The National Register.
London, England, 1819-02-14 00:00:00

No. 575.—V0L. XII.

POLITICAL DISQUISITION.

OI•I OUR CRIMINAL LAW.

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[Weil INITED MUM OUR LAST.]
• IN our last number we examined the do:_•trine of
Dr. Paley in defence of the discretion, which by the
lqw of England (as it is practised) is veAel in t;:a
hands of the Judges, of punLi:ing a vast number of
oTenees in general witii tran:.partation, but in many
instances with death, and the consequent severity of the
law in so:no cases, as well ns its uncertainty in all ; mad
zero endeo-oured to -.entrovert the reasonings of the
learned Divine. We hate shewn nequent dispro-
portion of the punishment to the eilimees, and the
royal uncertainty of what the punishment will be
in each case. Now this disproportion and thi uncer-
taints, are, we conceive, two fundamental deferts in the
criminal code of this country. Let us hear what Mon-
o:gram says—' Experience proves, that in countries
where punishments are mild, men's minds are a much
sTicted by them, as they are in other countries where
:he penalties of the law are severe. Is any crime
• :nee particularly prevalent in a state ? a violent
• ;,overnment is anxixts to rem..xly this immediately ;
• and, instead of enferelng the existing isms wiih great-
' er vigilance ant nativity, they eruct some severe
• punishment, which, may be, stops the •vil at once.
' But the springs of government arc szteinel : the
imagination soon becomes ac7.ustomel to the new
punishment, ns much es it had been to the old ; and
as the dread of the former sentence is thus din.,inilied
it is soon found necessary to have rezourso to the new
aril more violent remedy in ail ensei.—Highway rob-
' tmries were become very coniaton ir. several countries ;
governments were anxicrus to put a stop to them:
the FuniF.!:inent of the wheel was invented, which
SO:ye:vied their frequency for some time; since that
time, however, highway robLorie3 have become as

' rotamon as ever.
In fact, mankind arc not to be governed by extreme
' measurer, and it is necessary fur their governors to ,
husband the means which nature has entrusted to
them. If we examine the causes which have made
the laws at different dines insufficient• to suppress
offences, we shall find that they consist in the
punity of crimes by reason of the lax administration
of the laws ; and not insufficiency of the punishment—
, We should follow nature, who has assigned shame as
the severest infliction on mankind, and has made the
' heariest weight cf punishment consist in the infamy
' of undergoing in oi.y country .disgrace is not
' the necessary accompaniment of suffering under
' the sentence of the law, a tyrannical pvernatent
is the cause, which has inflicted the same punish-
' :news on rascals and on honest men. If in another
country men arc not restrained except by the in-
' fiktion of ,severe and cruel penalties, the cause in a
• ;;reat measure is the violence of the government which
' has had recourse to such punislnuentslor minor of-
' fences. A lawgiver, wilq desires to correct an evil,
• too often thinks of that cerreetion alone : t 9 this objest
liis CYCJI are open,—to all other ineenvcnicncies they
arc shut. When the evil has been Cereal, men see
only the severity of the legislator; bat there remains
' a new evil which .this severity has itsdf generated :
the torte of feeling in men's minds is spoilt, for they
hese .I;aett ancustomed to despotism .'•
These last observations are peculiarly applicable to
the seminal law. of this.country ; for, if we leak into
the history of many of our most severe statutes, we
shall nail that they originate in thcso yery nwtives of
cagernesit to anp?ress temporary evils. The cause, the
motives have rks6ed away, but the bloody statute has
remained; anti, worse thun that, the indifference of the
legislature to the infliction of capital punishment, and
of the nation to the apprelumair.t of them. By thee