XLIII. The words of God to Moses, when he spoke to him of false witnesses, as related in the ninth chapter of Deuteronomy, are very remarkable; he says, _non misereberis ejus_. No, Moses; have no tenderness, no compassion, nor any bowels or pity for such. The decree seems rigid, and so it does; but it is absolutely necessary also. With a false witness, all should be rigour, without the least mixture of clemency: _non misereberis ejus_. And so it is fit it should be; for if it was otherwise, who would be safe in their property, their honour, or their lives? This is not in reality abandoning or losing sight of compassion, but fixing your attention to it on the proper objects; it is turning the eyes of pity from a guilty individual, and placing them on an innocent multitude. XLIV. The same sort of punishment, which is inflicted on a false witness, having regard to proportioning the quantum of it to the nature or degree of the offence, should be applied to all those, who deceive, or in any shape procure deceit to be practised on Judges, in the business of trying a cause. It is necessary, in order to insure justice, to smooth the way by which truth is to advance to the tribunal, although it should be done with fire and sword. All that would be expended in rigour on this side, would be saved with interest on the other. By so much the more the proof of offences is facilitated, by so much the less will the number of them be; and the less frequent the sad spectacle of executions is, so much the less will the innocent suffer. Dispatch in civil causes, is also a matter of great importance, and should be added to the catalogue of these utilities. XLV. On this account, I am of opinion, that no indulgence, or remission whatever, should be allowed at the instance of an advocate, upon a suggestion of false citations, or mistakes in terms of law (leaving however such cases to discretion, which may be attributed to the equivocal meaning of words, or accidental omissions); but abstracted from this exception, such attempts, if you consider them, are contrary to the virtue and essence of justice, and should not be permitted to succeed.