"Ex postfacto" Quotes from Famous Books
 ... committed, that the existence of discontent among them must be inferred. There were libels, no doubt, and prophecies, and rumours and suspicions, strange grounds for a law inflicting capital penalties, ex post facto, on a large body ...
— Critical and Historical Essays Volume 1 • Thomas Babington Macaulay
... period, in the height of the ten per cent. mania, a school of railway economists sprang up which advocated placing the construction and the profits of railways in the hands of government, and they supported their theories by ex post facto criticism on the blunders of railway companies,—on the astonishing dividends of Mr. George Hudson's lines,—and on the hard terms on which capitalists had agreed to execute French railways for ...
— Rides on Railways • Samuel Sidney
... the time are scattered; the most of our friends are involved in this disaster, and Mataafa himself - who might have swept the islands a few months ago - for him to fall so poorly, doubles my regret. They say the Taupou had a gun and fired; probably an excuse manufactured EX POST FACTO. I go down to-morrow at 12, to stay the afternoon, and help Miss Large. In the hospital to- day, when I first entered it, there were no attendants; only the wounded and their friends, all equally sleeping and their heads poised upon the wooden pillows. There is ...
— Vailima Letters • Robert Louis Stevenson
... into any treaty, alliance, or confederation; grant letters of marque and reprisal; coin money; emit bills of credit; make any thing but gold and silver a legal tender in payment of debts; pass any bill of attainder, ex post facto law, or law impairing the obligation of contracts; or ...
— The Federalist Papers • Alexander Hamilton, John Jay, and James Madison
... sagaciously directing the various modes of investment, he bequeathed the aggregate amount to the nearest of blood, bearing the name of Ellison, who should be alive at the end of the hundred years. Many attempts had been made to set aside this singular bequest; their ex post facto character rendered them abortive; but the attention of a jealous government was aroused, and a legislative act finally obtained, forbidding all similar accumulations. This act, however, did not prevent young Ellison from entering into possession, ...
— The Works of Edgar Allan Poe - Volume 2 (of 5) of the Raven Edition • Edgar Allan Poe
... me guilty of it, for having, after it happened, dropped, that had he lived he might have fallen into more serious forgeries, though I declare that I never heard that he did. To be sure, no Irishman ever blundered more than to accuse one of an ex post facto murder! If this Hibernian casuist is smitten enough with his own miscarriage to preserve it in a magazine phial, I shall certainly not answer it, not even by this ...
— Letters of Horace Walpole, V4 • Horace Walpole
... shall enter into any Treaty, Alliance, or Confederation; grant Letters of Marque or Reprisal; coin Money; emit Bills of Credit; make any Thing but gold and silver Coin a Tender in Payment of Debts; pass any Bill of Attainder, ex post facto Law, or Law impairing the Obligation of Contracts, or ...
— The Fathers of the Constitution - Volume 13 in The Chronicles Of America Series • Max Farrand
... for children, the better. Whatever they may be, they should be distinctly expressed; the letter and spirit should both agree, and the words should bear but one signification, clear to all the parties concerned. They should never be subject to the ex post facto interpretation of an angry preceptor, or a cunning pupil; no loose general terms should permit tyranny, or encourage quibbling. There is said[68] to be a Chinese law, which decrees, that whoever does not show proper respect to the sovereign, is to be punished with death. ...
— Practical Education, Volume I • Maria Edgeworth
... of the power to work them; we cannot indeed believe that it could have been so far weakened as to make the Apostles disregard the prophecies of their Master that He should rise from the dead, if He had ever uttered them, and we have already seen reason to think that these prophecies are the ex post facto handiwork of time; but the incredulity of the disciples, when seen through the light now thrown upon it, loses that wholly inexplicable character which it ...
— The Fair Haven • Samuel Butler |
