B EC 



12G 



DEC 



vent greyish-white. Orbits of the eve* white. Sides brown. 

 Bill wood brown. Legs ami cl.iw, MuMi grvy. 



Thu female i* similar in pUuna-. to tin- mule bird. 



"The young of the year have the region of Ihe eyes 



Mc.id. upper pirt of the lurk. back, rump, 



.wi-li-brown, passing into oil-green. 



.-rev, edged with oil-green. Checks and 



. ' . . ; . ,, i . Throat, bi last, tide*, and 



.low. Middle of the belly white. 



Leg*, toes, and claws, pearl-grey." 



Heccaflgoe," writes Willughby. after describing "the 

 fourth Beccaflgo of Aldrovand," " abound in Candy, as 

 Bellonius witnesses, and also in the island of Cyprus, where 

 ire salted up in great numbers, and transported into 

 other countries. \Vith us in England they are called by a 

 general name, Cyprus-bird*, and are in no less esteem 

 with our merchant* for the delicacy of their taste, than they 

 were of old with the Italians; and that deservedly (saith 

 Aldrovand us); for feeding upon two of the choicest fruits, 

 viz., figs and grapes, they must needs become a more 

 wholesome food than other birds, yielding a better nourish- 

 ment, and of more easy concoction. Beccafigos are ac- 

 counted best, and most in season in the autumn, as being 

 then fattest by reason of the plenty of meat that season 

 affords them. At which time they are highly prized, and 

 coveted by the Italians even now-a-days." 



The passage in Aristotle, book is. ch. 49, where he speaks 

 of the metamorphosis of birds, and says that the SiwaXif 

 (flg-eater) is a i'm-iiXic at the commencement of autumn, 

 but a MiXoycofiv^of (blank-cap) at the end of that season, 

 may very probably relate to the change of plumage in the 

 Black-cap irarbler, ' Atricapilla sive Ficedula Aldrov. 

 SrrXif et Mi\nyt6pv*os Grtucis. The Jilack-rap,' Hay ; 

 the young males of which resemble the female in plumage. 

 [See BLACK-CAP.] 



" BECCARI'A, CESARE BONESANA, MARQUIS 

 OF, was born at Milan in 1731.: The political specula- 

 tions of France having spread to Italy, co-operated with the 

 instructions of Genovesi at Naples, and the perusal of the 

 political works of Montesquieu, in directing Beccariato the 

 Ktudy of moral and political philosophy ; and the patronage of 

 Count Firmian, the Austrian governor of Lorabardy, encou- 

 raged Bcccaria, Count Verri, Frisi, and others to form a so- 

 ciety in Milan, for the diffusion of literature and liberal 

 opinions. In his 27th year, Bercaria published his first 

 work, entitled Del disordine e de remedh delle mnnete ncllo 

 ttatodi Milano, nel 1762, con 4 tavole, 8vo. Lucca, 1762: 

 ' Of the Abuses of the Coinage in the State of Milan and 

 their Remedies.' In 1764 and 1765 the society, in imita- 

 tion of the ' Spectator' of Addison, published // Caffe, a 

 periodical, which was completed in two vols. 4to., and con- 

 sisted chielly of papers on men and manners, with occasional 

 discussions of important moral and political topics. The 

 best papers are by Beccaria his most humorous is on 

 smells, and his most original on style. The last is an 

 attempt to prove that nothing but the practice of proper 

 rules is required for the attainment of excellence in elo- 

 quence and poetry. While this work was going on, Bec- 

 cana read in 1764, to the literary >>< MSS. ofliu 



work on 'Crimes and Punihinc:.i ..' und in the same year, 

 at their request, published it uuder the title of Trultatodei 

 lulls pcne, 12rao. The work had great success. 

 In Italy three editions were sold within six, and six editions 

 within eighteen, months. In a few years it wa* tnu 

 into almost all the languages of Europe. It has been t vnv 



ited into French. The Abbe Morcllet publi- 

 i.ilion in I'ftG. which w-as undertaken at the recom- 

 mendation of llrtleslierbes; the translation of M. Chailluii 

 i'.e LI-.V was published in 177.'!, in 12mo. In 1797 a second 

 a dl Morellet's translation was published, with notes 

 bv Diderot: and St. Anhiu's translation of Jeremy Bcntham's 

 'Theory of I'enal Lnw.' Tc-;im mials of approbation were 

 sut to' Bercaria by Catherine of Russia, the princes, ami 

 eople of Prussia and Tuscany ; and a learned society 

 .lie, in Switzerland, sent him a medal. It wa- trans- 

 m ISO.!, nit i modern Greek by Coruy, fur the ben. Tit 

 of Ins countrymen. An aii(iii)niuus Kn^hsh translation 

 appeared in I 7<>G, with a translation of a commentary attri- 

 bute'! t ' Y"'.i:iirc. 



