Mr. 'Turner on Crimes and PuniJJjments. 321 



the inconveniences, of too lax a fandlion to the 

 laws, and to avoid, on the other, the evils of too 

 fevere a one. — In order to do this with exa<?snefs, 

 it is requifite that there be previoufly obtained 

 a full and perfed: fcale * of offences, clafled 

 according to iht'xr political enormity, '\ which per- 

 haps is impoflible; and we muft afterwards be 

 able to apply the feveral kinds of punifliment 

 which it is in the power of the civil masiflrate 

 to inflid, Ij. in a due proportion to the degrees 

 of enormity marked down in the fcale. He who 

 approaches neareft to this ideal perfedion, is 

 the wifell and mod perfed legiflator: he who 

 falls fhort of it, muft, in that degree, labour 

 under great difadvantages. 



For if the evil conjequences of the punifiiment 

 he appoints be lefs than the probable advantages 

 of the crime it is meant to rellrain, it will, in 

 effedl, be worfe than no punilhment at all ; for 

 then, what is gained by the crime, is gained not 

 only fecurely, but legally. The article of fmug- 

 gling will afford us a ftriking example. The 

 political enormity of this offence fcems not to have 

 been fufficiently attended to. || It ought to be 

 remembered, that other offences, without the 



• Beccaria, C. V'T. f See above, I. 4. 



J See above, I. 3. 



II Except by Dr. Franklin. See his admirable paper on 

 fmuggling in his Mifcellaneous Pieces. 



Vol. II. Y 



exception 



