...legislator and not to the executor of the laws; that to have a system of pardons as an offset to unjust laws is "to nourish the flattering hope of impunity and...Prince in pardoning gives up the public security in favor of an individual and by his ill-judged benevolence proclaims a public act of immunity". 1 His...

...executor of the laws, a virtue which ought to shine in the code, and not in private judgment. To show mankind that crimes are sometimes pardoned, and that...punishment inflicted as an act of injustice and oppression. Let, then, the executors of the law be inexorable, but let the legislator be tender, indulgent, and...