XL. Let us now consider, that the falsehoods and deceits, with which tribunals are environed, make the investigation of truth so difficult, that in some causes it is come at late, and in others never. This is a most pernicious injury to the public, for the tediousness and difficulty of the verification, gives breathing-time for the ill intentioned, to devise and concert all sorts of wickedness. What remedy then can you apply to this evil, but that of punishing rigorously every kind of judicial deceit? The most pernicious loss or disadvantage to a commonwealth, does not consist so much in there being a great number of members in it who do not fear God, as it does in those members who do not fear God, not fearing the magistrate neither. XLI. I am not surprized that there are so many false witnesses, when I observe the lenity that is shewn to them. Among the eastern nations, according to Strabo, they used to cut off their feet and their hands. And Heraclides says, that among the Lycians, they used to confiscate all their effects, and sell them for slaves. Alexander of Alexandria relates, that the Pysidians threw them headlong from a high precipice. In the Helvetic history, we read, that the magistrates of Bern put to death two witnesses by boiling them in oil, for having deposed falsely, that one citizen owed another a large sum of money. XLII. When I contemplate how necessary rigour is in such matters, none of these punishments strike me with horror. The most just and reasonable punishment for this mischief, and the best adapted for the purpose, is the Lex Talionis, which was dictated by the Divine mouth, and which God ordained to be established among the people of Israel, and which is also recommended by various texts of the civil law. It was in use in Spain, according to the practice of the antient law, called the law of Toro. But ultimately, on account of its not being adapted to all cases, Philip the IId. leaving it in its full vigour with respect to capital cases, where the false witness was to suffer the same punishment, which, if his evidence had taken effect, was to have been inflicted on the person accused; I say, with this exception, he ordained for all other cases of perjury, that the delinquent should be exposed to public shame and disgrace, and condemned to perpetual imprisonment in the gallies. But when will these laws be put in execution? I don’t know whether in the long course of my life, I have once seen the application of them. What most commonly happens is, that just as they are on the point of determining on the sentence, Pity violently and abruptly enters, and makes her appearance in the court; and upon contemplation of this most serene lady, the Judges, instead of public shame and perpetual confinement in the gallies, decree a fine or pecuniary punishment.