5. The want of a more correct and regular System, for the purpose of obtaining the fullest and most authentic information, to avoid deceptions in the obtaining of pardons.

6. The deficiency of the System of the Hulks.

7. The want of an improved System with regard to the arrangements and disposal af Convicts-destined for hard labour or for transportation.

8. The want of national Penitentiary Houses, for the punishment and reformation of certain classes of Convicts.

9. The want of a more solemn mode of conducting Executions; whenever such dreadful examples are necessary for the furtherance of Public Justice.

Having thus explained the general features of the actually existing Crimes, and their probable causes, we shall in the next place proceed to some considerations on the present principles of Punishments, in this Country, as compared with those in other nations and ages. It will then be requisite to enter into particular and minute details on both these subjects; and to offer some suggestions for the introduction of new and applicable laws to be administered with purity under a correct and energetic System of Police; which may be, in some degree, effectual in guarding the Public against those increasing and multifarious injuries and dangers, which are universally felt and lamented.

CHAP.

CHAP. II.

Of Punishments in general.-The mode of ascertaining the degrees of Punishment.-The objects to be considered in inflicting Punishments-—namely, Amendment Example-and Retribution.-The Punishment of Death has little effect on hardened Offenders.-Examples of convicts exhibited in servile employments would make a greater impression.-Towards rendering the criminal laws perfect, Precention ought to be the great object of the Legislature. -General Rules suggested for attaining this object, with illustrations.-The severity of our laws with respect to Punishments-not reconcileable to the principles of morality, and a free government—calculated in their operation to debase the human character.-General Reflections on the Punishments authorised by the English Law.-The disproportion of Punishments, exemplified in the case of an assault, opposed to a larceny.-In seduction and adultery, which are not punishable as criminal offences.-The laws severe in the extreme in political offences, while they are lax and defective with regard to moral Crimes.-The necessity of enforcing the observance of religious and moral Virtue by lesser Punishments.

General Reflections applicable to public and private Crimes.-The dangers arising from the progress of immorality to the safety of the State.-The leading offences made capital by the laws of England considered,

considered, with the Punishment allotted to each; compared with, and illustrated by, the custom of other countries, in similar cases, both ancient and modern: namely, High Treason-Petit Treason: -Felonies against Life, viz. Murder, Manslaughter, Misadventure, and Self-defence: against the Body, comprehending Sodomy, Rape, Forcible Marriage, Polygamy and Mayhem.-Against Goods or Property, comprehending Simple Larceny, Mixt Larceny, and Piracy,—and against the Habitation, comprehending Arson and Burglary.-Concluding Reflections relative to the severity of the Laws, and their imperfections with regard to Punishment.The new Code of the Emperor JOSEPH the Second, shortly detailed.--Reflections thereon.

PUNISHMENT, (says a learned and respectable author) is an evil which a delinquent suffers, unwillingly, by the order of a Judge or Magistrate; on account of some act done which the Law prohibits, or something omitted which the Law enjoins.

All Punishment should be proportioned to the nature of the offence committed; and the Legislature, in adjusting Punishment with a view to the public good, ought, according to the dictates of sound reason, to act on a comparison of the Crime under consideration, with other offences injurious to Society and thus by comparing one offence with

another,

another, to form a scale, or gradation, of Punishments, as nearly as possible consistent with the strict rules of distributive justice.*

It is the triumph of Liberty, says the great Montesquicu, when the criminal laws proportion punishments to the particular nature of each offence.-It may be further added, that when this is the case, it is also the triumph of Reason.

In order to ascertain in what degree the Public is injured or endangered by any crime, it is necessary to weigh well and dispassionately the nature of the offence, as it affects the Community.-It is through this medium that Treason and Rebellion are discovered to be higher and more dangerous offences than breaches of the peace by riotous assemblies; as such riotous meetings are in like manner considered as more criminal than a private assault.

In punishing delinquents, two objects ought to be invariably kept in view.

1. The Amendment of the Delinquent.

2. The Example afforded to others.

To which may be added, in certain cases, 3. Retribution to the party injured.

If we attend to Reason, the Mistress of all Law, she will convince us that it is both unjust and injurious to Society to inflict Death, except for the highest offences, and in cases where the offender appears to be incorrigible.

Beccaria on Crimes and Punishments, Cap. 6.

es

Wherever

Wherever the amendment of a delinquent is in view, it is clear that his punishment cannot extend to death: If expatiating an offence by the loss of life isto be (as it certainly is at present) justified by the necessity of making examples for the purpose of preventing crimes, it is evident that the present System has not had that effect, since they are by no means diminished; and since even the dread of this Punishment has, under present circumstances, so little effect upon guilty associates, that it is no uncommon thing for these hardened offenders to be engaged in new acts of theft, at the very moment their companions in iniquity are launching, in their very presence, into eternity.

The minds of offenders, long inured to the prac tice of criminal pursuits, are by no means beneficially affected by the punishment of Death, which they are taught to consider as nothing but a momentary paroxysm which ends all their distress at once; nay even as a relief, which many of them, grown desperate, look upon with a species of indifference, bordering on a desire to meet that fate, which puts an end to the various distresses and anxieties attendant on a life of criminality.

The effect of capital punishments, in the manner they are now conducted, therefore, as far as relates to example, appears to be much less than has been generally imagined.

Examples would probably have much greater force, even on those who at present appear dead to shame

and