3 1 8 Mr. T'urifer on Crhne: and TuniJJoments, 



afts of villainy, may, through a neceflary defe(3: 

 of forefight in the legillator, not only pafs un- 

 puniflied, but even, in fome cafes, be rewarded. 

 I am enabled to produce a cafe, which will ' 

 greatly illuftrate what has been faid : it comes 

 from an authority, which will readily be ac- 

 knowledged to be unquefhionable. * In one of 

 the midland counties of England, not many 

 years ago, an unnatural fon hired a bravo to 

 murder his father. In confequence of the old 

 man's death, a proclamation was iflued out, 

 offering a reward to any one who would difcover 

 the offender, and a pardon to any accomplice 

 iioho was not the immediate murderer. The fon 

 informed againfl the perfon whom he had him- 

 felf hired, and, upon his conviflion and execu- 

 tion, claimed and obtained the pardon and the 

 reward. Now we cannot, if we wiflied it, con- 

 ceive a more glaring inftance of moral depravity; 

 and yet, by human laws properly conftituted, 

 this mofl atrocious of all perfons was not only 

 indemnified, but rewarded, for that very adlion, 

 in which his villainy was mofl eminently appa- 

 rent. 



In this view of the term, the frequency of any 

 crime incrcafes, inftead of lefTening, its enormity. 



• Dr. Aikin (a man never to be mentioned by his pu- 

 pils but with gratitude and veneration) produced this 

 inftance in his Ethical Lettures, as a cafe which happened 

 in Lcicefterlhire, during his refidence at Kibvvorth. 



For 



