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pressing, as far as possible, all actions by wbich society is 

 endangered or injured. — " Salus populi suprema lex." After 

 showing the incompatibility of this principle with the 

 indulgence of angry or vindictive feelings towards criminals 

 — the part of Christian legislators being not to return evil 

 for evil, but, if possible, to overcome evil with good — he 

 admitted that the principle would not sanction the infliction 

 of unjust severity on individuals out of consideration for 

 the supposed welfare of society. He then remarked that it 

 had been the general aim of Governments to deter men from 

 disobedience by the frightful severity of penalties, and asked 

 why we revolted at the idea of resorting to the savage 

 punishments of former times, if they were effective for their 

 proposed end. If it were possible thus to deter from crime, 

 the more horrible the penalty the better, and the more 

 merciful, it might be said, because it would scarcely, if ever, 

 have to be inflicted. But it was notorious that crime never 

 yet had been thus repressed, and we felt it to be unjust and 

 cruel to punish men not for what they had done, but for 

 the prospective crimes of others. He then showed that the 

 same objection applied to the simple punishment of death 

 for all offences short of murder. In the case of murder, 

 however, it might be said, that if we refrained from putting 

 the murderer to death we might be endangering the lives of 

 innocent and estimable persons ; and he admitted that, if 

 this were indeed the alternative, the punishment of death for 

 murder would be justifiable. It was justifiable to cut off a 

 limb to save a patient, and so likewise to cut off an unsound 

 member of society, if this could be proved to be the only, 

 or the best, cure for the social disease of crime. But this 

 led to the question of the actual efficacy of capital punish- 

 ment in preventing crime, which he denied. He quoted 

 historical facts, especially from the reigns of Henry VIII 

 and Elizabeth, to show that crimes have most abounded 

 when executions have been most frequent, which at least 



