Litchfield enquirer., 1871-05-18

al revenge. and so constant peril to the public peace.
 F. REVIEW or THE LAW. G as9i
 Let me state distinctly what is the con dition of the law of this State so far as il relates to crimes against chastity and the family. Concerning kednction it is as ] have stated=-the crime is not known by name to the jurisprudence of the State Whether or not this is for the same reason that parricide was not named among the ancient laws of Rome--because the perpe. tration of it is 8 thing unheard of-may not be becoming irsEyo new 8 resident te say. Concerning faStication. the state oi the law is different. The early law in pro hibition of this offence having been re pealed, it is now not.only not forbidden it is especially legalizea by statute.
 Concerning adultery the legislation oi
 Maryland is peculiar. In many of the States of the Union. Shameful to say. this most grave crime against the law of God and against the laws of most civilized and even barbarous countries, is not forbidden as crime against the State. It can be pleaded, commonly. As ground of di vorce; or, it may bethei occasion of an action for personal dsmages. whenever an injured wife or husband can be found will ling to assess in money the value of ser vices lost to. himself Or herself iH conse. quence of it. But iH most of our States. so long as the party aggrieved is too poor, or too sick. or too Gmid, or too tenderly pitifEl towards the guilty spouse or to- wards the good nama=of little children, or too basely indifferent, or too hopeless o1 succe ssful litigation, to bring suit at civil law, it is nothing to the law whether one lives in fragrant adultery and notorious de- bauchery and corruption of other families. So long as the unfaithful husband or wife refrains from the formal contract of mar riage with another party, and so escapes from the charge of bigamy, the most fla grant adulterOus concnbinage is reckonetl by the law to be matter of no concern to tho public morals, matter to be settled between the parties most concerned, and that can be.entirely. squared and adjusted by a pecuniary payment. The law holds that any good citizen ought to be satisfied with such redress, and that when the par ties have been so satisfied, whether with or without civil provess before the court, the whole matter is simply nobody's busi- ness.
 ONLY A TREsPAss.
 Forgery, and burglary, and perjury are felonies; petty larceny is 8 misdemeanor; the crime most provoking of abhorrence and of just public anger in decent com crime which is stigmatized by the most ignominious punishments in all Christian or pagan lands besides-this prime, in the view of our advanced civili. ration, is no crime at all. not even mis- demeanor. but only an annoyance-a tres pass! But then we are very .virtuous and indignant concerning tkA state of the laws in Utah. which tolerate po1ygamy!
 However, as I have said, the law of Maryland differs from that of some oth. sr States, for here thefe is law against adultery. have been looking over the statute books. find there the guage of moral sentiment of the public towards the crimes there specified and prohibited According to our code the penalty for mur- Ter in the first degree is death; for murder n the second degree. imprisonment for lot less than five years. For forgery and atal duelling the penalty is not less than i've years Imprisonment. For farce ny of more in amount than five dollars here is penalty of from one year to fif- cen years imprisonment For petty lar 'eny. or the stealing of sums of less than i've dollars, the punishment is not to ex- 'eed eighteen months imprisonment in he penitentiary. For the crime of adul. cry the penalty is fine of ten dollars But prostitution, fornication and seduc- ion are lawful, o, stern and faithful gov O. magnanimous legislation! O, ,hivalrous peoplel that know the compara- i've value of property and of honor-and punish the thief with fifteen years im- ,risonment, and the adulterer with ten lollar fine.
 THE LAWS OF THE STATES.
 The jurisprudence of our States with re- gard to adultery may be classified in three trades. First-there are those which pun sh it as felony, with grave and infamous penalties. These are the Puritan States, whose law is founded on the Bible, and, I believe, also, the State of Louisiana, whose aw is modelled from the code Napoleon. are the States which pass ,ver the whole matter without mention. These are the States whose legislation is governed by the unfortunate traditions of he English law. And thirdly, there is the ,lass which turns the whole matter into a AAuOOuS JCScS os WuACu AOOic auy IAuSuS Oy imposing ten-dollar fine. and this class consists exclusively, so far as am yet im- 'ormed, of the State of Maryland.
 s PROPERTY MORE PRECIOUS THAN VIRTUE It is pertinent to the business in hand o remark, incidentally, that American cgislation generally on this whole subject of crimes of lewdness seems to have been affected by that vile and corrupting theory of government, that its sole function is the protection of person and property. and that accordingly it has no concern for the care of morality. So long as one does not offend the fastidiousness of his neighbors, or hurt the value of property by public in- it is the general disposition of the law to protect the ibertine in his right of debauchery, just as it protects any other citizen in his lawful pursuit of happiness. Against the less destructive and ruinous sins of lewdness, most countries, even though they do not pretend to suppress them, nevertheless record their reproduction in laws which may be enforced under fla vorable circumstances and against fagi- tious offenders. But in this State, and in most States besides those in which the precedents of the Puritan legislation have been followed, neither prostitution nor it's correlated vice is punishable under any whatever. Our States com- noniy have abdicated this whole depart ment of government, leaving this whole class of crimes free of all interference, ex- cept when they interfere with the value of