[17]
You should reflect that it is impossible for you to vote an acquittal. For if you reject the charge, when they admit that they are combining against the traders, you will be regarded as aiming a blow at the importers. If they were putting up some other defence, nobody could censure a verdict for acquittal; for it rests with you to choose which side you are to believe. But, as matters stand, your action cannot but be thought extraordinary, if you dismiss unpunished those who confess to breaking the law.
You should reflect that it is impossible for you to vote an acquittal. For if you reject the charge, when they admit that they are combining against the traders, you will be regarded as aiming a blow at the importers. If they were putting up some other defence, nobody could censure a verdict for acquittal; for it rests with you to choose which side you are to believe. But, as matters stand, your action cannot but be thought extraordinary, if you dismiss unpunished those who confess to breaking the law.
Against The Corn-Dealers. Lysias. W.R.M. Lamb (Translator). London. 1930.
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