Ministers and officials with large but well-defined powers, laying upon them this duty, which they are constrained honestly and firmly to perform. To attack them for Acts done in the execution of their office, under such powers and obligations, therefore, is not so much to attack the individuals as the Government they represent, and the laws they administer for the maintenance of peace and order.
That Public Servants and Functionaries, when acting within legal limits, are entitled to protection, is a principle which has always been recognized by Governments; that they may stand between their officers and any assailant, and protect them from either wrong or injury. Were it otherwise, indeed, who could be found to administer the laws - maintain order, guard or enforce the observance of Treaties? If, in the legal execution of their duty, they rendered themselves liable to be prosecuted in a Court, without means of defence, and to be mulcted in ruinous and vindictive damages, at the suit of an offender who had been justly punished, and had suffered no greater punishment than that assigned by the Law for the offence of which he was convicted; it is evident no one could venture to act.
The legitimate action of every Minister and official on whom a Criminal and Civil Jurisdiction has been conferred in the East, would be paralyzed, and the boldest could be deterred from seeking to enforce the law and repress disorder. How serious an evil this would be, and how contrary to the views of...