To say that subjects in general are not proper judges (of the law) when their governors oppress them and play the tyrant, and when they defend their rights ...is as great a treason as ever a man uttered.
Interpretation
The quote emphasizes that subjects cannot justly judge the law when oppressed by tyrannical governors, equating such judgment to treason.
Jonathan Mayhew's quote reflects the idea that when authority figures, like governors, act oppressively, the subjects they govern are not in a position to impartially judge the laws that bind them. In effect, it highlights a moral and philosophical dilemma regarding justice, authority, and the condition under which laws are applied, asserting that it is treasonous to expect rational judgment from those who are being wronged.
In practice
In a speech about civil rights, one might invoke this quote to highlight the injustice faced by oppressed groups.
Not to discontinue our allegiance, in this case, would be to join with the sovereign in promoting the slavery and misery of that society, the welfare of which, we ourselves, as well as our sovereign, are indispensably obliged to secure and promote, as far as in us lies.
A conception not reducible to the small change of daily experience is like a currency not exchangeable for articles of consumption; it is not a symbol, but a fraud.
You've got to learn to accept the law of life, and face the fact that we disintegrate slowly.
The fact that a cloud from a minor volcanic eruption in Iceland—a small disturbance in the complex mechanism of life on the Earth—can bring to a standstill the aerial traffic over an entire continent is a reminder of how, with all its power to transform nature, humankind remains just another species on the planet Earth.
There are men so philosophical that they can see humor in their own toothaches. But there has never lived a man so philosophical that he could see the toothache in his own humor.
The shallow, as intimated, consider liberty a release from all law, from every constraint. The wise see in it, on the contrary, the potent Law of Laws.
Out of the experience of extraordinary human disaster that lasted too long, must be born a society of which all humanity will be proud.
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