The unmethodical arrangement of this work renders an 

 analysis chllieult. In st>le it is clear, and occasionally 

 eloquent. It breathe* a fervid love of freedom and ol hu- 

 ll). In thought it is deep and original. We can ouly 



attempt to sketch its leading doctrine. Law i the restraint 

 imposed by society. Pi counter-action which 



society provides to prevent ite number* from uolutmg iu 

 restraints. It ought to be a system of me: .uter- 



balance the inoti\c tocrinir. essity of this counter- 



balance creates the right to punish a necessity bv v In. ii 

 punishment might to ue measured and regulated. The due 

 proportion between punishment and this necessity consti- 

 tutes justice. If punishment o\erstcp.-, iii.- n, r--,u it 

 becomes tyranny, and when it does not come up to it, the 

 motives to crime have a predominance, ami crimes ..i 

 sequent)) 1 produced. Tins proportion sucirt) ulunc by its 

 laws ought to determine. Hence, since society, the maker 

 of the laws, is always in existence, the laws ought not 

 interpreted by any other than the legislative Imdy. Ifllio 

 interpretation of laws is left to judges, the rule of rigi 

 comes uncertain. To have a preventive influence on . 

 laws ought to be clearly expressed and well known. The 

 standard of crime is the injury which it does to society. Tua 

 best punishments are those which best prevent e, 

 Pecuniary punishments are bad, in so far as they are apt i > 

 induce exaction instead of justice. Punishments ought to 

 be immediate, to make the association between crime mid 

 punishment as close as possible. Transportation, by depri- 

 ving the community, injured by the crime, of the example of 

 the punishment, is therefore objectionable. The puiii-h- 

 ment of robbery ought to be pecuniary to counteract the 

 cupidity, and corporal to counteract the \i.>lcnce of the 

 crime. Infamy ought to be the punishment of crimes ;u. 

 honour. Since fanaticism is increased by corporal punish- 

 ments, its punishments ought not to be corporal ; and the 

 proper punishment of persons who will not submit to ti. 

 straints of the community, is to send them out of it. ' 

 fiseation is unjust, because it falls upon the family or hens 

 of the offender, who are innocent of his offence. If the 

 evil to the offender arising from the punishment is g, 

 than the good he obtains from the crime, an increase ol tiio 

 certainty is more influential than an increa.-c of tin; s< 

 of the punishment. Severity ih 

 and produces impunity, a fruitful source of crime. 1 

 the question of capital punMimunt-. No one can give M 

 society what he has not himself aright to take away li 

 HUtory shows that this punishment dues not piv\i i.t crime 

 the most sanguinary governments have always had the 

 most criminal population. Capital punishment is not ; 

 tinned example of the evil of crime, and the character of in- 

 dividuals and communities is not e':iair_'ed by momentary 

 but by continued impressions. Capital punishments cause 

 by their severity compassion for the criminal to predominate 

 over the terror of law and the fear of crime. For ii 

 nefit of every example, in the case of capital puni-hi 1 

 society first suli'ers the injury of a crime, and at 

 is only a succession, not a perpetuity of the exam ; 

 evil resulting to 'criminals from their misconduct : perma- 

 nent examples of a long and durable punishment. M 

 perpetual slavery, and hard labour, for instance, must i 

 sanly have im>!e influence than examples of short duration, 

 or examples scattered over different periods of time. The 

 feeling of indignation which the punishment of death c\- 

 imvd by the' contempt everywhere felt for the 

 executioner; and since these truths have a mm 

 ing on the government of communities, Bee i I 'mm 



the abolition of human sacrifices onco equally prevalent, 

 the triumph of his benevolent principles. 



Such is an outline of the principal doctrine of this work. 

 It is far from being the only thing in the lu^u, how- 

 ever, which contains several chapters on subjects not 

 strictly connected with crimes and punishments. There are 

 some valuable remarks on (he processes and evident 

 which convictions ought to be founded the duties of na- 

 tions to each other in regard to their criminals espionage 

 tivo interrogations on the absurdity as well as 

 cruelty of torture on thw power of forgivuness with "Inch 

 the sovereign is clothed, and several other topics ; all of 

 which are handled with considerable acutenos* and origi- 

 nality. II<- (includes with urging the advantages 

 inipr<> i ul education, und sums up in thi^ 



iiei.il liie'ivin: in order that a punishment may not be an 

 Moleiico of n:ii> or of many agnini-l a private member 

 of society, it should he public, immediate, and necessary 

 Uie least possible, in the case giren : proportioned to the 

 crime und determined by the laws. 



curia's uocet in this publication was not unal- 



