that the man who would have had no right to punish her,
even if she had been convicted, should have punished her without her
being even brought to trial at all. And then the accused person may
be called upon to produce the law which he says justifies his having
acted in such a manner.

After that, as we ha