THE 



POPULAR SCIENCE 

 MONTHLY. 



FEBRUARY, 1880. 



THE OEIGIN OF CEIMmAL LAW. 



By WILLIAM W. BILLSON. 



ANTERIOR to all regulations for the punishment or suppression 

 of wrongs by an exercise of public authority, there was, as is 

 generally agreed, a time when injuries found redress only through the 

 resentment and retaliation of the injured party or his kin. 



The progress of society from this rude sort of vindictive justice 

 toward approved systems of criminal law presents some suggestive 

 examples of the devious paths through which early communities were 

 led to the recognition of truths which to us appear elementally. Nor 

 is the history of this progress less intelligible or instructive to the 

 general reader than to the professional student of the law ; since it 

 derives its interest not from its professional bearings, but from the 

 interesting illustration which it affords of general methods of institu- 

 tional development. In order to secure an accurate conception of the 

 legal system, the early growth of which it is proposed to examine, it 

 may be well to premise that the criminal law, which with a substantial 

 uniformity of cardinal ideas now prevails in all civilized states, is well 

 defined as "that branch of juridical law treating of those wrongs 

 which the government notices as injurious to the public, and punishes 

 by what is called a criminal proceeding, in its own name," 



If it is desired to ascertain the point at which public authority be- 

 gan to supersede private revenge in the punishment of wrong-doers, 

 it is worthy of observation that instances abound of tribes among 

 whom the only offenses punishable by public authority are treason 

 and its cognates, such as cowardice and desertion. Such was at one 

 time the condition of the old German nations, and a similar paucity of 

 recognized crimes is still discoverable among many of the Polynesian 

 and American Indian tribes, and is indeed quite characteristic of un- 

 VOL. XVI. — 28 



