ABSTRACT
Another means to prevent crimes is to interest the executive magis-tracy in observance of the laws rather than their corruption. The greater the number of judges the less dangerous is the usurpation of the laws, because venality is more difficult among members who watch each other. Their interests in asserting their own authority decrease as the portion of it they can have becomes smaller1, especially when compared with the danger of the enterprise. If a sovereign with his trappings and pomp, with austerity of edicts, permits just or unjust complaints of one who believes himself oppressed, he will accustom his subjects to fear the magistrates more than the laws. Thus the magistrates will profit more from this fear at the expense of private and public security.114
