550 
as a betrayer of his fellows; so great is 
the power and confidence of the delin- 
guent party. Morne 
The way to help this, is to augment 
both the punishment and the reward, 
and to provide that the inflicting of the 
one, and the obteyning of the other, 
may be both easie and certain; for to 
impose a penalty, and to leave the way 
of raysing it so tedious and difficult, as 
in this case hitherto it is, amounts to no 
more than this: If the enformer will 
spend ten pound, ’tis possible he may re- 
cover five; and so the prosecutor must 
Impose a greater penalty upon himself, 
then the law does upon the offender, or 
else all comes to nothing. 
An expedient for this inconvenience 
3s highly necessary; and why may not 
the oath of one credible witness or more, 
before a master of th® chancery, or a 
justice of the peace, serve for a convic- 
tion. Especially the person accused 
being left at liberty before such oath 
taken, either to appeal to the privy- 
council, or to abide the decision, 
Now to the several sorts of penalties, 
and to the application of them. 
The ordinary penalties [ find to be 
these: Death, mutilation, imprisonment, 
banishment, corporal peyns, di-grace, 
pecuniary mulets; which penaltics are 
to be apply’d with regard to the quality 
of the offence, and to the condition of 
the delinquent, 
The offence is either blasphemy, he- 
resie, schism, treason, sedition, scandal, 
or contempt of authority. 
The delinquents are the advisers, nu- 
thors, compilers, writers, printers, cor- 
rectors, stitchers, and binders, of unlaw- 
ful books and, pamphlets; together with 
all publishers, dispersers, and concealers 
_of them in general, and all stationers, 
posts, hackny-coachmen, earryers, boat. 
men, mariners, hawkers, mercury-wo- 
men, pedlers, and bailad-singers, so of- 
fending, in particular. 
Penalties of disgrace ordinarily in 
practice are many, and more may be 
added. 
Pillory, stocks, whipping, carting, stig- 
matizing, disablement to bear office or 
testimony, publique recantation, standing 
under the gallows with a rope about the 
neck at a publique execution, disfran- 
chisement (if free-men), cashiering. (if 
souldiers), degrading (if persons of con- 
dition), wearing some badge of infamy, 
condemnation to work: either in mines, 
lantations, or houses of correction. 
Under the head’ of pecuniary mulcts, 
Scarce Tracts, &c. 
[July 1, 
are comprehended forfeitures, confis« 
eations, loss of any beneficial office or 
employment, incapacity to hold or en 
joy any; and finally, all damages ac- 
cruing, and impos’d, as a punishment 
for some offence. 
-Touching the other penalties before~ 
mention’d, it suffices only to have nam’d 
them, and so to proceed to the applica= 
tion of them, with respect to the crime, 
and to the offender. 
The penalty ought to bear proportion 
to the malice, and influence of the of- 
fence, but with respect to the offender 
too; iur the same punishment (unless it 
be death itself) is not the same thing 
to several persons, and it may be proper 
enough to punish one man in his purse, 
another in his credit, a third in his body, 
and all for the same offence. 
The grand delinquents are, the au. 
thors or compilers (which I reckon as 
all one), the printers, and stationers. 
For the authors, nothing canbe too 
severe that stands with humanity and 
conscience. First, ’tis the way to cut 
of the fountain of our troubles. Qdly, 
there are not many of them in an age, 
and so the less work to do. 
The printer and stationer come next, 
who, beside the common petalties of 
mony, loss of copies, or printing mate- 
rials, may be subjected to thest further 
punishments, 
Let them forfeit the best copy they 
have, at the choice of that surveigher of 
the press under whose cognisance the 
offence lyes; the profit whereof the said ™ 
officer shall see thus distributed, one 
third to the king, a second to the enfor- 
mer, reserving the remainder to himself, 
In some cases, they may be condemn’d 
to wear some visible badge, or marque 
of ignominy, as.a halter instead of a hat- 
band, one stocking blew, and another 
red; a blew bonnet with a red T or S 
upon it, to denote the crime to be either 
treason or sedition: and if at any time, 
the person so condemned shall be found 
without the said badge or marque during 
the time of his obligation to wear it, let 
him incurre some further penalty, pro- 
vided only, that if-within the said time 
he shall discover and seize, or cause to 
be seized, any author, printer, or stae 
tioner, liable at the time of that disco 
very and seizure, to be proceeded against 
for the matter of treasonous or seditious 
pamphlets, the offender aforeraid shalk 
from the time of that discovery be diss 
chary’d from wearing it any longer. 
This proposal may seem phantastique 
a ee en 
