60 AN AMERICAN FARMER IN ENGLAND. 



stronger, and happier. This also is a corollary of the second 

 principle to which I refer, namely, that the great end of 

 criminal law is to prevent, discourage, and lessen crime. 



I say that practically, among the mass of our community, 

 the punishment of criminals is felt to be, and is engaged in as 

 if it were, the satisfaction of a vindictive feeling against an 

 enemy of society, a satisfaction that the law makes him pay 

 (though &quot; I will repay, saith the Lord!&quot;) in the inconvenience 

 and suffering of his confinement and hard labour, for the injury 

 he has done society or some member of society. That, &quot;practi 

 cally, the criminal has the counterpart of this feeling, consider 

 ing that society looks upon him as its enemy, and, when it 

 catches him, vindictively makes hfm suffer for his crime, as if it 

 were a match between him and the law, in which he was the 

 loser ; and that the effect of looking upon it in this way is to 

 aggravate and intensify the evil wliich we theoretically pro 

 pose to cure by his imprisonment. 



It is true, that in accordance with the purpose of improving 

 the character of criminals during (I cannot say, by) their im 

 prisonment. w r e employ chaplains to preach and counsel 

 them, and give them books, that it is supposed, in the absence 

 of any other employment of the mind, may engage their at 

 tention. And these are the only means employed at present 

 for the purpose of training them to be active, efficient, indus 

 trious, and well-disposed members of society, upon their 

 release ! I might bring forward endless statistics in proof, but 

 few will be inclined to deny that for this purpose these means 

 constantly prove themselves entirely inadequate; that, in this 

 respect, our system is a constant and complete failure. Why 1 

 Because of the &quot; foolishness of preaching ?&quot; Because virtue 

 is taught only theoretically ; and a field of practice, of resist 

 ance of the temptation to the peculiar sins which we denomi 

 nate crime, is required to give such lessons practical value ? 



