tors, which he even did after the cap was drawn over his eyes. Editor. CRIMES, MEANS OF PREVENTING. It is better to prevent crimes than to punish them. This is the fundamental principle of good legislation, which is the art of conducting men to the maximum of happiness, and to the minimum of misery, if we apply this mathematical expression to the good and evil of life. But the means hitherto employed for that purpose are generally inadequate, or contrary to the end proposed. It is impossible to reduce the tumultuous activity of mankind to absolute regularity; for, amidst the various and opposite attractions of pleasure and pain, human laws are not sufficient entirely no prevent disorders in society. Such, however, is the chimera of weak men, when invested with authority. To prohibit a number of indifferent actions is not to prevent the crimes which they may produce, but to create new ones, it is to change at will the ideas of virtue and vice, which, at other times, we are told, are eternal and immutable. To what a situation should we be reduced if every thing were to be forbidden that might possibly lead to a We must be deprived of the use of our senses for one motive that induces a man to commit a real crime, there are a thousand which excite him to those indifferent actions which are called crimes by bad laws. If then, the probability that a crime will be committed he in proportion to the number of motives, to extend the sphere of crimes will be to increase that probability. The genera lity of laws are only exclusive privileges, the tribute of all to the advantage of a few. crime? Would Would you prevent crimes? Let the laws be clear and simple, let the entire force of the nation be united in their defence, let them be intended rather to favour every individual than any particular classes of men, let the laws be feared, and the laws only. The fear of the laws is salutary, but the fear of men is a fruitful and fatal source of crimes. Men enslaved are more voluptuous, more debauched, and more cruel than those who are in a state of freedom. These study the sciences, the interest of nations, have great objects before their eyes, and imitate them; but those, whose views are confined to the present moment, endeavour, amidst the distraction of riot and debauchery, to forget their situation; accustomed to the uncertainty of all events, for the laws determine none, the consequences of their crimes become problematical, which gives an additional force to the strength of their passions. In a nation indolent from the nature of the cli mate, the uncertainty of the laws confirms and increases men's indolence and stupidity. In a voluptuous but active nation, this uncertainty occasions a multiplicy of cabals and intrigues, which spread distrust and diffidence through the hearts of all, and dissimulation and treachery are the foundation of their prudence. In a brave and powerful nation, this uncertainty of the laws is at last destroyed, after many oscillations from liberty to slavery, and from slavery to liberty again. Would you prevent crimes? Let liberty be attended with knowledge. As knowledge extends, the disadvantages which attend it diminish, and the advantages increase. A daring impostor, who is always a man of some genius, is adored by the ignorant populace, and despised by men of under standing standing. Knowledge facilitates the comparison of objects, by shewing them in different points of view. When the clouds of ignorance are dispelled by the radiance of knowledge, authority trembles, but the force of the laws remains immoveable. Men of enlightened understanding must necessarily approve those useful conventions which are the foundations of public safety; they compare, with the highest satisfaction, the inconsiderable portion of liberty, of which they are deprived with the sum total sacrificed by others for their security; observing, that they have only given up the pernicious liberty of injuring their fellow creatures, they bless the throne, and the laws upon which it is established. Beccaria. CRIMES, ORIGIN OF. Idleness is a never-failing road to criminality. It originates generally in the inattention and the bad example of profligate parents.-And when it has unfortunately taken hold of the human mind, unnecessary wants and improper gratifications, not known or thought of by persons in a course of industry, are constantly generated hence it is, that crimes are resorted to, and every kind of violence, hostile to the laws, and to peace and good order, is perpetrated. : The criminal and unfortunate individuals, who compose the dismal catalogue of highwaymen, footpad robbers, burglars, pick-pockets, and com on thieves in and about this metropolis, may be divided into the three following classes: 1. Young men of some education, who having acquired idle habits by abandoning business, or by being bred to no profession, and having been se duced duced by this idleness to indulge in gambling, and scenes of debauchery and dissipation, at length impoverished, and unable to purchase their accustomed gratifications, have recourse to the highway to supply their wants. 2. Tradesmen and others, who having ruined their fortunes and business by gaming and dissipation, sometimes, as a desperate remedy, go upon the road. But these two classes are extremely few in number, and bear no proportion to the lower and more depraved part of the fraternity of thieves, who pur. sue the trade systematically; who conduct their depredations under such circumstances of caution, as to render detection extremely difficult; and whose knowledge of all the weak parts of the Criminal Law is generally so complete, as to enable them to elude justice, and to obtain acquittals, when detected and put upon their trials :—namely― 3. 1st. Servants, ostlers, stable and post-boys out of place, who, preferring what they consider as idleness, have studied the profession of thieving. -2d. Persons, who being imprisoned for debts, assaults, or petty, offences, have learned habits of idleness and profligacy in goals.-3d. Idle and disorderly mechanics and labourers, who having on this account lost the coufidence of their masters or employers, resort to thieving, as a means of support from all which the notorious and hacknied thieves generally select the most trusty and daring to act as their associates.-4th. Criminals tried and acquitted of offences charged against them, of which class a vast number is an⚫ nually let loose upon society.-5th. Convicts discharged from prisons and the hulks, after suf G fering fering the sentence of the law; too often instructed by one another in all the arts and devices which attach to the most extreme degree of human depravity, and in the perfect knowledge of the means of perpetrating crimes, and of eluding Justice. Colquhoun. Offences of every description have their origin in the vicious and immoral habits of the people, and in the facilities which the state of manners and society, particularly in vulgar life, afford in generating vicious and bad habits. In tracing the progress of those habits which are peculiar to the lower orders of the community in this great metropolis, from infancy to the adult state, the cause will be at once discovered, why that almost universal profligacy prevails, which, by being productive of so much evil to the unfortunate individuals, as well as the community at large, cannot be sufficiently deplored. Before a child is perhaps able to lisp a sentence, it is carried by its ill-fated mother to the tap-100m of an ale-house, (it is even a practice not with a few of the labouring families in the eastern part of the town, to take lodgings in ale houses,) in which are assembled multitudes of low company, many of whom have been perhaps reared in the same manner. The vilest and most profane and polluted language, accompanied by oaths and imprecations, is uttered in these haunts of idleness and dissipation. -Children follow their parents during their progress to maturity, and are almost the constant witnesses of their besotted courses.-Reduced, from their unfortunate habits, to the necessity of occupying a miserable half-furnished lodging, from week to week, there is no comfort at home.-No knowledge of frugal cookery exists, by which a nourish |