ProceeiUii(/-i of the Roijal Socistij of Victoria. 'Ihl 



extent. Witliout a doubt there was retribution in that. 

 The man who had not the money to pay was entitled to 

 be punished by having something taken out of him as a 

 quid pro quo. He was not prepared to drop the old-fashioned 

 idea of retribution. Of course jvunishment was also deterrent. 

 It liad a deterrent effect upon the offender himself, inasmuch 

 as things were made so unpleasant ftjr him that he would 

 not be likely to repeat the offence. The extreme deterrent 

 was the taking away of life. After all, people value their 

 life more highly than anything else, and death was the 

 sti-ongest possible deterrent the law could inflict. It 

 practically amounted to this, that the community recognised 

 certain crimes as being of such an atrocious character, that it 

 sim})ly decreed that those who committed them should not 

 only be banished from human society, but should have their 

 existence terminated, not only as a strong deterrent, but to 

 prevent the possibility of the act ever being repeated by 

 them. It was not done with any view of exterminating 

 the breed, that was a hopeless task he was afraid. The 

 meeting was greatly indebted to Colonel Goldstein for 

 the manner in which he had brought the matter befoi-e 

 it. He was mistaken in thinking that because a man had 

 malformation of the brain, or some disease, that he was 

 therefore insane. He did not think many members of the 

 medical profession would hold such ci'ude doctrines as that. 

 It was quite certain that there might be diseases of the 

 brain without any indication of insanity, and, although it 

 was very unlikely, there might be mental derangement 

 without any demonstrable disease of the brain. As to other 

 matters, he was sure there were not many who w^ould be 

 inclined to differ greatly from what Colonel Goldstein had 

 said. 



The Rev. E. H. Sugden said that, in a definition of 

 crisiiinality, something was wanted which would connect 

 the selling of an article after hours and the taking of life in 

 cold blood. The anti-social spirit that both acts displayed 

 constituted them crimes against society. It seemed to him 

 that, in order to lessen the criminal po))ulation, the artificially 

 made crimes against society ought to be lessened as much as 

 possible. A glance at the list of indictable offences would 

 show that ninety-nine out of every hundred were not wrong 

 in themselves, but were wrong because society had made 

 them wrono-. Takina the view that the criminal was an 



